The fall season is the perfect time of year to replace your in-ground pool liner. With the swimming season winding down, you can replace your liner now and be ready for the first day of swimming next year.

What is the most important issue to consider when buying a new liner for your pool? Is it price? Is it the liner pattern or thickness? The length of warranty? Which pool liner brand to choose?

In reality, it is none of these. Instead, the most important decision is which local swimming pool contractor you are going to hire to measure, install and stand behind the purchase of your new in-ground vinyl pool liner. Every other decision can just be a distraction. If you hire someone who misses one measurement, you may spend the next seven years looking at wrinkles. If you let someone who is inexperienced install your pool liner, you may have wrinkles or a pool liner that will fail early on. If you buy from someone out of town or who is not around in a few years, you will have no advocate to make sure your warranty claim is treated fairly in case there is a problem. It is your local swimming pool industry professional who lives and works in your community that will guarantee your satisfaction. Choose that contractor wisely. Nothing else is more important.

The answer is yes, many people do just that, but you can get in trouble if you don’t run your pump runs 24 hours a day.  We would not recommend putting tablets in your skimmer if you operate your pool on a timer and you can also get in trouble if the power goes off.

The chlorine tablets are concentrated and they have a very low ph.  When your pump is running, the water going through your skimmer is constantly eroding the tablet, adding chlorine to the water which quickly makes its way through your filter system and into your pool.  If the pump goes off, now that tablet is sitting in just a few gallons of water and the chlorine level rises and ph drops.

Now you have a skimmer full of highly chlorinated/acidic water and when it sloshes out of the skimmer and back into the pool with the regular movement of the water in your pool, that caustic water runs right down the face of the wall and can burn your liner as shown in the photos below.  This will damage and permanently discolor your liner.

We often get asked the question “What will that liner pattern look like in my pool?” Well, now you can see all of our in-ground liner patterns installed in actual pools.  Just go to our website and click on any pattern or hit the Pattern Viewer button.

Morrison pattern installed

The answer is maybe.  Polynesian had several styles of stairs over the years.  Some have sharp edges and corners and lend themselves to being covered by vinyl.  You can see an example of this in our Polynesian Pool post .

Many have rounded edges and corners and cannot be covered effectively.  Trying to cover these most times leads to wrinkles and a poor fit.  This is obviously a project for a pool professional and you should depend on him to decide if your steps can be covered with vinyl or not.  In most cases, our best recommendation is to add faceplates and gaskets around the step perimeter and not have the liner cover the steps.

In all three of the examples shown below we would recommend using step faceplates and not trying to cover the steps with vinyl.

As a general rule, once a liner is installed, the pool should never be drained.  You may get away with it in the first few years but after that, the liner starts to lose its elasticity and you run the risk on the liner ripping or tearing when you try to refill the pool. This is the same problem you encounter if the liner has floated and needs to be reseated.  Our advice would be to always clean a pool while still full of water.  Fish out the big debris and then let the filter and the chemicals do their job.  If it’s just dirty, the chlorine will burn up the organic stains, given time.  If you have metallic stains, click here to see our previous post on how to identify and address those.

Thanks for that question and it’s one of the easiest problems to solve.  Typically the problem is with the track and not with the liner.  Plastic coping tracks deteriorate over time and cold weather will make the bead contract and it’s more prone to popping out.  The inexpensive solution is to get the bead back in the track and then use a plastic strip called liner lock to fill the gap between the liner and the track so the bead can’t pop out.  First you need to get the liner bead back into the track.  You can stretch it back into place but you may need to drop the water level a bit or you may need to pour warm water on the bead to loosen it up.  Once it’s back in the track, just push the liner lock into place and you may never have this problem again.

What are the options for adding steps to my in-ground vinyl liner swimming pool? This is a commonly asked question and the perfect time to add a step is when you are replacing the liner. Depending on what you have in mind, you can go with a stock design wedding cake step or something more elaborate like a custom step with side benches. If you have something specifc in mind, it can be designed. The pictures below show some of the step options that are available.

One of our new exciting patterns for 2011 is called “Lennox”. It features a black granite wall and a gray boulder border. When installed, it gives the water a unique Emerald Green tone. If you are looking for a different alternative to the traditional blue-wall patterns, you should consider the sleek, sophisticated look of “Lennox”. It will give your pool a look unlike any other.

Lennox

Lennox installed

Spring is here and it’s time to start planning now for the upcoming swim season! We have introduced six new exciting patterns for 2011 – McDougall, Lennox, McMillan, Taylor, Carnegie, and Monroe. Taylor has a short tile border that makes it perfect for pools with the liner over steel step. Lennox is a black granite pattern which will provide a very different alternative if you are looking for a sleak, sophisticated look. The other four patterns offer an attractive mix from McDougall, McMillan, and Monroe with their mosaic-tile borders to Carrnegie with its “mountain peaks” border and tile floor. Check out the new patterns and let us know what you think! Click here to see close-ups of our in-ground liner patterns.

You have purchased a pool liner, which is a big investment.  You have now decided to purchase a safety cover to extend the life of your liner and protect your pool.  Your next decision is whether you are going to install the cover yourself or hire a pool professional to do the job for you.

Installing Safety Covers is Not a Weekend Project!

Many homeowners make the mistake of purchasing a safety cover online and attempting to install the cover themselves.  While buying a safety cover from an internet-based company may seem like a good idea, the benefits of professional installation will long outweigh any perceived benefits of an internet-bought safety cover.

Installing swimming pool safety covers is not a simple task, and patching misplaced holes in your deck can be time consuming and ruin the look of your pool. In the photo below, you can see what might happen if you purchase an oversized rectangle cover and install it on a custom shaped pool.

In order to maintain the safest and most visually appealing installation, it is essential that you bring in a pool professional to accurately measure and install your safety cover.  A liner is a big investment, and you want it to last as long as it can.  A professional safety cover installation will not only maximize the life of your pool liner, but ensure a beautiful pool for years to come.

Click here for more information on safety covers.