We bought our home in August 2008 and it has an rectangle IG vinyl liner pool.

There are some very small sinks and irregularities in the bottom of the deep end that have been there since we purchased and have not grown or gotten worse. Also a few wrinkles in the shallow end (again that have not gotten any worse). AND, a few bleached out spots where it looks like someone dropped a puck right on the liner.

In one corner of the shallow end, a few inches of the liner has pulled out of the track under the coping, but again, it's been that way since we purchased and has not gotten any worse. There are no leaks or other damage that we're aware of.

The pool has no light and no bottom drain (is this common?). The only place we can find for water to come in/out are the two return jets and the skimmer basket. Our yard slopes down from street level, to our home, to our pool, to the back part of the yard. There is a creek/swamp in the woods behind our house and we live in a very wet area in general -- we get more than 5' of rain per year (not counting any hurricanes, which can make that number jump drastically).

So my questions...is a vinyl liner pool "okay" for our area? Would it better to switch to something else?

How soon do we need to replace our liner? If we have no leaks or issues other than the cosmetic issues we currently have, can we safely wait until this fall (or even longer until next fall)?

Is there a reason we don't have a drain or a light? Is it an issue to add either of these?

Do liner installations generally include new coping? Ours is some kind of metal and leaves a powdery white substance on skin, rafts, and bathing suits whenever you touch it.

What questions do I need to ask when I have contractors come out?

Is there a time of year that is optimal to make the change? Ideally, I would love to wait until October, which is our "dry" month.

We have a Hayward sand filter -- is there something that is better/easier?

I wanted to run all of this by you so I'm somewhat educated before I start getting quotes! Thank you!