Got the pool up, beaded liner installed, wrinkles out of the floor, filling and...

[DennisP]

... I have too much material across the pool, with barely enough on the "sides" (it is a 27ft round, so there are no sides per-se, but I am referring to the sides perpendicular to the area that has too much material)...

I had sun on one side of the pool, the end with far too much material. Across from that end there is still a bunch of extra material compared to the area on the sides. I figure it will stretch in the sun on the sides, but what happens if after it fills I have too much material on the "ends"???

I already cut the holes for the main drains, so shifting the liner is out of the question, but it is not like it would matter, since we checked the pool before putting the liner in and it was properly round and exactly 27ft across from each "post"...

So, did they send me a liner that is oval or what???

I do not have enough material on the sides to use it as an overlap liner. This was a major PITA and a huge push to get this pool up this year still, just to run into this???

I have filled it only about 2/3rds of a foot full, just basically above the cove... I shut off the water for the evening and figure I will attempt to fill it more tomorrow...

Any and all input is apprecaited...

[CarlD]

It sounds almost like your pool's bottom is too high up and needs to be lower...

[DennisP]

It is a 1.5" thick foam floor...

If it was lower I wouldn't have enough on the "sides"...

For reference, the seams go across from "side" to side" on the pool on the floor, basically the extra material seems like it is to make sure there is no stress on the seams.

[Watermom]

I have asked Ben to email this thread to another 'Dennis' who is a liner installer to see if he can offer you an opinion or advice. Not sure if he is still around here or not but worth a try.

[DennisP]

Thanks Watermom, greatly appreciated!

[J_Palmer_Cass]

Pictures are always good so we can see what you mean.

Are you sure that the liner being used was designed to use with the cove installed? My pool liner was sized to be used with no bottom cove.

Just wondering why you installed the drains on the bottom of the pool? My drain is installed on the wall of the pool. The bottom drain sure makes life complicated.

[DennisP]

Actually, the main drains were not a big deal at all... I was a bit nervous about the foam funneling correctly to the drains, as I installed the drains to about half the depth of the foam bottom to achieve that effect. In the end it worked exactly as I expected it to and the main drains are golden. Even setting them with concrete and everything else associated was a non-issue in the end.

About the only thing the main drains do is not allow me to adjust the liner once the holes for them are cut. But I was concerned about the water pressure pushing the liner into the drain holes too agressively, thus causing wrinkles if I filled it too far before cutting them in... So I waited until the water was about 4-5" deep and then mounted the trim rings, cut out the centers and put the covers on.

As I am filling already today I am noticing the liner on the walls looking good 70-80% around the pool, the one side that has the seam an extra inch or so up the cove compared to the other side is the "problem area". If I can get it set smooth everywhere but there I may just have to live with it folded a bit near the bottom, if that is even doable without totally messing it up. I would just hate to have to fill, then drain, then fill again to get this all figured out.

I have three hoses going into the pool to fill it up at the moment. There is still plenty of water pressure in the house, so I may just get a faucet adapter and use the mudroom sinks faucet to aid it even more...

I hope everything works out, just that it seems like everything about this project has been "against me" in regards to time and things going right the first time without having to constantly rework things. For me that is a big deal since I am meticulous about designing/engineering/planning and execution so that stuff usually just "falls into place". And some of the stuff has, just that a bunch of stuff has just been a major PITA.

[DennisP]

As a side note, should I have filled the pool overnight instead of during the day?

I know people say to fill while the sun is out to help it make the liner soft and stretchy, but in my case is that a bad thing?

I was just concerned with there being too much tension on the sides that seem to have "too little" material and them pulling from the bead receiver at those locations.

I am getting sun on 3/4s+ of the pool. One of the "short" sides is in shade and I can't do much about that, but the rest of the liner is all in the sunlight.

[DennisP]

Ok, it has about a foot and a half (maybe a little more) of water in it. Pics of the "offending" areas:




The seam is at the bottom of the cove, to about 3/4" away from the cove at worst on the shorter sides. On the long ends it is smack dab in the middle of the cove on one end and on the other end it is at the top of the cove.

So, do I continue to let it fill and see how bad it is when it is done?

Or, do I get in with it partially full and pull down on the "long ends" and pull the "extra" material down to the cove area if possible?

I would rather not let it totally fill to just have to drain it to accomplish that.

Oh, I also did not use a shop vac to suck the air out behind the liner. Like I mentioned I have it set pretty darn well already and expected it to just tighten up, but I don't think it is possible on the "long ends"... What sucks is about 15-20 degrees away from the worst area on both ends I have the skimmer/return on the better of the two ends, and the worst of the two has a single return. Am I correct that if I don't get those areas tight it will just be a nightmare to get those in without issues now or in the future? That is why I was thinking of just pull the extra material down to near the cove if possible to allow it to get tight up top.

[J_Palmer_Cass]

I installed a rectangular liner last year, and I had to rework it a bit to get the side seams even all the way around and all of the corners in the corner.

I used the vacuum method to get out most of the air out from behind the liner, then did a shallow water fill. I did have to drain the pool down to even out the side seams so they were plus or minus one inch.

After I got the liner in the final position and all the floor wrinkles out of the bottom, I filled to about 6 inches and cut in the lower side wall drain. I then filled the pool and adjusted the liner and coping connections as needed (off by a bit in the corners). The last thing I did when everything was straight was to cut in the upper return connector and skimmer.

Is your skimmer and return outlet cut into the liner yet?

Anyhow, I would probably drain and rework the liner a bit if at all possible to get the sidewall seams close to even (but not perfect).