Vinyl Repair

When I was a kid, we had vinyl pools and blow-up toys (no, not life-size dolls!) that inevitably got small holes and began to leak. I remember my dad patching these holes with patch kits that consisted of a clear plastic patch and a tube of some kind of cement. He would cut the patch to fit, smear on some cement and apply it over the hole. Sometimes the patch would hold for a few weeks, sometimes longer, or it might start to peel almost immediately. I always thought there must be something that works better.

I found it about 13 years ago when I bought a vinyl inflatable kayak at an auction. I saw that it had some big holes in it, like a lawn dart had gone through about 6 layers of it when it was folded up. I bought it really cheap, then looked for something to patch it with. At the local hardware store, I found some stuff that came in a tube called VLP, Vinyl Liquid Patch. It claimed to be stronger than the original material. I followed the instructions (yes, sometimes even guys do that!) and patched the holes. Even today, 13 years later, those original holes remain securely patched, never peeling or breaking open. The attached picture show my daughter and her friend in this same kayak. While a few other small holes appeared over the years, they were also patched with the same VLP patching material. In each case, it worked beautifully. I have since used VLP to fix holes our cats put in the waterbed liner, tears in shower curtains, holes in our pop-up camper windows, etc. I can say it really works wonders, certainly much better that those old patch kits, which are still being sold.