Swimming pool liner fitting tips (page 1)

Here are a few important tips and pointers that will make your swimming pool liner installation easier and more likely to achieve the professional look and long lasting serviceability that your pool deserves.

Please note that this is a fairly long guide, so it is spread over 3 separate pages.

Be aware that different fitters and installers have different methods and installation sequences for fitting these liners, however they all follow the same basic approach.

The guide is split into sections covering, tools, when to fit a liner, removing an old liner (beaded and overlap), pre-installation preparation, fitting and adjusting, and finishing off.

Installation tools

You will ideally need the following typical household tools plus at least one commercial vacuum pump (which will have a continuous action) and can be hired from a DIY store, builders merchant etc.

When to fit a new pool liner (this is important)

If your existing liner has just failed, then that event will determine when the job must be done, i.e. As soon as possible. However, if you have a planned and timetabled installation in mind, consider the following.

Do the job on a nice warm calm windless day. The ideal times tend to be on a bright Spring or Fall (Autumn) day when the sun is not overly hot and the ambient air temperature is pleasant. This keeps the vinyl liner in its optimum working (and workable) state and it keeps you cool. This is a job that you do not want to rush or get “hot under the collar” over, so think about your ideal outdoor working conditions too.

Try to avoid extremes of temperature when the weather is either very hot or very cold and do not store your boxed liner in a cold room prior to fitting.

When the temperature is too cold the vinyl liner will lose its flexibility making it hard to work with. It will be difficult to remove wrinkles and folds and flatten the liner out against the walls and base of the pool.

When the weather is too hot the vinyl will be too flexible and this will make it flow and bend in a near viscous like manner. This makes the liner difficult to work with.

Also remember that windy days are bad news. You want a still calm day where the liner will do what you, and not the wind, want it to do.

Removing the old liner

This process will differ depending upon the type of liner and pool that you are working with, i.e. a beaded or overlapping liner and an above or below ground pool. However, the first operation is to drain the pool of water, following which the face plates, gaskets and main drain fittings need to be unscrewed and removed. (These will be reused during the installation.)

Overlap liner

If the pool is an above ground one, then releasing the existing liner is a comparatively simple job.

You remove any and all fittings that overlap the top of the pool and the existing liner. This could include any or all of the following, a top cap (which may be screwed), the top rail (also screwed), a retaining track and a securing liner clip. The fittings will vary from pool to pool.

Each of these items will be visible as you remove its predecessor and you just keep removing each subsequent level of fittings (by lifting them up) until you reach the overlapping liner itself. At this point the liner will be free and it can be removed by pulling it inwards and away from the side walls.

Beaded liner (track liner)

If the pool has a beaded liner (the only liner that fits a below-ground swimming pool) the liner's beading will be fed into the perimeter track.

There are two ways to release the liner. The first is to slide or pull the liner (and its beading) out of the track which can prove awkward and difficult and may result in damage to the track (if you are rough).

The second is to cut the liner around the perimeter of the pool just below the level of the track, or to cut the liner vertically in small sections.

If the track is to be retained for future use (which is often the case) this second method allows an easier and more controlled way of carefully freeing the remains of the liner from the track after it has been cut. In both cases this is a more demanding liner removal process than the one for an overhanging liner.


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