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For years, Penguin Pools used duct tape on all of the seams of our vinyl liner swimming pools. When we first started building pools, along with most pool contractors, it was common practice and common knowledge that duct tape would help keep dirt out and create a better suction for the vinyl liner vacuums. So we used it, year after year. However, after years of replacing vinyl liners where the duct tape had become old, brittle, and useless, we have changed our tune. While most pool contractors don’t care, we now caulk for all of our wall joints (steel or polymer) along with all the bead receiver around the pool.

Benefits of Using Caulk on Pool Wall Joints

Caulk will hold strong, not crack, or become brittle like duct tape with temperature changes or if it gets wet. Once the caulk dries, it does a couple of other things that are a nice by-product.

1. It will keep out dirt and dust from the backfill without drying it out, like it does with the duct tape.
2. It creates an even tighter seal for the liner to get sucked in when using the liner vac.
3. It helps hold back any ground water that you might have.
4. The seal between the wall and the bead receiver prevents any concrete bleed water from getting behind the liner.

Organic tape, like “normal duct tape”, can stain the liner from the backside out with NO way to fix it except by replacing the liner. The cotton fibers in the duct tape can discolor.

Didn’t think of that did you, most pool contractors don’t know that either? The caulk is a water tight seal unlike the duct tape that everyone else uses. Will it hold back a tidal wave of ground water? Probably not. But, it will surely keep it at by for a little bit. In the ongoing effort of Penguin Pools to become the best pool contractors & to find an end to floating liners, this is just one more step to victory.