How to Install an Inground Swimming Pool Liner

Measure the pool and buy the liner. When your pool walls and cement bottom are in place, use your tape measure to check the pool's depth at its deepest and shallowest point. Write down your readings. Now measure the horizontal length of every sloping side and the length and width of any flat surfaces. Record these as well. Use your measurements to buy a liner that fits your pool (check with the merchant for specific sizing instructions).

Insert the liner and hook it to the coping groove. Stand outside the pool for this process. Start at the deep end and spread the liner across the pool cavity. Line up a seam in the liner with a matching wall panel seam and begin hooking the top of the liner to the coping groove (lip around the pool edge). Continue around the pool until the full circumference of the liner has been attached to the coping.

Get out the wrinkles. Slide your stocking feet, and a soft broom, across the liner to smooth out its surface. Step into your boxes, and use them to push the liner against the pool walls and tuck it into the corners. The liner may look small, but it stretches when you add water.

Open a small top section of liner and insert the hose of your shop vacuum, sliding it all the way to the bottom of the pool. Duct tape the opening, where the hose is inserted, to prevent any air from escaping. Turn on the vacuum, then start filling the pool with your garden hose. When the water level is at 2 inches, smooth out the remaining wrinkles but keep the vacuum running until you have 8 inches of water in the shallow end.

Install the drain and step well. Screw on the bottom drain collar and use a utility knife to cut and remove the liner from the center of the drain box. Put the top on the drain and screw the flange onto the step well (in the shallow end of the pool). Now cut the liner out of the step well and you're ready for water.