Leave Side of Old Liner Under New Liner

by Rick
(Tenn)

I have removed the bottom of old liner and using the foam banking edges and want to leave the old liner in place to hold everything nice before I put the new liner in. Is this OK?



Hi Rick. Leaving the sides of the old liner in the pool is not something I would recommend. It could wind up causing you problems.

If you have a beaded liner, of course the bead would be in the way of the bead on the new liner. I assume you are working with an overlap liner. In this case almost the same thing is true. The extra liner over the top of the wall may cause problems with the coping and rods. They are only designed to go over so many layers of liner.

The way I deal with an overlap liner is to tuck the unused portion back into the pool.

Vinyl Liner Overhang

That results in two layers of liner the coping needs to go over. If you double that you have four layers which is more than most coping will cover without major issues. If the old liner were pulled over just once, and the new liner pulled over just once, you might be just fine.

Another option would be to attach the old liner the same way wall foam is attached. It could be cut out of the pool a few inches down from the top. At the same time you were cutting it out you could be duct taping the bottom portion to the wall. Taping the liner to the wall, a few inches from the top, keeps it out of the way when you go to set the new liner. It would make things much less complicated, having less to deal with. Dealing with one liner, setting it correctly so it is wrinkle free, can be a hand full in itself, adding a second liner to keep in place would complicate this.