Read Through Our Blog for Pool Care Tips and Tricks

Keep your pool liner in top condition this summer with our tips and maintenance services. From regular cleaning and chemical balance to prompt repairs, we've got you covered. Contact us today for professional assistance and enjoy a worry-free season of poolside fun!

Need to clean your vinyl pool liner? Click here to learn more about how to clean your pool liner!

When your pool liner is showing signs of wear and tear, it’s time to replace it. While there are many options to choose from, here are some tips on how to find the perfect one for your pool.

Color
There’s a range of pool liner colors to choose from to fit your aesthetic. Whether you’re interested in creating a blue lagoon or beachy-looking design, there are a few other factors to keep in mind when selecting a pool liner. For instance, the sky. Your pool will reflect the sky and clouds, meaning the color will change as the water gets deeper. There are four main colors to choose from including deep blue, light blue, aqua, and vivid blue.

Darker Liners
While a darker pool liner is more likely to absorb more sunlight, it can make it more difficult to spot debris. In some cases, they tend to fade faster due to UV and chlorine damage.

Lighter Liners
Lighter-colored liners will not be as susceptible to fading. It will be easier to spot debris, meaning routine maintenance is crucial to keeping it clean.

Patterns
While choosing the right color is important, adding a pool liner with a tile pattern can truly complement your outdoor design. There’s a range of options, from metallic patterns to ones that shimmer.

Texture
Choosing a textured liner can provide you with additional traction in those higher-traffic areas in your pool. Whether you’re looking to add grip on just the steps or the entire pool floor, a textured liner can give you peace of mind.

Pool equipment is necessary to keep your pool in peak condition. Click here to learn more about the pool equipment must-haves for any pool owner!

A pool liner is more than aesthetics. The liner in a pool is in there to keep all the water in the pool and keep the pool from leaking. It’s important to keep an eye on your pool liner and occasionally check it for tears. Here are some indicators that you’ll need a pool liner replacement soon.

When you are choosing a liner for your pool, liner thickness is one of the choices you will need to make. 

In-Ground Pools 
The two choices for in-ground pools are 20 mil and 27/28 mil. For the 27/28 mil, some companies call it 27 mil, while some call it 28 mil. I was told that it is technically 27.4 mil, so some companies take the liberty of rounding it up to 28 mil. In any case, it's basically the same thing! 

There are three extremely important factors to take into consideration here:  pool shape , weather , and pool corners . Many of these things have to do with a little bit of physics. Without getting too far into the technical details, it's important to discuss pliability. I'm a nuts and bolts kind of guy and when it comes to pool liners, I want the best fit possible. A thicker liner has advantages and disadvantages, but a major disadvantage we see with thicker liners is decreased pliability.  

In-ground pools come in all different shapes and sizes and they also tend to settle and shift with the ground over time. This is why it is so important to have your pool professionally measured and to take into consideration the opinion of the professional in terms of liner thickness. The shape is important: if the pool has a lot of tight, intricate turns, it's better to go with a 20 mil liner in order to achieve a better fit. I cringe when someone with 90-degrees corners wants a 28 mil, especially in cold weather. The thicker liner just isn't as pliable as the 20 mil. 

The weather is also a factor to consider when choosing a liner thickness. Early spring and late fall in the Northeast tend to be cool. Vinyl liners are not as pliable in cool weather. So what can you do? The Liner Specialists can work with a 28 mil liner in cool weather if the homeowner chooses a dark colored liner and the pool is in a sunny backyard. The UV rays from the sun are also extremely important. That's why 28 mil is not always the best choice and a pool liner professional's opinion can help to guide you toward the best choice for your pool. 

If you want to install your liner in cooler weather conditions, there is a great choice available to you. Aqua Max by Merlin Industries contains a proprietary formula, 20 mil thickness with extra UV coatings, and greater chemical resistance. I love it for great fits. My liners last more than the average liner int he New York metro area, with an average of 13-15 years and sometimes even longer! I sold a repeat customer last year and he told me that he was ready for a new liner after we installed the old one 21 years ago! I was told in a seminar I attended that the average pool liner lasts 8 years, which I find to be unacceptable. One of our biggest competitors tends to make their liners too tight, which thins the vinyl and shortens the life of the liner. Proper measuring is my forte, what I am most accomplished in and what I hope to impart to other professionals when I teach for the Northeast Spa & Pool Association (NESPA).  

Above Ground Pools
As far as above ground pools are concerned, there are a lot of myths we try to dispel when it comes to liner thickness. We custom measure some of our liners for pools like Esther Williams, Johnny Weissmuller, Wilkes, Kayak or any other pool that doesn't conform to stock sizes. This procedure is very unconventional and a little more expensive, but makes for a great fit. 

We will custom measure using in-ground 20 mil or 28 mil material or with a 19 mil wall and 18 mil floors. Merlin Industries is the only manufacturer that I know of that uses this combination. Thicker is more durable, but the right fit is where the longevity of your pool liner is determined. 

Most of the above ground liners are thin, although most manufacturers call their thickness 20 mil. This is because they emboss them. Embossing is the process of checker-boarding extra material in the sheet of vinyl. So a vinyl that is 13 mil or 15 mil with embossing would mic (pronounced mike ) out to 20 mil. These liners are also recycled, which makes them vulnerable to pin holes. 

There is another misnomer that people use frequently: calling the thickness of a liner its  gauge . This is incorrect. The correct term for liners is mil, although this is not short for  millimeter . It is the term that represents 1/1000th of an inch. Therefore, 20 mil = 0.020 inch and 27 mil = 0.027 inc. To help you with conversions, 25 gauge (an approximate value) ~ 20 mil and 34 gauge is ~ 27 mil. 

If you need help selecting a vinyl liner for your pool, call The Liner Specialists today! 

Ground Water is water in and around your swimming pool. There are a variety of ways that this water arrives to the bottom of your pool. Regardless of where i is coming from, were have to control it. We call this control of ground water "de-watering". There is not one single solution to this problem. Procedures are based upon the severity of the problem. Depending on the severity of the problem we may use Plan A , Plan B or a combination of plans . 

Plan A 
One of the first steps we will take it putting a basic automatic pump on the floor while we are work on the rest of your pool. If you get lucky, the automatic pump does its thing and we can finish everything right on time with no further problems. If you are not so lucky, this may lead to a delay. This could be a couple of hours to a few days of running this pump, trying to dry out the bottom of your pool. If it comes into an overnight situation or a few days, we will leave an automatic pump in with a float switch. We ask you to monitor the water and then let us know when it has receded and we can return to install the liner. This is your least expensive option with the least amount of work. While that is a benefit, the downfall is that we play a waiting game as no one can predict how long this can take. This plan is used to handle trapped water. See our blog on Ground Water to learn more about trapped water. 

Plan B 
If Plan A fails and it has been several days and the automatic pump just isn't cutting it or if the volume of water is too large or the flow of replenishment rate is too high for the automatic pump to completely rid the pool of water, we have to move on to the next possible solution. This normally consists of digging a hole into the vermiculite floor of your pool and filling it with gravel or stone so that the automatic pump is buried below the level of your pool. Using the same automatic pump from Plan A, we attach a garden hose and an extension cord. We then have to trench through the vermiculite and underneath the wall and up through the deck of your pool. This is much more labor intensive, as we have to remove part of your deck - potentially breaking through the concrete collar of the pool - so that there is a trench between the deck and the pool floor. The hose and extension cord are brought to the surface and run down the hill of the pool. This allows the automatic pump to become a semi permanent feature. It will keep running the entire time we are working until we can get enough water pressure in the liner to keep the encroaching ground water at bay. This is a temporary solution and will not be for the life of the liner. 

Plan C 
If the water volume is still too large or the automatic pump cannot control the amount of water coming in through the ground, more drastic measures have to be taken. Plan C works just the way Plan B does, however instead of burying an automatic pump, we bury a pipe into a bed of stone. Usually the pipe we lay is 1.5-2" in diameter and goes from the pool floor, up behind the wall, and into the deck. The automatic pump in this situation becomes replaced with an electric or gas pump. As an example of how severe the ground water can be, a few seasons ago we encountered such a severe problem that we used a 2" gas pump with a 2" hose leading into a 2' hole in the floor. When we turned off the pump, the water rose to 3 feet in ten minutes! Wow! We pumped the pool dry, patched the floor and set the liner. All in the same day! We ordered 3 loads of water (6,000 gallons/truck) and set the liner with our vacs. 

Plan D 
This plan is for people who choose to use Plan C but who have ongoing or continuous problems that lead to multiple resets or wrinkles. We suggest that instead of capping of the pipe used in Plan C, we hook up a regular water pump. A popular one that we often use if the Hayward Super Pump, but you can choose any brand that you like. This kind of setup is for the homeowner who is married to their pool. This is for the homeowner who knows when they are going to get flooded, knows they have a high water table, or know the have an underground stream that is going to be consistent. This information is important to know because when you get 2" or more of rain water, your liner always floats up and settles back down. Once the rain starts and you think you are going to have a problem, you have to go out and start up the pump and then turn it off after the event is over. If you do not stay on top of this issue, you will continue to have the same problem. 

Plan E 
This is the plan for those with severe ground water who do not want to deal with turning a pump on and off constantly. Some people prefer this plan while others absolutely hate it. By raising the pool floor, you can eliminate the problem by keep the floor above the water level. For example, if you have an 8' deep pool with 3' of water in the deep end, a homeowner can decide that they want a sport pool and make the entire pool 4' deep or one side slightly deep and increase to 5'. One job we encountered after Super Storm Sandy was so bad that we had to give up on keeping the depth of the pool 8' and make it 6' deep. We sent the liner back to the factory to alter it and brought in 2' of fill. No matter how much we pumped out the water, the slopes of the deep end kept collapsing into the bottom of the pool. It is a hard choice to make for some, but for other the choice is easy. They would rather have a shallower pool than deal with the ground water issues! We have even had people choose this option without experiencing water problems. It all comes down to preference. 

These are just some of the tricks of the trade. We have a lot of variations on each one of these plans and it is really an on-site call. Most water jobs give installers nightmares. It is the antithesis of measuring and installing a liner. Liner jobs tend to be black and white, where water jobs are totally grey. One has to be mechanically sound like a carpenter and creative like an artist to deal with water problems. I tend to be more of the black and white, nuts and bolts type of guy. My crew chiefs are more creative. This is why we can do such a great job for our customers! 

No one likes this part of the business, but it has to be done. Homeowners don't like it because it costs more, installers don't like it because it slows down the process of the installation, and the office has a scheduling nightmare to deal with as one day jobs turn into week long affairs. One way to try and avoid ground water is to install your liner in August, September, or October. Dryer times in the year are best. This isn't to say that it can't happen in those months, but you're less likely to run into issues then. November is also a good time, as long as it is still warm enough. We need 60 degree temperatures and a sunny backyard to change out your liner. 

Enjoy your pool and be safe! 

We are not geologists - we are pool guys. So for the sake of this blog, we're going to talk about "ground water" as a term to mean any water coming into or out of the ground. Ground water actually refers to underground aquifers, but for the sake of this argument, just remember that we are talking about any kind of water in the ground. 

Ground water can be described in many ways and can come from many places. Although sometimes easy to determine how and where the water is coming from, the majority of the time we may not know what type of water got into your pool or how it got there. Ground water issues are the most ambiguous area of my business. The main stay of our business is changing pool liners and vinyl pool renovations and we see groundwater problems all the time. A few years ago, I had encountered more pools with ground water than I have in my past 22 years combined. Fathom that stat!

There are many types of ground water but we will just touch on a few of the more common ones. 

Surface water is just what it sounds like: water coming from the surface. This water can come from a drain spout, rain, melting snow, etc. This water finds its way in through the grass, through a crack in the deck, between pavers, and other channels.  

Other times, surface water become trapped water. Trapped water is described as water that it in the soil and weeps out slowly. Essentially, trapped water is surface water or water from an underground well, stream or runoff. This water can become perched if it finds a pocket in the ground where it stays. 

Ground water can also come from tidal areas like Long Island's coastline or the Jersey shore. Tidal water we know about: it comes from the ocean. When high tide comes in, ground water rises. 

Water will always follow the path of least resistance (welcome back to basic physics!). Sometimes that path can lead to your pool. Sometimes the bottom of your pool is always the path of least resistance, as it is an 8' empty hole! We see this when ground water lifts a pool liner. If the ground is saturated or if it is clay, then the water will make its way up through the vermiculite - a porous substance - and lift up the liner. This is a phenomenon that happens to pools that the lay person cannot fathom. I have a hard time understanding, with 26 years experience, how water can lift up a pool that has 20, 30, or 40 thousand gallons of water in it. Forty thousand gallons weights 333,200 pounds. That's also 167 tons! However, it does happen. We see this in floating liners and liners with wrinkles that were not there at installation. 

More often, however, we see the following scenario:

When we pump out a pool, there may be water already under the liner or it starts coming from the floor or the slopes of the floor. In some cases, it can even come from the seams of the wall panels. Why does this water start flowing into your pool? This is the path of least resistance, as the water that was in your pool was helping to hold back the ground water by providing resistance. When we remove the resistance of thousands of gallons of water, your pool is now a good resting place for water that was in the ground. This is a natural progression - it's gravity at work. 

We constantly hear the statement "I've never had this problem before." to which we reply "Well, you have it now." It may have taken 10, 20 or 30 years to make its way to this disruptive point, but it's just like water running down a mountain. At first the water wears out the grass. Then it starts to erode the topsoil. Eventually it turns into a mini tributary that leads somewhere. This hotspot is your pool. Many things can affect the water in the ground: natural run offs, water tables, "man made" runoffs, weather, etc. The list could go on and on! 

Look for our blog on How to Control Ground Water and How to Remove Wrinkles from Your Pool Liner! 

One of the things we always talk to our liner customers about is adding a step into the pool. In most instances, if you are changing the entrance in terms of step type, it will affect your pool liner. One tends to go hand-in-hand with the other. If your step cracks but you have a liner that's only a year old, you may want to consider just patching the step. The purchase of a new liner to go with the new step may just not be a road you want to take. 

If you are thinking about a new step, you have several options to choose from. Thermoplastic, fiberglass, concrete, and steel are all options. They come straight or curved, with or without a benches, and in a variety of lengths. You can choose a stock shape and size or have one custom made to fit your pool. They can sit inside or outside of the pool and you can even choose a step that you can remove from your pool altogether and for which your liner does not need replacement. 

It is not always an easy process to choose a step, so we recommend taking a look at some pictures and seeing what you like and then talking to one of our representatives. What you like may not be in your budget or you may not have the space for it. Our representatives are trained to give you ideas and options and to walk you through the entire process.