Installing Unibead 15' x 24' liner

by Joe
(Las Vegas)

I stretched out the bottom of the liner like it said. I hung the liner on the pool wall and got most of the wrinkles out.

I started to fill the pool with water and when I got about 1' in two of the corners started to buckle the wall down. I kept filling now there is about 2' of water and the corners look bad.

It was warm when I started and it was warm for most of the day. Should I keep filling it and see if the water stretches the liner or start over?

I thought maybe the liner was twisted, but the seams look like they are pretty close to where they are supposed to be. The walls top 14" is at about an 80 degree angle on the corners, the two corners are opposite from each other.

Hi Joe.

It looks like you have done a good job with the installation. All the way up to filling the pool with water. It appears there was a little tightness in the liner in some areas, to me this is good, a good tight fit. That's much better than a baggy fit. Using the sunlight was good and almost did the trick. The problem was not having the metal rods and top rails on before filling. They would have kept the walls from pulling down.

At this point you need to finish building the pool, rods and top rails. To do this the wall will

have to be pulled up and flattened out, the water pressure from filling the pool will not do this, you need to. If the liner is pliable enough you might be able to do this with the water level the way it is. On the other hand, you may need to drain some water out. Drain it as far as you have to. At some point the liner will loosen enough for you to straighten the wall and put the rods on.

All above ground pools should be completely installed at some point before adding water. It allows you to see that everything is going to fit properly once the liner is installed and the water goes in. It's easier to make adjustments with a dry pool as opposed to one with water in it.

With the type of pool you are installing I would normally get in the pool with the liner and get it set up. I would carefully line it up and then set it in place over the wall. When the liner was ready I would start the water going. I would stay in the pool and keep smoothing the bottom while my crew would finish assembling the rods, rails and caps. They would finish about the same time the water was near the edge of the pool and my job on the inside was done. We would then hook up the filter and skimmer and be done. Normally there would be two to three inches of water in the pool by then.