Pool Inspection

5 years ago I used the expert pool knowledge of this forum to answer questions when I put in my first and probably last in-ground vinyl liner pool. Always grateful for the advise and reading posts to get up to speed on a subject fast.

I found the worst company to do the job who contracted out all the work with no over site. So I wound up being the Contractor and watching over the process like a mother hen. I have done contracting work so it was not uncommon for me to make sure work was going as planned and properly. The township had a no nonsense policy as well with inspections.

I joined the saltwater gravy train back then and my GoldLine unit has needed no parts or repairs for the first 4 seasons, still working fine going on season 5.

The Polaris 380 unit has been a constant maintenance headache and last year I found out the cost of the complete rebuild kit was $200 less than buying a new 380 unit. I believe two parts were not in the rebuild kit. After 2 seasons I had to rebuild the pump as well, seals and bearings.

Anyway the pool has been almost maintenance free, it has been great and we used it almost every day. The biggest issue was the mechanicals, They were placed on top of two small air conditioner pads and the ground was not settled. So some items are no longer level or have been shimmed to keep the lines straight. I figured when the 500lb sand filter needed new sand that would be a good time to pour a 4 " pad and redo all the pipes.

Well due to NJ taxes we are moving out of state, no more pools for me not that we did not enjoy it while it lasted.

The weird thing is I wound up with some inspector having to check the pool for the buyer. There is no NJ certification for pool inspectors nor is it required to sell a house. I had 6 days to open and get a 40K gallon pool clean and running, besides getting ready for 5 other inspections all happening at record speed. I got the pool running and clean and all the chemistry except the stabilizer up to speed.

Now it obvious the pad needs to be redone but everything works and this is not causing any issues. The pool and deck are in excellent shape so I am not worried in the least.The pool inspector spend 3 hrs checking the pool where my house inspection took only 1hr. If I didn't have a 500lb sand filter the pad would have been replaced several years ago.

OK that was the background of my whole from soup to nuts pool existence. Even though I understand the inspection I haven't figured out how this inspector was trained and what organization has trained him. He needed my help to understand the GoldLine Salt water chlorine generator which by all accounts should be old news to an inspector, so I found this to be wakeup call to question his qualifications. So I went to his web site.

It says he is ASPI Certified on his site and honestly I could not find such an organization in a Google search because it keeps pointing back to an organization called ASPS, but I see no certification training listed on that site.

Maybe someone can enlighten me as to the credentials this inspector has listed as some legitimate form of pool inspection training or is it just some nonsense printed on a card for an unsuspecting buyer. The whole inspection seemed more like a show for the buyer rather than a real inspection. I don't even remember him checking the grounding system which would be my first concern on an older pool.

http://www.aspifl.org/pipeline/2005-10_Pipeline.pdf

The inspector's job is to find any problems for the buyer. The solution to such problems is to either fix them or allow the buyer an allowance to fix them. Otherwise the buyer backs out.

The work you are talking about sounds, at most, like a few hundred dollars--if you don't do it yourself.

I don't believe there's a specific pool inspection license in NJ for residential pools (though i won't bet the farm on it). I believe he's just required to have a general inspection license.