Above Ground Pool Wall Bent Inwards

by Dennis
(Montreal Canada)

We drained our pool for winter and now found that about half a foot of the wall and liner came apart from top rail and is now bent inwards. Is it fixable?


Hi Dennis. Yes, it is fixable. The first thing you need is warm weather, until then there is just not to much you can do.

If you have a beaded liner you will need to drain the water down far enough to allow you to pull the liner up and insert it back into the bead receiver. Warm sun shine is a must if this is going to work. The liner may have shrunk to much and be unusable but you will not know until you try to reinstall it into the receiver.

If this does not work at first keep lowering the water and trying again. At some point the liner will go back into place or the pool will be drained and ready for a new one.

If it does go back into place then you need to refill the pool, again in direct sunlight. It could easily pull out again meaning the liner needs replaced. If the sun warms it, and if it is still pliable, the liner might stretch back into place just fine.

When enough water has been drained from the pool to release pressure from the wall it should push back into place. You may need to use a rubber mallet and a piece of 2 x 4 to pound it flat but it can be done. Do this before trying to reset the liner.

If the pool is an overlap liner you probably have a better chance of it going back into place without problems. That is if you still have the overhang left on the liner and not cut off. You will need to remove several top rails, rods and coping. You can then pull the liner into the pool and while one person holds the liner out of the way another person can get the wall straight. It's then a simple matter of pulling the liner back over the wall and resetting it.

This method may also require further draining and several attempts. Make use of the sun and if the liner has enough elasticity in it you should, at some point, be able to get it up and over the wall. Hold it in place with cloths pins until you can get the coping in place.

Here are a couple of pages that might be of further help.

Vinyl Liner Overhang

Pool Leveling