Just bought a house in Las Vegas with a pool and....

[St8kout]

this site looks like welcome relief for a first-time-pool-owner trying to find pool info other than articles written by pool dealers.

When I first looked at the house in Feb the pool was immaculate. It was a short sale which means it took until now (4 months later) to actually get the house. Althought they were supposed to keep the pool maintained it hasn't been touched since then, so the water level has dropped some 4 feet and the water is so green you cannot see the bottom even at the shallow end. The exposed sides are covered with baked on debris under the hot Nevada sun. We can't even see if the pool light is working because of the gunk. Going to post photobucket pic links, not sure if I have the right privileges yet.

So, other than calling in an airstrike and starting over, what plan of attack can you recommend? Since I need to eventually learn how to maintain a pool, I'd like to try this myself rather than call a pool service, at least for now.

[Watermom]

Can you say YUCK!! We can help you clear the water up but the biggest concern is the fact that it has lost 4 feet of water since February. That is a lot of water. There must be a pretty significant leak somewhere.

Go ahead and give us some information about the pool by filling in our pool chart and then someone can help you go from there.

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[St8kout]

Thanks for the fast reply. Yeah, that much water loss was my reaction at first too, but my Realtor has a pool and didn't seem to think it was too unusual for Vegas. We have non-stop sunshine, ultra low humidity, and very, very little rain. I moved here in Dec and have seen cloudy days only 3 times, and and a few sprinkles only twice. I was told we get so much sunshine that there are bars that give free drinks anyday the sun doesn't shine, lol.

It could be possible someone tried to drain it when it started turning green, maybe the seller's agent, but that is just a guess. My realtor called and gave someone and earful about it, how it was in the signed agreement that the pool would be maintained, but since the seller is long gone and has no money anyway (lost his job and had to move elsewhere to find work), I'm probably going to have to bite the bullet. If only they had been upfront with us we could have done something sooner, but that is (pool)water under the bridge now.

I have not actually moved in yet as we were there only for the home inspection, and I meant to get names and model numbers of the pool equipment but got sidetracked by the swamp. I even forgot to measure the pool size, and now can't even tell how deep it is, so I'll have to fill out the pool form another time. I'm also currently living some 30 miles away in Boulder City until we get to close on the house, which will be the end of July, so it's quite a drive to get there.

All in all, I'm very happy with getting the house and very thankful that I'm now retired and don't have to worry about losing my job and joining the hundreds of thousands of people across the country who lost their homes to foreclosures. Vegas used to be the foreclosure capital but I think Atlanta now has the title. This time last year there were 125,000 vacant houses here. I still feel bad for the couple who had to give up the house and move to another city to find work, and I wish them well. If the process hadn't taken so long, I would have liked to have offered to buy their furniture and just leave everthing in place as it was very nicely furnished. Would have saved them the hassle of moving plus put cash in their pocket. Short sales take way too long to process and there is no assurance that they won't come back with a much higher price. Had that happen to me already. This was my second attempt to buy a short sale.

[Watermom]

We typically do not suggest totally draining a pool. Also, acid washing is a last resort because it removes a layer of your finish and makes a pool more likely to stain.

Qwaxalot, we appreciate that you have tried to help a few people, but since you are a brand-new trial member who just joined today and whose registration has not yet been completed, I'm going to ask you to slow down a bit. Do a lot of reading on the forum (until your registration is complete, you'll need to log out first to be able to see the rest of the forum) and also do a lot of reading at our sister website www.poolsolutions.com. That will give you a good feel for what we are all about. For now, just read and enjoy. Thank you!

[Watermom]

We typically do not suggest totally draining a pool. Also, acid washing is a last resort because it removes a layer of your finish and makes a pool more likely to stain.

[PoolDoc]

Watermom's right, but since you are in the desert, draining shouldn't be too much of an issue.

However, if they were supposed to maintain the pool, I'd think it's worth a phone call to see if they can be prevailed upon to clean the mess up. Otherwise I'd plan to spend some personal time with a pressure washer!

[St8kout]

Thought I'd let you guys know that my realtor came to the rescue by finding someone to put to pool back into pristine condition for $400, with each of us contributing $100 (me, seller, and the 2 realtors). Although I shouldn't have had to pay anything it's better than being stuck with the entire cost. They drained, acid washed, chlorine washed (hadn't heard of that before), refilled, and added whatever chemicals were needed. They even cleaned the automatic bottom crawler/cleaner thingy (whatever it's called) as it and the hose were green from the algae. They checked out all the equipment to make sure everything was running properly and set the pump timer. Guess they've had a lot of experience with all the green pools at all the foreclosed houses here.

I haven't seen it yet but the realtor was very impressed with their work. Says it looks brand new and was thinking about getting them to do his own pool, not that it needs all that went into mine.

Closing on the house in 3 weeks and can't wait to jump in

Oh, one question. There's a float mechanism and I was thinking it was to shut off the pump if the water level got to low, to keep the pump from sucking air. Realtor says its to automatically add water to the pool to keep it filled due to evaporation. Which is it? Seems to me protecting the pump makes more sense, although either way it insures that the pump doesn't run dry.

[PoolDoc]

Oh, one question. There's a float mechanism . . .

Can't tell from here, but auto-fill valves are a lot more common than pump protection devices.

In the past 3 - 4 years, there've been requirements on COMMERCIAL pools, to have pump auto-shutoff devices, to prevent 'gut-sucking' accidents, which can occur when someone sits on an improperly installed main drain. But, I don't think those are common on residential pools.

[St8kout]

Still waiting to close on this house, but in the meantime, can anyone give me a primer on using the valves shown? There are 3 inlets going into the pump, obviously main drain, skimmer, and jacuzzi drain, with 2 open/close valves.

Then coming out of the pump and before going into the filter there is a T joint, with a small pipe going into the ground. This pipe has a small open/close valve between the T and the ground. Don't have a clue what it's for or where it's going. My best guess is it's to drain the pool.

There's one valve-less pipe from the outlet of the filter, into the water heater. Then out of the heater to a pair of pipes back into the ground. One to the jacuzzi and the other to the pool I assume. (2nd pic)

There's also a cylinder sticking up out of the ground by the heater labeled Bromine. No obvious way to tell how it's connected underground. It's to the left of the green gas pipe in the 2nd pic.

There's no obvious way to do a backflush that neither me nor my realtor (who also has a pool) can figure out. Or does this kind of system not need one?

We found the jacuzzi water-jet switch, but it makes a screeching sound like a bearing is shot. The sound is coming from within the heater housing.




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On a side note, I never saw them but the realtor told me the "city" had posted stickers on my garage door about the green pool. Seems they were going to issue a fine if it wasn't cleaned up soon.

My question is, how in the world did they even know about it? And a fine? Really? The only way they could possibly see it is either by aircraft or walk to the backyard up to the stone fence and look over. Hmm, maybe a neighbor did it so he can use it while the house is empty? Luckily we did put padlocks on the gates after they cleaned it in case any kids had their eye on it.

[PoolDoc]

Dunno about Las Vegas, but in California they use helicopters and airplanes to find mosquito pools.

Around here (away from the west coast nannies) we live with mosquitoes. In Florida, they spray neighborhoods, but I'd guess that in California if they sprayed, they'd have 'Octomoms' suing because they had children with 8 toes on each foot.