Hydrostatic relief valve

[OOsever]

Bought a house end of last summer that had an IG approx 30k gallon pool. From talking with neighbors the pool was put in nearly 30 years ago and had not been in use for several years. This was evidenced by the swamp that lay before my eyes. I have had the pool checked out and the plumbing and visible plaster are in good condition so I set upon draining and cleaning the pool so that it can be fully checked and repainted. I have emptied the pool and gotten about five years of leaves out, my question comes in here. I understand the need and reason for a hydrostatic relief valve and why it would be bad to leave the pool empty for an extended period of time, but how will i be able to paint the bottom of the pool if there is always standing water in it. I have located the valve and pulled it up and turned it 90 degrees to stand on the nubs the hold it up. I have also turned it the other 90 degrees so that it sits flush with the plug. (not sure which is open and which is closed.) Both times water has seeped back up through the main drain. Do I have a bad relief valve or will some water always come back through. I am in northwest Ohio and we have not had any substantial rain for more than a month.

[OOsever]

After some further investigation I figured out that the valve can be removed and it uses 1-1/2" threading. Just ran to local hardware bought an adapter and ran a pvc relief pipe. So far so good. Should have the pool prepped and painted this weekend!!

[PoolDoc]

Glad you were able to take care of it! Welcome to the forum.

[OOsever]

Got a side question to this. Since I have it out and I read somewhere these things should be replaced every few years, I thought I might take this opportunity while the pool isn't full of water. The old one was brass and looked very aged. Is there an advantage to buying a brass one versus a PVC? They seem to cost about five times as much so I thought I would check before making the purchase.

[TheGoose]

Please don't paint your pool. You're going to spend at least $500-600 on materials and you'll have to have it re-done within two seasons unless you really know what you're doing and buy the correct stuff. If the plaster is in even halfway decent shape just leave the surface alone.

I speak from experience. I spent $500-600 painting my pool and 2 days of labor and it was peeling by the end of the first seaon and we barely made it through season 2. I then had it professionally replastered for a cost of $2500 and the result has been much better.

[OOsever]

Too late, that was last weekends project. Since replastering only lasts 5-10 years cost would be a wash even if I only get 2-3 years out of it. The previous owners had already painted and it was chopping up in spots so we sanded it down and recoated. Considering the paint was in decent shape even after several years of neglect, I gotta imagine with proper care it should do as well. Back to my topic though, does anyone have any input on hydrostatic valve?

[TheGoose]

My original plaster lasted 20 years. I hope this set lasts at least 15. I hope you have better luck than I did.

I would get a new drain plug. I can see benefits to either PVC or brass. What does it screw into? If it screws into plastic I might choose PVC. Either way I don't think there is a wrong answer.