Got an above-ground swimming pool in Orlando and need to change the liner in it? This article will give you some help in knowing what you need and what you need to do.
Whether changing out an above-ground pool liner is easy or not depends on who you ask. Some will say it’s easy and have no issues with doing it themselves.
Others will never attempt it again and always go with a professional liner changeout.
There aren’t many who change liners in abovegrounds in Orlando. Most who know what they are doing are AG pool installers also, so they get busy with that during the summer and don’t have time to change liners.
STEPS TO TAKE WHEN NEEDING TO CHANGE THE LINER IN YOUR ABOVE-GROUND POOL IF IN ORLANDO
1 Decide that you need a new liner
For some, this is a long process and some can pull the trigger quickly. Usually, people get tired of dealing with their pool leaking and/ them looking for and patching leaks or can’t find them at all.
Others will have a blow-out quickly losing all of their pool’s water with clear evidence of a giant, unrepairable hole in the bottom (by the wall).
Still, others will not like the faded look of their liner, are tired of the wrinkles in it, or just feel it’s time due to age.
Regardless, deciding it’s time for a new liner is step one for getting one. DUH.
2 Determine why you need one
This will help prevent the new liner that you are putting in from failing prematurely or prevent your pool from rusting out in the future.
IMPORTANT: Look for rust
The above-ground pool liners will leak when they get old. They will leak when someone or something rips or punctures holes in them. They will leak at the seam if a manufacturer’s defect. And they will leak at the skimmer or return line if something fails or if they weren’t installed properly.
If your pool leak was at the wall somewhere (usually under the skimmer or return fitting), then you want to address any rust it may have caused.
Other reasons a liner needs replacing are if the liner was installed poorly and/or the liner was cheap and/or made in China.
By determining why you need a new liner, you can make sure the one you are about to spend a lot of money and aggravation on will last a nice long time.
3 Find out the size of your pool
You will need the dimensions of your pool AND how tall the wall of it is.
EASIER: If you have access to the original purchase paperwork of the pool, you can find the pool’s size there.
To get the size of your pool, measure against the wall of the pool from inside to inside (where the liner meets the wall). Warning: measuring any part of the top rail will give you an inaccurate measurement. You MUST measure at the wall of the pool.
If you have an oval-shaped pool, measure inside wall to wall both the long and short sides.
You also will need the height of your pool’s wall. Not the wall plus the top rail. Not the wall where it meets your grass or decorative rocks/mulch. ONLY THE WALL
The three wall heights for above ground pools are 48″, 52″, and 54″.
Dig on the outside of the pool at the wall and find the bottom of it. It will be in the bottom track. Measure from that bottom track up to the top of the wall (under the top rail.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The actual measurements will not be exact. The number is rounded up or down to determine the size liner to buy.
As an example, if you measure your pool (from inside wall to inside wall across) and it reads 23ft, 11 inches, then you need a 24 ft round pool liner.
The same goes for the wall height. Giving another example, if your wall is 53.5 inches, then it is considered a 54-inch tall wall.
Measurements are very rarely perfect with above-ground pools
4 Order the liner
Most professional liner installers will have you buy the liner yourself, so whether you are self-installing this liner or not, chances are great that YOU will be the one ordering the liner.
In the last 20 years, most liners are bought online. Orlando has a couple of choices for buying a liner locally, but not much.
You can buy locally from select Pinch-A-Penny stores, maybe a Leslie’s store, and Unique Pool and Spa carries a limited inventory.
Buying locally has some advantages, but you will pay a lot more than online. This is why most find their liner online.
THE LINER I RECOMMEND YOU BUY
Heavy gauge, fully printed (no solid blue), unibead/j-hook type, made only in the USA or Canada. Make sure where it’s made. If it doesn’t say where it’s made ask. Currently, you don’t want a Chinese-made liner. They don’t last as long.
5 Order any needed parts
If your skimmer is leaking and shot, now is the time to replace it. Also, during a liner change is the time to replace any pool frame parts that are too rusty or broken.
If adding foam coving or adding/replacing a liner guard, order those for the liner change.
6 If you think additional sand is needed for repairing the pool’s bottom, buy some bags.
Since most of Central Florida and Orlando have sand-based earth, a professional pool installer will rarely need additional sand to redo a pool’s bottom during liner changeout.
If self-installing your liner though, you may want to have a few bags of sand handy to help with the bottom.
7 Access your pool deck to see if it is in the way
Decks are very popular with above-ground pools in Orlando and surrounding areas.
Some high decks will get in the way of taking the top of the pool apart (needed to change the liner). A pool’s top rails and top connectors need to be completely unobstructed to come off.
Determine if your deck is in the way and remove what you need to ahead of time. You don’t want to have to be figuring out how to get your pool apart on liner change day. The job will be stressful enough (especially if during the summer)
If you have your liner changed by a pool guy, then he will want to know ahead of time what your deck looks like.
I always ask to send me a couple of pics of the pool and deck so I know what I’m dealing with in terms of taking the top of the poo apart.
If the deck is in the way of the top of the pool, then it can cost more for the liner change.
8 If the pool is semi-inground, be aware of the dangers of that.
Pools in the ground some are very popular here in Orlando and in areas close by. And as long as the pool is full of water, there is no danger of the walls caving in.
When changing a liner though, the pool has to be drained. DUH! And when a semi-inground pool is drained, the wall portion that is in the ground can start caving in.
Having to take the top of the pool apart to remove and replace the liner is also a time for cave-ins.
Because of this, you want to drain your semi-inground pool, change the liner, and then refill it very quickly. The longer a pool stays drained, the greater the chance of a cave-in. And you don’t want that.
9 Make sure your yard/ground is not too wet
Changing an above-ground pool liner means redoing the pool’s bottom. And you can’t redo the bottom OR EVEN just change the liner if the ground is too wet.
There are some wet areas in Central Florida, but as you go east of Orlando towards the coast, the ground can get very wet. Areas east of SR 436 and towards Oviedo can have some wet ground. So can parts of Kissimmee.
Some will have to wait until a dry part of the year to change the pool liner.
Check your yard for standing water or “mushy” grass near the pool. If your yard gets or stays wet, you may have to wait to change the liner.
10 Wait for the new liner and any parts to come, then drain the pool
Once you have everything needed for either you or whoever you’ve hired to change the liner, you can now drain the pool (if it’s not already drained by then).
The pool needs to be “bone dry”. That doesn’t mean a couple of inches of water still in it. It doesn’t mean a half-inch of water in it. It doesn’t even mean there are a couple of puddles left in it.
If means no water in the pool at all. DRY.
This is ideally what you want the pool to be on liner change day.
WHEN NOT TO CHANGE A POOL LINER
There are two times when you shouldn’t change the liner in an above-ground pool in Orlando.
The first is when it’s very cold outside. Orlando gets maybe a few days a year of cold days that stay below 50 degrees all day. On one of these like three days a year, don’t change the liner.
Also, during the summer, Central Florida can have short but very severe afternoon thunderstorms. And we can have them every day for days.
I do not recommend changing a liner during the afternoon in the summer in Orlando. Getting caught in one of these gusty downpours while your pool is apart and the bottom is exposed is just not a good idea.