Floating liner recurring issue

[mpoulin]

Hello. About a month ago I moved into a new home with an inground pool with a vinyl liner. I noticed some wrinkles in the liner and a friend of mine told me that at some point I'll need to get the liner stretched. Since then I've had two instances where the water table rose causing the liner to "float". We have had some significant rain lately.The first time I noticed that most of the significant floating was occuring on the side walls, with just some floating occuring at the bottom of the pool. The liner eventually settled, even though it still had wrinkles in it, it was no worse than when I first purchased the home. Yesterday we had another large dose of rain which caused the liner to float again. This time there was a large bubble under the liner in the shallow end of the pool. It looked like a basketball was placed under my liner. Four large wrinkles where created, originating at the bubble, and running out in an "X" like pattern. Today the water table is dropping but the liner is not settling well this time. There is alot of slack material where the bubble was left that all bunched up under the pressure of the water. It's bad enough that I won't be able to run my robot because it'll never get passed the wrinkles. I've seen talk about the plunger method, which I will attempt, but I can't imagine that I'll be able to correct it. I'm at my wits end. I enjoy the pool and my kids do too. I don't want to break their hearts but at the same time I'm not willing to dump a bunch of money into the pool if this is a recurring problem. I'm acutally considering removing the pool and perhaps eventually getting a large above ground instead to avoid the water table problem. My deck around the pool is shot so I'll end up spending a small fortune getting that repaired if I do keep the pool. The time to decide is now. Any suggestions? Thank you.

[Watermom]

So sorry that nobody replied to your post. We got behind on processing all the new members' registrations that a few slipped through the cracks and unfortunately, yours was one of them.

Let us know if you are still around and would still like some help and hopefully someone can try and assist you.

Welcome to the Pool Forum!

[PoolDoc]

membership upgraded.

There are 3 solutions to your problem -- after the repairs are done:

1. Keep the water level in your pool higher. The liner won't 'float' if the water pressure INSIDE the pool is greater than the pressure OUTSIDE the liner.

2. Improve the drainage around your pool, so that the ground water level around the pool stays lower.

3. Arrange to have shaman do an effective anti-rain-dance, any time the ground starts to get saturated.

#3 above may not be practical. #2 is likely to be expensive, and may involve permanently installed pumps and sump pits. #1 is usually the best option. Keep in mind that you must keep the water level high in BOTH summer and winder.

Good luck!

[mpoulin]

I am currently looking into adding drainage to my yard. Not neccasarily next to my pool but upstream from it. I'm hoping to capture the water before it gets to the pool. I ended up lowering the pool water to about 6 inches of depth in the shallow end. This allowed me to pull some of the wrinkles out of the liner. It's not perfect, but it's significantly better. I then refilled the pool. Unfortunately, as the pool was refilling, I had some additional rain. This time the wrinkles returned, but not as badly as before. Using my pool brush, I basically swept the wrinkles to try and manage them. I pulled back the corner my liner and pumped out the water (I also did this when I initially drained the pool). This worked really well. Again, I still have some wrinkles but it's significantly better than before. I had a hard time getting the liner back in place and internationally left a little bit (3-4 inches in a corner) out of the track in case I need to pump again. I just sealed it with duct tape. I know its tacky but I want easy access until I get some drainage installed. It has rained twice since I pumped out the water. I haven't had the issue return yet. It hasn't been raining as much lately either.

[mpoulin]

Each time this happened to me my pool was already full of water.

[PoolDoc]

Each time this happened to me my pool was already full of water.

Yes, I've seen that happen, too. But "full of water" usually doesn't mean "full to overflowing", but rather 'at the proper level'. Unfortunately, this usually means 6 - 12" below deck level.

The water level in the pool needs to be HIGHER than the water level in the ground, or rather, higher than the hydrostatic pressure of the water around the pool. It's possible for water pressure UNDER the concrete deck to be higher than the deck, if water is flowing under the deck, along grade lines.

But, the odds are, you can stop the liner from floating, if you keep the pool 'full to over flowing' during periods when the ground is saturated. This won't damage most pools, but will unfortunately prevent the skimmer from operating properly.

[mpoulin]

It's possible for water pressure UNDER the concrete deck to be higher than the deck, if water is flowing under the deck, along grade lines.

I think my deck is part of the problem too. It isn't concrete, it is wooden. Water easily passes through it. It is also in terrible shape. I plan on replacing it soon with concrete. Hopefully this will also help.

[PoolDoc]

Actually, I doubt that it is a problem. Concrete deck could retain water, and allow pressures under the deck to exceed that of water on bare ground. A wooden deck cannot do so.

That being the case, I suspect that a short-term solution may be to simply overfill your pool any time the ground is saturated.