Buying a house with a pool--need advice

[jmac31]

Hello everyone. Glad I was able to find these forums.

My wife and I are buying a home, closing on it May 6th. The house has an in-ground pool. The pool is in pretty bad shape, the water is completely brown/black. My wife would like to drain the pool and refill it, but I have been reading on the internet not to do that.

The pool is only about half full or a little more than that, tons of leaves and limbs in it, which would need cleaned out of course. It is a vinyl lined pool. About 18x36 with a diving board and slide.

I guess my question is, what should I do? I'm not sure where to start. Any advice would be much appreciated. I don't have a whole lot of information right now, due to not actually owning the house yet, but I will be coming back here frequently I am sure once we get the house.

Thank you.

[Watermom]

Scoop out as much debris as you can. Then go ahead and fill the pool so you can start the pump and filter. Then, it is time to start hammering it with bleach. What volume is the pool? What type of filter? I'd also suggest going ahead and ordering a good test kit. There is a link in my signature line where you can get the Taylor K-2006 from Amazon which earns the Pool Forum a little money to boot. If you go ahead and order the kit, maybe it will be delivered by the time you close on the house. Take some pictures of the pool before you do anything. You'll be amazed after it is cleaned up that it could ever look so bad! Welcome to the Pool Forum!

[jmac31]

Hey thanks for the reply. Yeah I was unsure of whether or not to fill the pool first. You mentioned bleach, bleach won't harm the vinyl liner will it? I am not entirely sure of the size of the pool, using Google earth I was able to get a rough estimate of the size with the ruler tool. It seems to be 12' X 36'. I was told the depth is 10' and 3', this could be incorrect. I unfortunately can't pop over and measure anything. By my calculations that makes the volume about 25000 gallons, I would say that is the most it could be. Thanks for the tip on the test kit, I will probably be jumping over there and purchasing one. I can't however see your signature, just did a search for it.

Thanks again.

[jmac31]

Dang forgot to mention that I'm pretty sure it is a sand filter, model and what not I am not sure of.

[Watermom]

The link for ordering the kits is:
http://poolsolutions.com/testkit-order-links.html

Regarding bleach ---- you need to do some reading! Bleach is what many of us use for our source of chlorine, me included. Household bleach is typically 6% sodium hypochlorite. Pool store liquid chlorine is the same thing just at a higher concentration (10 or 12%) and often at a much higher price! If 10 or 12% sodium hypochlorite isn't gonna harm your liner, then 6% certainly won't!

Do some reading on our sister site http://www.poolsolutions.com and also read through lots of posts here on the forum. As the time gets closer and you have had time to do some reading, come back here and ask questions. We'll be glad to help!

EDIT: I don't understand why you can't see my signature at the bottom of all my posts. At the bottom underneath where it says Watermom, you should see 6 blue hotlinks to various pages on Pool Solutions. I just logged out and signed in as a restricted user and I can see them. Then, I signed out again and just lurked without signing in at all, and I could still see them. Are you sure you can't?

[jmac31]

Thanks for the link. Yeah I did some reading right after I posted that, and realized that they are the same ingredients. Thanks for the link to the site, I'll check it out. I can't see your signature still, also it says I am a trial user, not restricted, if that makes a difference. I can't see any of the other forum categories either.

My biggest thing was just not knowing where to start, but I'll get the pool cleaned out then fill it.

Thanks again.

[Poconos]

You don't say what part of the country you're located in. If you need to be concerned about freezing then there are other things to look for. If the plumbing and equipment wasn't drained and winterized properly there could be hidden damage that will show when you fill and fire up the equipment. Cracked pipes and other things. You may want to consider hiring a pro to check the basics. You can give the equipment a good visual once you have full access to the house and damage should be visible. Underground pipes are another story and the only real way to check is to pressure test them with compressed air. You plug one end and connect a pressure test thing and pump up the pressure and see if it holds. Not too hard to do if you're handy and have the time to spend. With a new house I suspect time will be scarce.
Also, congrats on the purchase and hope you enjoy. We'll be here to help along the way.
Al

[jmac31]

Thanks for the reply and warm welcome. Yeah the house has already been taking up a lot of time and we don't even own it yet! We are excited though.

I hadn't thought about the pipes freezing, we live in Wichita, KS. It gets very cold and very hot here. The house went on the market in October, the cover was not put on so I doubt any winterizing was done. Like you said though, I will probably just have to wait until I fill the pool and get the equipment running. I have been debating on having a professional come out and take a look, just don't want to spend the money =).

P.S. I had signatures disabled in my profile, thats why I wasn't seeing them.

[Watermom]

The missing signature mystery is solved. Good!

Al, good call on checking pipes for freeze damage. I don't live someplace that gets super cold too often and I also don't have an inground, so that is not something I have to be concerned about. Al (Poconos), on the other hand, lives where the polar bears play and gets thick blocks of ice on his pool that last from October until probably April. Sometimes he even goes ice fishing in his pool!

[CarlD]

Where to start?
Well, I'd start with the pipe-check. If the underground pipes are leaking you should fix them first, because nothing else is reasonably possible until then.
Then comes the condition of the liner. If it's intact and not leaking you are in good shape. If it's torn you'll probably need it replaced, so do that before adding water.
After that comes the filter and pump: Are they OK and running and ready for the season.
When you are good to go on these three, then you can start the process of cleaning the pool.

You'll need enough water to run the pump--over all the returns and drains, including the skimmer.
You'll need to scoop out debris as much as possible. Use a pool tool called a "leaf rake" that's like a cross between a squeegee and a butterfly net.
And start that filter going.

You'll need to test the water to get a baseline. The best investment you'll make (besides your time on PoolForum) will be in a FAS-DPD test kit. You can get a Taylor K2006 (not the 2005) or the Leslie FAS-DPD Chlorine Service Test Kit. Ther'es a way to get the Taylor kit from Amazon(?) that gives a commission to the owner of this site (Not me, Watermom, Poconos, or aylad). For $60 or $70 bucks it will save you thousands over the years, plus innumerable headaches.

And you're gonna need a LOT of bleach, or Liquid Chlorine (same stuff as bleach only more concentrated).

That's enough for now.