"Gino F." writes:

That sounds so wrong.
I just installed a replacement liner 3 years ago.
Stretching the liner is a no no.
The only way I'd have done this is to
take all the water out of the pool then rehang the liner.
If the liner is already stretched I'd say it's too late now.

Yeah, I know it sounds wrong, but it really was only off by an inch or
three... This pool was already in rough shape when I bought the
house. It isn't a necessarily old pool, but the previous owners didn't
take care of it at all. I don't expect it to survive much longer,
besides, aren't liners supposed to be replaced every so often anyway?

I don't think there is a schedule for replacement,
but eventually everything needs to be replaced.
Reading this group, even inground cement pools deteriorate
and need to be redone.

Mine was destroyed by periodic cicada's emerging underneath the
pool. Even then I patched all the holes. Only a few years after
that when the patches started to work loose did I give up and
get a new one.

If the sides of your pool are moving, that would explain why the liner
came off.

Exactly.

I have a 24', I paid extra for heavy duty pool walls and I hang the cover
over the pool frame, not the pool walls. There is no amount of snow
that would move the pool walls. Well, maybe a glacier. I don't expect
a glacier for a few years.

I can't picture this... the way my round above ground is configured it
has something like 10 or 12 uprights with coping that sits on top of
the uprights. The wall is aluminum and is fastened only to the top of
the uprights. The wall is away from some of the uprights and the pool
guy told me it's also split in one spot. He told me that the wall
won't be usable if I took down the pool and replaced the liner. He
might just be trying to sell me a pool but who knows, it really ****es
me off how the previous owners neglected this thing.

It's not exactly a frame.

I don't seem to have a good picture of the pool sides online and it's too
dark to go out and take a picture.

The sides of my pool are ribbed. I have a coping on top, but it's
extended with a 'promenade'. A wider section of aluminum so you
can walk around the top edge of the pool. Attached to the side
of the pool and the promenade is a fence. Each fence post is anchored
to the side of the pool and the edge of the promenade.

The pool cover hangs from the fence onto the water.
With a big pile of snow on it, it still isn't exerting any
lateral force on the pool sides. The ring of the coping and
promenade is too rigid to move inward.

Here's a picture from the top:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/despen...ck-decked.html

Next year, get a face mask and spend some time examining the pool
bottom and sides for holes. You should be able to see them if they
are there.

How do you spot the holes? Do you actually have to see the tear or
look for bubbling or what?

You won't see bubbling.
The hole is a black spot, dirt tends to collect at the hole.
Even if your liner has dark or black spots I think you will see
the holes. I know I could with my pool.
Look at the seams and sides too.

Someone was using the term pin hole. If the hole is really a pin
hole, you won't loose enough water to notice. You have about
10,000 gallons coming out in drips.

Last winter I had a 2 inch tree limb go right thru the cover and
liner about 2 feet from the edge of the pool.
I pulled the branch out during the winter but didn't realize the
bottom was pierced.
After I got the pool clean I used it for a couple of weeks
before I saw the hole.
Once the ground gets soaked, the weight of the water and pool slows
down the leak.

Don't you think I'd be losing water during the season more noticeably
if these holes were the actual cause of losing 6" over 2 months?

When the pool is open, rain replenishes the pool.
Once you cover it, evaporation should be almost zero.

It's hard to say.