Help After Flood

[blackhawksq]

Good morning everyone, I hope ya'lls month has gone better than mine . If you haven't heard Houston was a bit underwater the past couple of weeks and my house was one of them. Now that I have my contractors started cleaning up the house it's time for me to start cleaning up the pool and I just don't know where to begin. As you can see from the pictures the pool was completely engulfed in water. At the highest point the pump was totally underwater (I had it turned off.) I've been putting a ton of bleach in the water since the flood receded. My test kit was stuck underwater so I don't (currently) have any reliable way to test. I believe it's mostly mud and dirt (and fish, I have dead fish in my pool ). Do I just vacuum it up? Is it same to run the pump? Thanks in advance.

 

[Patrick_B]

Oh Wow....Man....

So sorry to hear about all this for you guys down there. I'm lying if I tell you I can help from experience. I think you can run it, but that DE filter is going to plug off really quickly.

 

[pooldv]

Bummer! What a pain!

Scoop everything out that you can with a leaf rake. Add a gallon of 8.25% bleach per day until you get some CYA. Add 30 ppm of CYA in a sock. Then start adding 2 gallons per day until you get a test kit.

Is the pump dried out? Can you blow it out with a compressor? Or put a fan blowing on it for a day or two? Or even remove the motor and put it in the oven for a few hours on low. It is best to make sure it is dry before restarting it. It should work fine though. Yes, once the pump is running start vacuuming up that mud. Then SLAM the pool.

 

[blackhawksq]

Bummer! What a pain!

Scoop everything out that you can with a leaf rake. Add a gallon of 8.25% bleach per day until you get some CYA. Add 30 ppm of CYA in a sock. Then start adding 2 gallons per day until you get a test kit.

Is the pump dried out? Can you blow it out with a compressor? Or put a fan blowing on it for a day or two? Or even remove the motor and put it in the oven for a few hours on low. It is best to make sure it is dry before restarting it. It should work fine though. Yes, once the pump is running start vacuuming up that mud. Then SLAM the pool.

Pump seemed to be dried out yesterday but then it rained again last night I did start the pump and it primed fine but I didn't run it to long because I didn't want to damage it. A co-worker is letting me borrow his test kit starting tomorrow.

 

[blackhawksq]

Another question should I set the filter to waste and vacuum it out... refill. then repeat or let the filter due the work?

 

[pooldv]

The pump should be ok then. If it didn't kick the breaker pretty quick it is probably dry. Yeah, pretty good rain again last night, that shouldn't affect the pump. I would vac to waste from the bottom for a bit just to see how much goo is in there. Unless you can see the bottom of your fish pond! :-D If there is a lot of sediment in there then it will clog your filter up in minutes. Definitely keep a close eye on your filter pressure gauge once you do start filtering.

 

[otter86753]

I am so sorry for your situation. I wonder if Tim5055 will be able to help? Columbia got flooded badly in October and he might have some experience. We were fortunate last October, but some of our friends were not.

 

[Sunbaby]

Ouch! That is terrible Sorry about your house and pool.

 

[Texas Splash]

Yikes! That's a bad one. Time (patience), filtering, and chlorine is about it. Can't really rush something like that too much. Best of luck to you.

 

[kimkats]

First off That is unreal! You poor thing and your neighbors

I would vacuum to waste as much as possible. Think about making a "filter" using a 5 gal. bucket and polyfill like you put in a pillow! There are some videos to show how. Just anything to help get the mess out and NOT mess up your grids on the DE filter.

Yucky water out and clear water in.



Kim:cat:

 

[espejo]

I'm so sorry. I only lost my car.

With damage to the home too I would just drain the entire pool, when you can, and start with a fresh refill. With the house being repaired the last thing I would want to do is have to SLAM a pool. I would rather cool off from working on the house all day. Just my two cents.

 

[kimkats]

But see that is something she can do on her own. I am guessing the house stuff she will have to hire out. BUT it is only a guess.

ONLY lost a car? That is a good way to look at it but still not a good thing

Kim:cat:

 

[Chris19D]

So sorry to hear (and see) this. I'm in the Pearland area and we got out of these past couple of weeks unscathed. Such a tough situation for my brothers and sisters in the H-Town area.

 

[blackhawksq]

Think about making a "filter" using a 5 gal. bucket and polyfill like you put in a pillow! There are some videos to show how.
Kim:cat:

I did a quick Google Search and found a few videos I think this could help and would relatively easy. But all the videos I've are for intex pools. Any idea how I would hook it up to a in ground pump or should I just do similar with a sump pump?

 

[Swampwoman]

Good morning, welcome, and my condolences for your current clean up situation.

Two considerations - first, if you think you have a lot of debris on bottom (my guess would be that you do) is it possible to rent a trash pump to pump off the bottom sludgy part of pool...or are they impossible to find right now due to common recovery efforts?

Second thing that may help - The Slime Bag | The Easiest Way To Maintain Crystal Clear Pool Water. -- with the return fittings. This will help filter the finer sediment once you're at a place where you're just trying to get the silt out.

Sending you the clearing mojo!

 

[kimkats]

The one I saw on here was sitting on the steps and they hooked a sub pump to it. It did seem to help.

Kim:cat:

 

[zea3]

You could probably get a cheap trash pump at Harbor Freight. You are probably going to have a significant amount of silt in the pool, so I would vacuum to waste until the majority of it is gone. I would vacuum silt, then add a large jug of bleach and let it circulate a few minutes then shut off the pump and let it sit over night so the remaining silt re-settles. You can re-fill with fresh water so the water level doesn't drop too low while you are vacuuming. I would wait until I could roughly see the bottom of the pool before running the DE filter again. DE filters are so good at collecting fine debris that you will constantly be cleaning and recharging the filter if you start using it too soon.

 

[tim5055]

I am so sorry for your situation. I wonder if Tim5055 will be able to help? Columbia got flooded badly in October and he might have some experience. We were fortunate last October, but some of our friends were not.

I wish I could help. I was out of the flood areas and the only problem I had was my pool overflowing and leaves in the pool.

 

[kimkats]

You could probably get a cheap trash pump at Harbor Freight. You are probably going to have a significant amount of silt in the pool, so I would vacuum to waste until the majority of it is gone. I would vacuum silt, then add a large jug of bleach and let it circulate a few minutes then shut off the pump and let it sit over night so the remaining silt re-settles. You can re-fill with fresh water so the water level doesn't drop too low while you are vacuuming. I would wait until I could roughly see the bottom of the pool before running the DE filter again. DE filters are so good at collecting fine debris that you will constantly be cleaning and recharging the filter if you start using it too soon.

Winner right there! I like this the best!

Kim :cat:

 

[mac4lyfe]

Hey, I'm in west Houston and my pool got flooded as well as my living room and den. I just had new carpet installed today (I had just bought carpet 3 months ago).

My pool had dirt and sludge about 1/2 foot on the bottom and was brown. I slammed the pool, also added twice as much clarifier and then hooked up a hose to my skimmer and started sucking up all the sludge into my DE filter. I'd finish a section then backwash all the mud. It took me an entire day of backwashing and vacuuming. I had to remove the filter and hose it off on a few occasions as well. It was a load of mud. More than my robot cleaner would ever clean. The clarifier really cleared things up and settled everything on the bottom of the pool which made it easy to vacuum. My pool was very high in water as it overflowed so I had no problem backwashing over and over again without refilling. It took about 3 days of slamming and running through the filter to get back to crystal clear. My CYA was low but I didn't add any stabilizer because you would then have to add more chlorine to slam. I waited for the pool to totally clear up then increased CYA a bit today.

Keep slamming and vacuuming and you will get there eventually. A lot of patience and clarifier won't hurt either. For some reason my SWG stopped working. I haven't had time to troubleshoot just yet, although I added more salt so that's not the issue.