installing vinyl pool liner

I am about to take out my old liner and install a new liner on my 24 x 12 AGP.
I feel I have the jist of what needs to be done, but I might be missing/mistiming a step or two.

I empty the pool completely of all water.
I unscrew the fixtures i.e. the skimmer
I uninstall the wall railing, and the tube (not sure of both their names) that hold the old liner in place.
I cut the liner into manageable pieces and remove.
I spray the pool are with pesticide (some form of bugs being the need for a new liner in the first place (any pesticide brand/type suggestions would be appreciated)).
I unroll the pool liner whilst within the pool walls.
I start overlapping the liner over the wall, and tie down momentarily with clothes pegs.
When the wall is fully overlapped, and the base of the liner is on the ground of the pool I start putting the tube on.
I then put the wall railing over this.
I put 4/6 inches of water in the pool.
I stamp out the creases, and then cut holes for the return and skimmer.
I screw in the fixtures.
I fill up the pool to normal level.

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks.

It may not be an issue, but my initial reaction to the pesticide would be get good advice here. I'd want to make sure there wasn't a reaction with the vinyl liner.

I think I heard or read something about not using Petroleum based products......???? Hey as a matter of fact, I think it was in our pool manuel.
If there are seams in your liner-use them as a guide & line them babies up straight!

Good Luck!

~Hoffmans

Ok, once you've gone as far as the clothes pegs, stop and continue with thses instructions in order to get a wrinkle free install (well...best chance anyways).

Before you unroll though, just make sure your base is still good, pick any stones or foreign objects out etc.

Once clothes pegged, try to center your liner on the floor as best as possible - this means left right front back adjustments as best as you can, trying to line up the weld seam where floor meets wall of the liner, getting it spaced evenly all around the inside of the pool.
Next step is to just pull the liner so it's elevated off the floor around the edges a slight little bit, maybe tug it over the wall another 1" all around, start to fill from the center a,d if you see wrinkles on the floor try to work them towards the edges. You won't be moving much liner under 6" of water - 1-2" is preferred.
once you're close to the edges with the water, you will need to give the liner a little slack - remove the clothespins and the liner should slip in as needed as the water creeps towards the wall.
If you hung the liner properly, it should not have any angled lines in it when looking at the wall, if it does, stop filling, and readjust the top of the liner from side to side to remove these angled lines, continue filling, once you're filled to just under the return, mount your skimmer and return jet - cut the return jet hole from outside the pool, on most pools you can mount the skimmer and cut the opening out after it is mounted - this is Dennis' preferred method I believe.

I just recently installed my first AG 12x24 oval pool and my first vinyl liner. That doesn't make me an expert but I've done some reading and have recent experience :).

For Pesticide make sure it is something that will NOT react with vinyl OR lay down some barrier between treated area and liner that won't react with either. (Perhaps sheet of thin or thick plastic?) I've got no clue here beyond the liner instructions warning not to install liner over a chemically treated surface.


As for wrinkle-free liner install, I can confirm the technique of raising the liner during initial filling stage saves TONS of time and produces a virtually wrinkle-free bottom. (I remember spending 30-90min kicking out wrinkles in years past when setting up our doughnut pools directly on dirt.)

For me I lined up liner as described by both you and Matt (except I actually installed the V-Bead to the top edge of pool). Then I used clothespins to suck up another 6" of liner all the way around. Result was just the center isle was touching the ground. Since my pool (and yours) is an oval I needed to attach wall to my side towers to keep the tension from holding the liner from caving the side walls inward.

As you start filling let the water push out the elevated floor just a little. DO NOT LET WATER ADD TOO MUCH TENSION or you will cave in walls or do other bad things. I quickly danced around the pool setting the clothespins down 2", then repeated after a few more minutes of filling until water was near (couple feet from) the coving and I released the last 2" of slack.

RESULT: One wrinkle I easily removed by hand when pool had ~4" water and one minor wrinkle (~18" long) that I decided wasn't worth messing with. The light tension from center of bottom to coving kept center and everywhere else wrinkle-free.

One of the MOST important things Dennis stresses on liner installations is that it MUST be done on a sunny day above around 75F or so. Both are a requirement for proper stretch, so just 75deg F on a cloudy day will not be the same, SUNNY makes that liner warm up an stretch out properly. It makes ALL the difference in the world!! Start early enough in the day so that it is sunny and warm thoughout most of the fill process as the evening and cooler temps will make that liner get more stiff as the temps drop and sun is no longer on it.