New to forum, new to pools. Need to acid wash?

[mblock22]

Hi! I think this is going to be a great resource for me!

Just bought a house and moved in ~3 weeks ago. A pool was near the top of my wifes list, and we were lucky enough to find a great house with what looks like a great pool. Pool is gunite, (estimated) 18k gallons, 28ft long x 16ft wide kidney shaped.

I have seen pictures of the pool from last season when the past owners had it open and it looked great. However they covered it only with a 'tarp' and some rocks before they moved out of state last October, which was rained on and floating near the bottom when I had the pool inspector come before we closed on the home.

The water was down 1/3 of the way and looked pretty bad green.

The inspector had to fill the pool enough just to get the pumps started for the inspection. He gave a pass to the sand filter and gas heater, and guessed they were roughly 5 years old. He said I should replace the pump because he didn't like it, but that it should last this year at the least.

He found some cracking on the deck and exposed wires on the timer.

Lastly he said the pool needed to be drained and acid washed before opening this year. He quoted ~$3K to do everything (including a new pump).

When we moved in we could see the bottom, although it certainly had a lot of leaves and needles on it. Now about a month later (and temps in the 70's) we can no longer see the bottom of the deep end. And this is with the water level down at least 1/3 the way now.

I would like to drain the pool myself this weekend and start cleaning it out before anything else. We are at high elevation and the pool/backyard is up on a hill, so I am confident that draining the pool should be ok.

Can I just do a 'chlorine wash' myself with it drained? Do I have to do an acid wash?

[PoolDoc]

The *inspector* quoted the work???

Was he an inspector, or a service guy prospecting for work? I would NOT hire an inspector to do work he recommended, nor would I trust his recommendations much -- that's too shady!

Acid washing NEVER has to be done -- it's always a cosmetic repair. There may be some stains, but you won't really know till you clean the pool up, brush and vacuum it thoroughly, and maintain high chlorine for a week or so. Keep in mind that acid washing works by destructively removing the top layer of the plaster, leaving what remains nice and white, but also rougher and MORE susceptible to future stains.

My recommendation? Fix ONLY what you need, run the pool for a summer, and THEN decide what to do, after you know more about pools and particularly, more about your pool.

Doing a 'bleach wash' is fine, and won't hurt anything. It will only remove organic stains, however, and you can do the same thing, more or less, after the pool is full.

[mblock22]

The *inspector* quoted the work???

Was he an inspector, or a service guy prospecting for work? I would NOT hire an inspector to do work he recommended, nor would I trust his recommendations much -- that's too shady!

Thanks! That is pretty much what I had been hoping. I will give the 'inspector' some credit - he was trying to come up with all the things that he thought we could take to the owners pre-close and get them to foot the bill for. However, with the deal we were already getting on the house I knew that this was not going to fly with them and did not try and push my luck...

Other than the dark green water and debris, which I plan on pumping out this weekend, the only bad things that my un-trained eye can see is a dark brown stain going up and down out of both the water outlets. From my research, I am guessing it is iron stains from the water outlet.

Reading has told me that after draining, bleach/CLR/MrClean Pads should remedy these stains, and I try to pretend to be a DIY man when I can. My biggest fear from what I have read is that I run the risk of 'popping' my inground pool from the ground water pressure once draining. There are several things that make me not too worried about this however:

1. The pool is up at the top of a hill. On the other side of the deck is a slope that drops down lower than the bottom of the deep end of the pool

2. I live in Albuquerque, NM, at an elevation of 7,000 ft. It does not rain here, ever, and the water table is certainly a dozen ft lower than my pool.

At least that is what I believe. I am hoping that someone can give me some reassurance that I am not going to destroy my pool by draining it this weekend....!!!

[PoolDoc]

Reading has told me that after draining, bleach/CLR/MrClean Pads should remedy these stains, and I try to pretend to be a DIY man when I can.

Not sure where you read that, but it's not true. (If it's here, and you can find the post, please let me know so I can 'fix' it!!)

Do not EVER use "Mr Clean" in a pool; chlorine resistant soaps and detergents are very hard to get out of the water! If you mean, MrClean metal wool pads, those are a total disaster -- the steel wool flakes and then stains the heck out of pools!

Bleach with remove *some* organic stains. But often, brown stains around a return are iron, or rarely, manganese. Put a Vitamin C tab on one of the spots and see if lightens overnight -- if it does, it's probably iron. Also, check the inside of your toilet tank -- assuming you use the same water in your pool, the color inside the tank will indicate whether there are metals in your fill water.

Pool 'popping' is a function of saturated soil; a pool on a hillside in New Mexico is not at risk, unless there's something really weird about your property.

[BigDave]

Perhaps mblock22 is referring to Mr. Clean Magic Eraser - foam pads with some abrasive embedded. I don't know what's in CLR but it does seem to do a pretty good job cleaning metal stains in sinks and bathtubs. If I were to use something like CLR in a pool, I would try to retain remove all the runoff to keep it out of the pool water.

[PoolDoc]

You may be right; I dunno.

I do know that some vendors sell products for pool use, without regard for the effects they may have on the pool water or chemistry. So, the maxim, "trust, but verify" might better be modified, "don't trust, till verified"!

[BigDave]

That of course, plus I don't think Mr. Clean pads(magic eraser?) or CLR are marketed for pool use so maybe "You're on your own - tell us what you did and how it worked"

[PoolDoc]

Ah yes. It's the 'official policy' of the PoolForum to recommend that pool owners avoid becoming test subjects for all the dodgy pool products out there. But, if they choose, on their own, to become 'guinea pigs', we certainly welcome their reports on the results!