Thanks for the advice, Ted. I'll dig out a hole tonight. A friend of mine actually suggested doing the same thing when we were trying to figure out what to do, but we didn't follow thru because we weren't sure if it would work.

I am going to drop the liner myself. Originally planned for Friday, but maybe Monday now (if the new sump pit needs a few more days to cure the water problem). I do have some questions that maybe you can answer:

1) I get conflicting instructions on when to screw in the gaskets around the stairs. Some say wait until the water gets into the shallow end, and some say do it right away. What's your opinion? Also, I do have some concerns because the stairs extend into the pool about an inch, so the liner won't be flat against the wall when I screw the gasket covers on. Do you need to cut the liner out of the stair section before you put the gasket cover on (so the liner lays flat against the wall)? Or will the liner stretch enough, so that getting a crease in the corners isn't an issue? My liner is 28 mil wall and floor.

2) One corner of the deep end is about 1 1/2 to 2 inches deeper than the other three. I didn't note this on the liner dimension sheet because I planned on adding some vermiculite to the floor to level it out. Now I'm wondering if I need to do this or will the liner stretch into position anyway, so I don't need to worry about it?

Thanks a lot for your help,

Jeff





Quote Originally Posted by waste View Post
Welcome to the Forum, Jeff!

Sorry i missed this earlier.

What we would do in your situation is break through the vermiculite floor in the deep end, dig down ~ 18" put ~ 1' of gravel in the hole and drop in a sump pump and fill around it with more gravel. Leave the pump running 24/7 until you are ready to drop the liner (actually the morning of the drop, turn off the pump - try to keep the water in the discharge hose from flowing back into the pool- and see how long it takes for the water to get up to the floor level again). When the time comes to drop the liner, put a piece of cardboard over the pump, to keep the hot motor from melting the new liner, and fit the liner in place. Pull the deep end back so as to reveal the pump and get the shallow end and steps(?) set. Then, just before you start filling the pool, pull the pump, add gravel to ~1'" of the floor and patch the hole with hydrolic cement (Waterplug or similar).

The hydrolic cement sets within 5 minutes and you're ready to finish the install and start the water.

Please be sure to sweep the floor 3 times before the liner is installed and make sure the walls are free of debris - also be very careful not to leave any chunks of the Waterplug on the floor - trowel them down or sweep them up but leave nothing between the floor and the liner!

Are you dropping the liner yourself? If so, let me know if you need any tips on prepping the pool or doing the dropping (I've dropped well over 1000 liners & some of them even ended up in the pool LOL)