Welcome to The Forum!

Sorry that this happened, but at least you got a free liner out of it

You've got a lot of questions, and a decent idea of what you'll need to do. I can help you with all your questions, but we'll need to take them one or 2 at a time - and, preferably, in order of importance. I try to make my answers ~ 100% complete and doing that with 5+ questions just won't work. Also I don't know your pool's configuration (how wide, how long and how deep).

We'll talk about all of this, as you need the answers. What we really need to talk about is how to measure for the new liner, but I think we'll deal with some of the other issues first.

I can help you DIY, but it's not a one day project Stay in touch with me and we'll get you all set.