Can a safety cover be designed for my vinyl-liner pool with custom features? The answer is yes – our safety covers can be designed to fit almost any pool, regardless of shape or size. We can also design the cover to accommodate custom features such as raised walls and rock formations as well as cutting around obstructions such as diving board stands or non-removable rails for slides and ladders. For pools with raised walls, we cut the cover flush with the face of the wall and have several different methods to attach the cover to the wall. 

These techniques not only provide the best look but also guarantee the safety aspect of our covers. By winterizing your pool with a safety cover, you keep your liner out of the sun and chlorine-free for many months which can greatly extend the life of your liner. Click here for more information on our safety covers.

How do I choose an in-ground liner pattern for my pool? With our wide selection of styles and colors, we get this question often. By following these steps, you should be able to narrow down the choices to the one you like the best.

1- Consider color scheme.

Start with a color scheme you find pleasing. Choose from blue and gray; blue and green; blue and brown; earth tones; green or tan.. It’s what you find pleasing that counts.

2- Consider tone.

Narrow your focus by deciding whatever your color scheme looks better in lighter shades, medium shades or darker shades. There is a color and a shade for everyone.

3- Consider design elements.

Now you can narrow your focus by deciding whcih design elements you find to be most pleasing. Do you prefer large diamonds, mosaics, vines or perhaps a fun motif such as Elliot the fish?

4- Consider floor patterns.

Finally, choose a floor pattern. Do you prefer river pebbles, water reflections or granites?

Remember, all of our patterns are winning designs, so select the one you like the best. You can also 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.

Is the fall a good time of year to change my in-ground liner? The answer is - yes, the fall is a great time to change your liner!

If you choose to replace your liner in the fall, the key is to pick your day very carefully. It has to be warm outside and the sun also has to be shining. It is the sun beating down on the vinyl on a warm day that loosens it up and allows the material to vacuum into place properly.

For 20 mil liners, we suggest instaling liners on a day no cooler than 60 degrees and for 27 mil liners, we suggest 70 degrees.

If you choose to change your liner in the fall, your pool will be ready to go on the first day of spring. This prevents any waiting to get on your installer’s schedule or for the weather to break.

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.