When Is The Best Time To Replace A Pool Liner
Generally speaking, fall and spring are the best times to replace your pool liner. The process of replacing a pool liner generally takes at least 2-3 weeks. Replacing your liner in the fall or spring means that you can still enjoy a full, uninterrupted swim season. Pool retailers will also generally have better deals on during these months as they are not as busy as in peak pool season.
If youre planning on replacing your pool liner in the spring, it is important to get the process started early. Most people that want their pool liner replaced in the spring start their buying process in March or April. By this time though, many pool retailers already have several liner replacements booked and arent able to install until the mid summer. To ensure that you get your liner replaced before the swimming season gets going, we recommend that you make a decision and put a deposit down as early as possible, no later than the end of January.
Never Drain The Water
First and foremost, its important to mention that you should never drain the water from your pool before patching the liner.
As we mentioned earlier, an above ground pool without water is at risk of completely collapsing. This will not only make the pool harder to deal with as you attempt to patch its liner, but it can also cause further tears and damage, especially with exposure to UV light.
The same goes for an inground pool. Draining the water can cause structural damage and further weaken the liner. Draining your pool can lead to having to replace it entirely, or having to shell out the cash for an entirely new liner.
Vinyl Pool Liner Wrinkle Repair
The most common fixable problem with vinyl pool liners is when the liner has shifted and created folds or wrinkles. They can occur in almost any pool especially if you live in an area that experiences extreme temperatures changes, a lot of direct sunlight or your water level has fluctuated. It’s common for pool owners to discover wrinkles in their liner during spring pool opening after winter when the pool water level was lowered and ice formed due to freezing temperatures.
If you also notice folds or overlap in the vinyl you may need to reset the liner by emptying your pool and reinstalling the liner. If the wrinkles or folds are minor the best way to remedy this is to use a toiler plunger or a device that creates suction without damaging the liner. You can try to manipulate the areas around the wrinkle or fold. This method is relatively safe to try on your own and will work with minor wrinkles and folds in your liner.
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How To Tell When Its Time To Replace A Pool Liner
Replacing a pool liner isnt cheap. For this reason most pool owners are hesitant to replace them. This can cause problems however as leaky liners can cause more damage to the pool over time, leading to much more extensive and costly repairs.
Today, we will cover how to tell when it is time to replace your pool liner, and give you some tips for how you can extend the life of your new pool liner!
How Big Is Too Big
Patches are temporary. Some will last for years, but theyre not likely to last 15 years. And the bigger a tear is, the more likely the edges of the patch will get snagged, curl up, or pull away.
When the patch comes up on its own, you may be able to repair it. Well refrain from examining how meta it is to repair a repair. But if the patch gets caught on something and pulled off, it could further rip the liner, and then youll have a bigger problem than you started with.
No hard and fast rules apply to the size of leaks that can be successfully patched. You could have a 2-inch patch fall off after a day or a 10-inch patch stay in place for five years. The more important factor to consider is whether your liner is worth trying to patch.
If your liner is two years old and in great shape except for an 8-inch tear on the back wall, its certainly worth trying a patch. The tear is large, but the vinyl is otherwise strong and in a spot that wont get much traffic.
If your liner 15 years old with a 2-inch tear next to the stairs, you definitely need to patch it to control water loss and prevent damage. But you also need to start shopping for a new liner.
An older liner is thinner, more prone to pinholes and weak spots, and more likely to spring more leaks. Patching may extend the life of your liner, but know that this leak is likely a symptom that the liner is nearing the end of its life.
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The Steps To Patching A Pool Liner
The first thing you want to do when patching a pool liner is to make sure theres an actual leak. Its common for most pools to lose between ¼ to ½ of an inch of water each day, especially during the hot summer months, when evaporation levels are higher.
The general rule of thumb is that if youre losing approximately an inch or more of water per day, then you have a leak.
You can use a couple of methods to find out for sure if you have a leak. The first method is commonly known as the bucket method, and the second is the ink method.
The bucket method involves placing a five-gallon bucket with water in it by your pool. Mark the waterline of the bucker and the waterline of your pool. Turn your pools pump off and wait for up to 24 hours.
After 24 hours, mark the new water line on both your bucket and in your pool, then measure the distance between each one. If your pools water level is lower than the equivalent water level in your bucket, you have a leak.
The ink method involves using a leak-finding kit or some dark food coloring. Youll also need to have a pretty good idea of where the leak is.
Grab some goggles, jump in, and head towards the leak. Squirt a little ink or food coloring near the leak and watch for movement. If you notice a steady, colored stream flowing in a particular direction , then you have a leak.
For more on leaks, read my full article on how to find pool leaks.
Heres how to patch up those leaks.
How To Put A Beaded Liner Back In The Track
It happens. One day you look out at your vinyl liner pool and you notice that the liner has pulled out of the track. Argghh.
Why did your beaded pool liner decide to pop out of its track? Your pool liner may have been a bit loose in that area or a bit long for the wall length. The track could be broken. Or, it could be the warm temperatures and bright sun shining on the waterline area of the liner. It could be the work of water gremlins, and no, Im not talking about your kids.
No matter how your liner fell out of the track, the important thing is to put it back in as soon as possible to avoid water getting behind the liner, and to prevent shrinkage of the vinyl as it begins to acclimate to the new relaxed position.
Lets discuss how to get your liner back in the track. These steps can be used for all beaded liners on both aboveground and in-ground pools.
Note: If your liner is extremely old and brittle, exercise care on the following steps. Pulling and pushing too much on an old pool liner can cause it to snap or break.
Be prepared to have sore fingers and knuckles for those liners that require a lot of strong pulling to get the liner to pull up high enough to be able to pop it in. For some liners that have come out of the track, the liner is loose enough that you dont even need heat. In the worst case, you will need a lot of heat and you may need to lower the water level up to 2 feet to be able to heat and stretch a larger area of the vinyl liner.
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Cuts Tears & Rips From Sharp Foreign Objects
Although we do the best to protect our liner from sharp objects, between mother natural, pets, human error, or vandalism sometimes “life happens.” Even pool expertsare not immune… Our pool store manager experienced this when his little boy threw a metal object in their pool. Even worse,he only learned of the problem after the automatic pool sweeper had dragged it around the pool floor a few times. For larger tears, especially those just above the waterline, please see the next section)
| The Fix: Luckily, small cuts or tears don’t have to be a major headache. A simple pool liner repair kitcan be used to repair most small holes, cuts, tears, or punctures . |
Inground Pool Liner Leaks
Always make sure your inground pool is not losing more water than simply splashing and evaporation. An inground pool leak can cause serious damage, ranging from requiring a complete pool liner replacement to creating a sinkhole where the water is escaping into the soil on top of the gallons of water potentially lost.
Not sure if your pool is leaking? Dont delay a consultation, Blue Diamond leak detection services will come to your home with leak detection equipment to make the proper diagnosis.
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Why You Need To Know How To Patch Your Pool Liner
If youre a pool owner, its non-negotiable that you know how to patch your pool liner. Not only should you know how to patch the liner effectively, but its something that needs to be done quickly.
A wrinkle in your pool liner can quickly turn into a tear and a tear in your pool liner can cause a lot of damage, especially when left unchecked. Damage equates to costly repairs. Additionally, patching your own pool liner will save you the headache of having to balance out your pools chemicals each time you have to replace the fresh water that has leaked out.
There are two types of vinyl pools: above ground and inground. Each come with their own set of dangers in terms of leaks.
What Happens If You Dont Fix The Leak In Your Above Ground Pool
Trying to decide whether or not to fix that leaky pool liner? Hopefully this section will convince you to do so.
The proper amount of water in an above ground pool is crucial to its longevity. Uneven or too low a water level can cause your above ground pool to sag inwards until something breaks.
Additionally the water helps protect the liner itself. Vinyl liners that are exposed to direct sunlight and air for too long will eventually before brittle and begin to crack.
If you think you can skirt the issue by continually filling your pool, youre fighting a losing battle. Every time you fill you pool, youre altering the chemical ratios likely creating a more friendly environment for algae and bacteria. Health concerns aside, your water bill is going to be pretty high if youre constantly filling your pool.
Preventing a leak in your above ground swimming pool comes down to regular maintenance and cleaning.
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What Should I Do If I Have A Leak In My Above Ground Pool
Once you have all those materials, heres what you need to do: Turn off all the pool equipment to make the pool water as still as possible. Fill up the bucket with water, making sure that there is around an inch or more of space between the surface of the water and the buckets rim. Place the bucket as close to the pool as possible.
The same cant be said for in-ground pools it should lose a significant amount of water in a very short time before you can suspect that a leak is present in an in-ground pool. You already know that finding the source of the leak in an above ground vinyl liner pool is a challenging task.
How To Remove Stains From Pool Liners
Almost as bad as bleached and faded or wrinkled liners are unsightly stains that have somehow suddenly appeared on the surface of your liner. Just like on your floors or in your bathtub, youll want to clean up stains in your pool liner so you can host pool parties with pride.
There are two types of stains, and each requires a different method of cleaning:
If youre unsure which cleaning product to use, contact our store for an expert recommendation from our service team.
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Fix Detached Pool Liner
Our in ground pool liner gets detached every winter in a few spots, and we struggled to figure out how to fix this issue. That is… till we saw some professionals do it. There are a few tricks that make getting the liner back “on track” much easier. Check out the video that provides the best overall instructions.
How To Fix A Leak In An Above Ground Pool
Unfortunately above ground pools do leak. Leaks can be due to age, wear, damage all sorts of things. This guide will help you to first determine if you actually have a leak in your pool, then find it, and finally repair it.
Fortunately, the fix to your leaking above ground pool may not be as hard as you think.
It just comes down to 1) Determining if the pool is really leaking 2) Finding the Leak and 3) Fixing it!
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How To Repair A Pool Liner
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Problems with your pool liner are generally caused by a leak or a misaligned liner bead that, if left unattended, could cause considerable damage. Repairing a damaged liner is easy if you know how. Following are some simple steps most do-it-yourselfers can follow to fix a pool liner. For More Above Ground Pools
Replacing Your Vinyl Pool Liner
If you cant get another season out of your pool liner, its time to look for a replacement.
Talk to our award-winning pool technicians at Lakeshore Pools & Hot Tubs. We carry only the best pool liners available and use CAD technology for a perfect fit.
We inspect and repair any rust and cracks in the concrete floor before installing the new liner.
Well refinish the stripping on your stairs and skimmer mouth for no additional charge, leaving you with perfect looking pool. Ask us how!
Lakeshore Pools & Hot Tubs carries everything you need, including vinyl pool liner repair tape and patch kits, to keep your pool liner in top working order. But when its time to replace your liner, call our awarding-winning team at , or visit us at 309 Lakeshore Road East in Mississauga. We promise to treat your pool as if its our very own while we restore its original beauty.
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Option : Replace The Liner
Yeah, we know. This is a worst-case scenario. However, you can use one of the patching options as a temporary fix while you shop around for a new liner. The price of a new vinyl pool liner is typically a thousand to several thousand dollars . The benefit of replacing the liner is that youll have another 5-9 years of worry-free pool enjoyment.
How Do I Clean My Pool Liner Without Draining
Combine one part chlorine bleach and one part water. Use a spray bottle or a small garden sprayer to apply the bleach cleaner to the liner. Let the cleaner dry on the liner so it can remove the stains. You can clean any spots on the liner while the pool is full by applying the cleaner above the water line.
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Wrinkles In Your Pool Liner
Clean lines with no wrinkles extend beyond your clothes and right into your pool liner. Just like with your dress shirts or skirts, wrinkles make your pool liner look saggy and unkempt.
Unfortunately, you cant just plug in an iron to try and smooth out your liner. First of all, it wont work. But more importantly, you risk electrocution!
There are more practical, effective, and safe ways to handle wrinkles in your pool liner, depending on the cause:
- Poor installation: If your pool liner was installed improperly, resulting in wrinkles, and is less than one year old, it can be reset and installed again, wrinkle-free
- Poor measure/fit: If the wrinkles were due to a liner that was poorly measured and improperly fitted, the wrinkles can be cut out and glued back to remove them, but the liner will still be a poor fit
- Improper water chemistry : There is no wrinkle fix for this, because vinyl that is exposed to harsh conditions begins to absorb water, becomes saturated, and expands to cause wrinkles
Remember, although wrinkles in your pool liner may not look very nice, they wont affect your liners functionality. Replacement isnt necessary in this case.
