Been watching this thread for a while. Very happy you pulled it all off. GREAT JOB!!!

Thanks Barbara. I will check that out. How did you know I have a cast iron bench as well.

Hi Kias
Nice job
I have seen Henry's awesome thread but can't find Dave's. Can you please tell me the title? thanks.

That's right here! Ya have to go back a bit. But still an awesome pool!

Oh man!!! I was getting ready to write a little story, and the stupid tornado alarm goes off. I think I've had a enough tornados for one year. Besides it's almost August!! Ok, I'll be back when I figure out where the twister is.

Ok, so anyway... I spent the afternoon in the pool looking out at the deck about 80 feet away wondering when it was going to walk over to the pool and set itself up. The water was 90 degrees today, which I consider the perfect temp. I know most people think 86-88 is perfect, but I say nay nay! 90 degrees it is! If it weren't for the black swirling cloud masses coming my way, I'd probably still be out there now.

I can't figure out why the pump keeps losing it's prime, so I gave up and ordered a new pump. Besides, everytime I hear that ancient pump running it just sounds like my next electric bill is going to kill me!!

Since I had an awesome experience ordering the gasket and o-ring from http://www.poolgeek.com I thought I'd give them a shot again.

I think I've finally found my new pool-stuff supplier. I ordered a 3/4 hp 2 speed pentair dynamo pump, new hoses, and new fittings. I ordered at 8:24 this morning, and about 2 hours later I had the tracking numbers.

The pump is getting dropped shipped from Cinderella Inc in Saginaw, MI. That'll be here Monday. The hoses, it looks like poolgeek.com is shipping them, those will be here Monday. The fittings were passed on to Horizon Parts which I believe is in Arizona, those haven't been shipped yet, but this is where my gaskets were dropped shipped from and even though they were being delivered fedex 2 day, they were here the next day. So, maybe by Tuesday.

So obviously, not only are they fast, but their vendors are fast too! That's really all I want.

As it says straight from their website:


Yes, that's probably blatant copyright infringement, but I'll claim it under the Fair Use Doctrine in the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107. Ya gotta love legal mumble jumble!

I know Mr. PoolGeek himself hasn't been around these forums for quite a few years, but I still want to thank him publicly for such fast service! Hopefully he's too busy shipping stuff out to get here much.

That's it for now! I'm going to head out and dump the bleach in that I delayed since the rain was on the way, then I'm off to bed! Unless I go outside and the skies are clear, I might just jump in the pool.


...and like I said last year somewhere around here, this whole trouble-free pool BBB method is BORRRRING! A couple minutes a day, maybe a couple of pennies worth of chemicals and the water is always crystal clear... Pshaw! I mean there's really nothing left to do but enjoy the pool! How dare I enjoy my pool when everyone at work fights all the time with their own pools?

I'm going to put this here instead of starting yet another topic about rain, that'll let the two of you that are still actually reading this thread something to mull over.

I've done much searching here on the subject of rain this morning. There does not seem to be a consensus on what, if any affect rain has on your pool water. However, I think I may be seeing a pattern, but it might all be in my head. I'll get to that later. First, the reason I've arrived at this subject to begin with.

Yesterday 'they' were calling for heavy rains overnight in the area, so I dutifully ran an almost entire spectrum of water checks.

Wait... Before I start, is it too early for a margaritta? Ok, I just found out it's after 5:00pm in Rome!! I'm goin' for it!

Ok, readings last night pre-chemicals.

FC 5
CC 0
pH 7.8
TA 200

I added 2 cups 6 oz of bleach, per the calculator, for no other reason then I knew it was going to rain.
Then I waited the token half an hour and added 2 quarts, 1 cup, 6 oz of 31.45% Muriatic Acid per the calculator with a TA of 200 to bring the pH down to 7.0. (I am still trying to lower my TA)

Readings after
FC 6
pH 7.0

Those are the only two I took.

This morning, the first thing I did was look out the window to make sure the pool was still standing. It was. Then got these readings.
FC 5.5
CC 0
pH 7.0 (6.9?? Maybe?)
TA 150

What? I threw out the TA test and did it again... I wound up with 150 again. I'm not complaining, as I am working on getting my TA down, but a drop of 50 overnight? This definitely resulted in some massive searching here for what was goin on!

The search was pretty much fruitless, as there are those that say, "Pshawww! Rain doesn't affect anything! There's just not enough!" Then there are those that say, "OMG! It rained last night and my readings went crazy!" Of course these statements are quickly followed by, "No you're just nuts! You're not seeing what you're seeing. Rain doesn't affect anything." (I am summarizing here, no one actually said these exact things)

What I seemed to notice, and this isn't scientific or anything since I wrote nothing down. But those that are saying the rain changed their water, all seem to be either around where I am. Or Texas. I figure the change going on in Texas is only due to the fact that their rain drops are much bigger then anywhere else on the earth. One that sticks out in my mind is AnnaK who said PH doesn't move, but alkalinity drops when it rains. Hmmm... Right over there in PA. My next door neighbor. She would usually get my left over rain I didn't use.

Ok, I really don't have an ending to this post. So I guess I'll just wait for someone to come along and tell me I'm nutz, I didn't see what I saw, the TA didn't drop that much, or I didn't wipe the tip with a wet cloth between each drop when doing the first TA test.

I think the TA fairies live around here and steal the TA from our pools!

By yesterday I had everything I ordered! Definitely a customer for life now... Anyway, opened the back of the pump up to wire it up and was shocked to see spade terminals! I definitely don't have spade terminals around here. There's just much better ways to wire stuff. So, I grabbed a couple today and came home and changed all the hoses and fittings, and the clouds opened up and just started to pour. So I just sat out in the rain wiring the pump up and finished the plumbing. Fired up the pump and went inside.

Of course as soon as I walked inside, it stopped raining. Went back out and found a leak on one of the fittings. A quick turn and all was well.

Hooked the vacuum up, and away it went! I now have a clean floor!!

I guess it's time for that deck, huh?

'til then!!

I've been away for a while and just caught up with your work. You're actually swimming in your USED POOL! Congratulations!!!

I looked at the pictures and just have one question ... I see an A FRAME ladder at the back and side of the pool. Is that for in??? Okay!

How are you all gettin OUT??? HA!

Enjoy!!!

dpool

Yes, it's just for in. We never get out! HA!!

There's really no reason to ever get out.

New to the TFP website and stumbled upon your post. I read through all 14 pages and couldn't stop. I think I was just glad to see that my husband and I aren't the only ones who encountered some difficulty purchasing and installing a used above-ground pool. We got a 15x30x52 Johnny Weissmuller pool, Waterway pump and sand filter with aluminum fence and side deck. We took it down on Father's Day weekend. Took us 2 days to get it all apart... feeling like morons along the way, trying to figure out how to get it all disassembled and being attacked by bees. Although our pool was no where in as bad a shape that yours was, we did still have to order a few replacement parts online. Thankfully the website I used for that was very quick to ship everything. The website I used for the liner we ordered was a totally different story. I ordered it on Father's Day and didn't receive it until the middle of July. So much for that 4th of July deadline that I had. hahah.

In any event, after close to two months we finally finished the getting the pool up, filling it, plumbing it and doing the electrical. I live in New Jersey and while we haven't had to deal with tornadoes we have had some pretty good storms roll through but the heat has been unbearable (couple of 100+ days with horrible humidity). All throughout the project all I wanted to do was just have the pool done so I could jump in it to cool off. Its such a tease.

On the bright side however, today we finally started adding chemicals and got most of the aluminum fencing up. I must say I feel you on the deck. I have been looking at it and my husband for two weeks saying how on earth are we going to assemble the deck. We barely got it down by ourselves. Its very very very heavy!!! I too was hoping it would simply attach itself to the pool but to no avail it has not. So, tomorrow we will finish adding the chemicals to the pool, attempt to button up a couple of the slow dripping leaks at the return, skimmer and filter, and attempt to get the deck up and attached. Should prove to be interesting. I am hoping that we have some helpers.

All in all I would say that even with the purchase price and costs incurred along the way, while they have added are still significantly less that the cost of purchasing a brand new pool. I'm just not so sure that the time and energy it takes to take it down and put it back up are worth it. But I am sure once I am swimming in the pool, it won't matter.

Thanks for the entertaining blog... can't wait to see how you make out with the deck and any other loose ends.

Hi Erica!

Welcome to TFP!

From my own experience, I can tell you that I spent way less than I would have buying a new pool. However, if you add in my labor, the cost would've been WAY over what a new pool costs. You are absolutely correct though, once you're in the pool all of that labor won't matter one bit.

As far as my deck is concerned, I've been picking at it here and there. I've decided I'm going to dismantle it and rebuild it, saving what I can, and getting the rest of it new. I found some issues with it structurally, so this is probably the best way. I really don't see me going at it full tilt until the pool is closed. It'll be a lot cooler out then! It was approaching 100F while I was putting the pool up also, so I can commiserate with you wanting it just to be done to jump in!

If you haven't already, make sure you go to pool school up top, and get yourself a good water testing kit. It's all genius! I'm on my second year following this, and I've never had any problems with the water. Except maybe those backswimmer bugs... That's not really a water problem, but since I added salt, I haven't seen one! I wonder if there's a connection here.

I just came across this thread.... what an incredible job with a ton of valuable information!

Thanks!

Have to go find out why I didn't get a notification when someone reply's to this now. LOL!

Well, a couple years later and now the boss and I are talking about putting in an indoor inground pool. She brought it up, not I.

This is still probably 4 or 5 years away, as it's puttin' a hurt on the wallet (Major serious hurt?), and we don't want to finance it.

Here's a pic I snapped yesterday!

Dusting the cobwebs off of this thread for a third year update on this pool.

Just wanted to say I finally tore that huge deck apart this weekend and built a smaller deck from the wood I could salvage. Still have to build railings and attach the steps, but I stood on it today and vacuumed the pool! That was really nice.

Also, since I've put it up, there's two new words I've learned for our next pool.

"Soil Stabilization"

This clay is nuts! The walls have moved outwards. The uprights and buttresses are sinking. The patio blocks under them are going along for the ride too! It's dry right now, so the ground is harder than cement, but when it it gets wet, look out!
I'm not at all worried about a collapse, as it's no where near the house and I have no neighbors. The water will just follow the contour of the land right into the creek...

So, I've been reading up on this soil stabilization thing.. Looks like lime and clay have some very cool reaction! Also been thinking about stabilizing the soil, then putting down a cement slab to put the pool on. Of course I'm always thinking about an in ground pool... That just freaks me out with all this clay though. Can anyone unfreak my thoughts about this?

Maybe I should have someone come pull a core sample to see how deep this clay is...


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Thank you for this thread I found it very interesting and informative!!

This thread was too funny. When I bought my pool from the dealer, it was the "demo" pool they setup out front to show people the pools. I had a tractor guy come in and do my leveling and when it was time to get the pool, I went to the store, and disassembled it with the help of the store's employees. After it was all apart, we loaded it up into my truck, I took it home and set it up with some family to help. That was 2004. Since then I have had a deck added around 45% of the pool, replaced the liner due to chemical damage, and I just built a jump deck on the back corner of the yard. I am pretty happy with my "used" pool.

Heyyy Kias! I just found your thread again tonight, while trying to do some pool catch-up, and really enjoyed reading it all again. The pool looks fantastic and I know y'all are lovin' it!

Twas the best hundred bucks I ever spent! It's still going strong, although it is sinking here and there, patio blocks and all. Terrible clay.

The storms that came through the other day broke three agp's in the neighborhood. The wind just lifted the walls right up and the liner came out, and it wasn't long after that until the liner broke...

Mine just took it like a champ!

Had to get a clump of weeds out, and three leaves. The nearest tree upwind is a quarter mile away, so those leaves came quite the distance to take a swim. First time I've ever had leaves in the pool!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

Hey Rob, so as not to threadjack here, would you mind giving me your opinion over at this link, please: post403896.html#p403896