Liner Has Bumps and Leaks

by Rachael

Over the winter my pool seems to have gotten a hole, because when we tried to reopen it for summer all of the water was gone except about a foot.

We searched around the entire liner and cannot find a hole and the seem isn't split. There is, however, about a dozen of these tiny bumps that stick out along the water level. Do these mean anything?




Hi Rachael. This page talks about holes in vinyl liners.

Holes in Vinyl Pool

Another method I am forced to use sometimes is to drain the pool completely, pull back a small section of liner, and crawl underneath it. Small pinholes are easy to find this way. Looking up from the underside of a liner with pinholes is like looking up at the milky way. Every hole in vinyl liner looks like a star when seen from the underside.

The only drawback to finding holes this way is the liner will shrink when completely drained. A liner in it's first couple of years will probably stretch back out without a problem. Older liners will not stretch and in most cases they would have to be replaced.

Pinholes in a liner can be just about impossible to see from the top side, they are just to small. They are usually caused by a pool cleaner that spends to much time in one area of the pool. If a cleaner is allowed to stand still for long periods of time it wears on the liner causing holes.

The bumps on you wall should be looked at closely to see if they are tears in the liner. A hole from the top side of the liner just looks like a piece of dirt. The liner needs scraped with a finger nail to see if the dirt moves or if it is a hole. Once you identify a few holes they are pretty easy to see.

Wet spots around the outside of the pool are also good indicators of where a hole might be. Generally speaking pinholes on the bottom will not leave wet spots on the perimeter, outside the pool. Holes that are in or near the cove area will always leave the ground wet. A small wet spot outside the pool would mean the hole is just inside the pool in the cove area.

A large tear, or hole, in the bottom of the pool will usually leave a soft spongy area, depending on the pool base you have used. A sand base will get very soft and mushy under your feet.