I REALLY NEED HELP - New Liner, or is Mine Fixable?

Last year I fought with my pool water almost daily - apparently the "post Katrina" water was not to kind to pools, and did some strange things to pool chemicals - lots o heavy metals and other such baddies. I covered my pool in the fall after a whopping FIVE TIMES of getting to swim in it. Midway through winter the cover blew off, and due to illness (and to my being the only person who is willing to deal with the pool) I just left it, planning to drain the pool and start over anyway. Well, that was a HUGE mistake (although honestly, I wouldn't have been able to even recover it under the circumstances, so I can't really kick myself TOO hard). I drained the pool and discovered that the bottom is VERY uneven now, I guess due to the flooding - I don't know. It didn't all drain, there were pockets of nasty algae water all over the place. I went to buy a small pump to drain it all out so I could begin scrubbing the inside of the pool and then immediately refill it.

We had some, um, technical difficulties this morning - so between that and a 90 degree morning, I came home to find those puddles still there - but where the pool is higher, the nasty algae and god-knows-what-else have DRIED onto the liner. It's really really gross. And I still can't really get in there and clean it because the water is still standing in many spots.

I'm feeling rather hopeless right now, and my kids just want to swim. I have some holes in the liner from torpedo grass attacking it after the hurricane, but they're patched up and I don't think there are any other leaks - but I called anyway about a new liner. $300 plus installation, and no local installers are doing liners until OCTOBER. After a summer of almost no swimming last year, the pool is starting to seem like a cruel joke (at least to my kids).

PLEASE, I need any suggestions you've got. Is the liner beyond usable at this point? Or can I try to get out the rest of the nasty water and then scrub the bottom with something to get up the dried-on funk? I can't even face the fact that we may need to wait until October to get a new liner - at which point we'd be closing the pool for winter anyway.

HELP!

Rowan, it sounds like you've got an AG pool. The algae spots can easily be taken care of (when dry) with a dilute mixture of bleach and water. If you can take care of this, and have patched all the holes, fill it and let the kids gat in -- it's swim season!

I called a pool installer last night and the LOWEST price for a liner install is $425. OUCH. It stormed last night for several hours, which I think was a blessing in disguise - it gave those nasty dry patches time to soak. I went out at 10:30 last night after the rain mostly stopped and started draining it again. Went out at 6 AM with the wet vac and got up the rest of the water and nastiness, then wiped the entire inside of the pool with a bleach-water solution. The patched hole looked like it was still patched well, and despite what I ecxpected, there were no new holes. We got rid of a HUGE crease in the middle of the pool that the original installer left in the pool - that area was always hard to keep clean.

So there's about 8 inches of water in the pool thus far. I have a few light stains in the liner from the 3 large drop spots yesterday, but everything else is perfect.

I've got two hoses in the pool right now - I wonder how long it will take to fill?

I'm hopeful it will all work out, even though the installer told me that after 2 days in the sun the liner was going to explode when I re-fill it. My husband was not happy to hear that! I'm hoping he was exaggerating and that it will stretch back out without any problems.

I'll let you know how it turns out!

Susan

How did it turn out? We are about to embark upon the same thing, except we have to get a huge tree limb out first. A tree fell into the pool in during our snow and ice storm this winter, and since we did not have a chain saw, we just gave up until we could get a chain saw. Well, we sawed the tree and half of it fell into the pool. Since the liner had already fallen in, and it has become a giant mosquito breeding ground, and there was already a hole in the liner somewhere, we decided to rent a pump to get the remaining water out of the pool. My husband has just left to drive the 25 miles into San Antonio to rent the pump.

I am assuming we will clean with the bleach solution and refill the pool, after we get the tree limb out. Any other hints?

Everything's up and running - so far, so good.

We drained most of the water (it stormed the night before I cleaned it, which meant more water ton contend with) then we used a wet vac to suck up the remaining mucky water. I scrubbed the sides and bottom with a bleach solution then immediately began filling it back up. I don't see any stretched-out spots, and I got out 99% of the nastiness. Water is clear and beautiful.

Speaking of - it's about to storm, I need to go check my chlorine and ph levels!

Thanks! I am hoping all will go well. The pool was drained on Sunday, but we had an accident...my husband stepped on a 6 inch spike in a lawn timber, so we have not returned to scoop the debris out of the pool. I will be doing that tomorrow.
My husband has had a good outcome from his injury in case anyone worries.
So, I should be okay if I fill it tomorrow after scooping debris...right?

I am hoping!

Thanks for all replies. They are appreciated.