Hi, I too am sorry you are having problems. The two inches of sand could make a difference but not that much. You will have a much better looking pool with a liner on the small side, such as yours, rather than a liner that is to big for your pool. That's the thing with beaded liners. You never know what you will get.

Your liner needs overhead direct sunlight. The liner has a lot of stretching to do. It will do it, it just needs a warm sunny day. You would not believe the difference the sun makes.

Be sure also that the bottom of the pool is smooth. Push all of the wrinkles to the outside, this will create more liner at the walls.

The post I made today about my job could never have been done without direct overhead warm sun. That liner was a full 25 mil and took every bit of strentgh my wife and I had to get it over the top rails. After 30 plus minutes of pulling, the liner had warmed up enough to fit the pool. Had I not had overhead sun I would never have attempted it. The difference between 80 degrees and 110 degrees is just amazing.

Hope it works out, Dennis