How to Make a Vinyl Pool Liner

A vinyl pool liner came with your pool when you installed it. Now it's probably ripped or torn, and you're not quite sure what to do with it anymore. You want to swim during the summer months and having the empty pool out there just taunts you. It's time to make a new pool liner.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• PVC from pipes or credit cards
• Pot
• Stove
• Polyester fabric
• Paintbrush

Make a Pool Liner From a Vinyl Tarp

1. Remove your vinyl liner, and spread it out on the grass in your backyard.

2. Measure it with a tape measure.

3. Find a vinyl tarp either online or at the store. Make sure it's the same size or larger than the liner in your pool, and buy it.

4. Replace your pool's liner.

Make Your Own Vinyl Tarp for a Pool Liner

5. Melt your PVC in a pot on the stove. Make sure the room is well-ventilated because the fumes are a health hazard.

6. Spread out a piece of polyester fabric, larger than your pool liner, so it's flat. Hold down the edges so it doesn't move or blow around.

7. Use a paintbrush to paint the polyester with the melted PVC, and allow it to dry.

8. Give up on the idea of making your own vinyl pool liner and decide this makes a good science fair project instead.

Tips & Warnings

• For small tears, consider using a patch kit rather than replacing the entire pool liner.
• Replacement pool liners are available from most retailers that sell aboveground pools.
• Melt the PVC in a well-ventilated area because the fumes are highly carcinogenic. You don't want to get cancer from making your vinyl pool liner.
• This is almost impossible to do perfectly without the proper equipment and machine shop for making tarps, but on a smaller scale it makes a good science fair project.