Swimming pool liner wrinkles can occur during installation and after the swimming pool is up and running. When a swimming pool liner is installed,
correct measuring and proper manufacturing will help lessen the chances of wrinkling in a vinyl pool liner. Moreover, good and bad installation techniques will determine the probability of installing a liner wrinkle free.
If a liner is not measured to fit, then there is not much chance of solving the problem, and wrinkles will remain, unless you reorder the product and start over. However, if the swimming pool liner is measured correctly, and minor wrinkling occurs, then some small adjustments may be made to fix the problem. This may include reinstalling the pool liner, or pushing the wrinkles out by hand. In either case, no water should ever be added until the pool liner lays exactly where you want it, wrinkle free.
If you are a do-it-yourselfer, then you must know that this technique of adjusting, readjusting, and reinstalling when necessary, is a professional’s secret that is usually honed over a great deal of time and experience (a minimum of 200 or more pool liner installations). That is not to say that you can accomplish the task as a D-I-Y guy, but you will have to face the frustrations of readjusting the liner until there are no wrinkles, without the benefit of trying the job many times.
If you screw it up, then you will usually have to throw the pool liner away and start over. Also, it is much less advisable to install in ground pool liners for homeowners for the simple reason that if you screw up, it may cost you and extra $1000-$2,000 as opposed to above ground pool liners that cost much less.
When wrinkling occurs after the pool is in operation a simple rule is worth following: If you can push the wrinkles out by hand (water still in the pool), then go for it. If you cannot do this by hand, then leave it, and live with. If you try to pump the water out of the pool to fix it, the problem almost always gets worse, and often leads to liner failure.