First-time post, possible skimmer line crushed, selling house!

[Lovedapool]

Hi, we have a 20x40 gunite pool, which is 33 years old. We are selling our house, but the pool needed new tile. I have been rather frantically trying to get tilers/painters here in the middle of summer, but we noticed that one of our two skimmers is not drawing at all. Our main drain has never worked, probably because of the previous homeowners, so we really need this skimmer!

Our pool service company came and used a big black bladder about 30 times, to no avail. I was able to get a plumber in, and he used a snake up to 35 feet with nothing catching, and then he used a jigger or something (it was an expensive service fee), but he could only insert it a little ways because the 90 degree angles in the piping prevented him from going further. He then looked at the lines coming out of the pump but commented that he couldn't get in them because of the way they were set up.

Somewhere along the line (no pun!), it became a little apparent that maybe the line had collapsed under the pool deck. It has been a record-breaking winter in Michigan. The pool is over 30 years old. The pool deck does look a little crumpled above the skimmer area. One more caveat....

A commercial HVAC happened to be here and was really interested in looking at our pool. He heard my problem and wanted to see the piping at the pump. The skimmer line handle turns like it should, but the other two lines' handles are broken so that 'the gate is not rising'. These other two lines are titled 'D' and 'sump'... I have no idea what the sump is for. Do these dysfunctional handles have anything to do with stuff not working? Does it sound like we truly have a collapsed line?

If we do have a broken line, it's been recommended that we *cringe* fill our pool in. What are some cheap ways to do this and fix it up for sale? Our pool deck is large and spacious, so I'm hoping we can use it still.

Thanks for any ideas or questions. Optimally, I'd like to save our pool! But, time is short and we don't want to spend a lot of money. Thank you thank you!

[PoolDoc]

Pictures:

[PoolDoc]

Huh! It's been a long time, but you are very lucky that I was a plumber . . . and that your HVAC guy jogged my memory. It's been years, but I've run into a problem with cheapo gate valves like the ones you have, that could explain your problem.

The type of gate valve you have is called a NRS gate valve (Non-Rising Stem), and they were made in both industrial and cheapo versions. The cheapo versions were common on pools 20 - 30 years ago.

With those valves, what can happen that the internal threads that lift the gate disk can shear off OR the stem itself can break. This often happens after the valve has been closed tightly for months, and then someone attempts to open it. When the stem breaks, the disc is left locked in the CLOSED position.

To verify the problem, you have to unscrew the valve stem from the body. You'd better hire a plumber; without the right tools and the right skill, you can collapse the valve body in the process of unscrewing it. Once the valve stem is removed, you can inspect to see if the threads have sheared or the stem has broken. At that point, you can either replace the valve OR simply remove the disk and reinstall the stem. The valve will then be open and unable to close.