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!