Repairing my Grandfathers Pool

[Dwill]

Hello there!

My grandfather (age 83) just recently drained his pool two weeks ago and has left it sitting open to the elements with no progress made as he's too old to get down in there and repair a Vinyl Tear or clear out any of the refuse / scrub the Vinyl

I work full time to help support the household and pay the bills on this property so I've only just taken some time off to address this issue and have found myself rather without direction haha.
We live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada a rather frozen hellscape most of the year so having an outdoor pool here seems rather counter intuitive but I'm stuck with it now!

http://imgur.com/a/P72xM<--- I've included pictures of where I've gotten the pool to so far after a bit of scrubbing and cleaning. My questions are:

1. How do I scrub clear all the stains and I guess mildew stuff? And Is there any paint to go over the worse staining I could possibly use?

2. Is there an easier way to get all that refuse in the Deep End out without jumping down there and draining the water / hauling all the leaves and junk into garbage bags?

3. How exactly do I go about repairing the Vinyl around the.. whatever that hole is haha.

Now, I talked to a local pool company briefly and asked how much re-siding the pool would cost and I can tell you that's exactly $5000 over budget of the $0 budget I have lol so anything I can do for this pool that costs the
least is the best option as my Grandfather is broke and there exists a very limited fund of my own money that I have been using to slowly make renovations to the household over time with.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my embarrassingly uninformed post and I appreciate any and all advice on what to do with this Ancient pool.
And also sorry if I posted this in the wrong place! It seemed like the right sub-forum but I could be mistaken.

 

[Texas Splash]

Hello and welcome to TFP! There's a lot to your story, so I'll try to stick to just your questions for now to get this going:

1. How do I scrub clear all the stains and I guess mildew stuff? And Is there any paint to go over the worse staining I could possibly use?

Since I believe you have a vinyl pool, you have to be careful. If the stains are organic (from algae), you might get by with a higher chlorine level once the water is filled up again. Any stains that you can reach could be scrubbed by hand with a diluted mixture of bleach and water (probably 4:1) being careful to rinse afterwards. If the stains were from metal in the water, you might try to confirm by placing some crushed vitamin C tablets in a sock and hold it against the area to see if it changes.

2. Is there an easier way to get all that refuse in the Deep End out without jumping down there and draining the water / hauling all the leaves and junk into garbage bags?

Not really. At this point, you have to be creative and determined to remove any bulk junk in the pool so that you can treat the water later.

3. How exactly do I go about repairing the Vinyl around the.. whatever that hole is haha.

Depends on the hole(s). But local pool stores (or on-line) sell vinyl repair kits as long as the hole isn't too big or in a spot that is unrepairable.

If you manage to get that far and fill it up with water, the one thing you cannot skimp on is the test kit. In your area it has to be the Taylor K-2006C. Definitely plan accordingly for that one. Hope this helps, and welcome to TFP!

 

[gwegan]

Welcome to TFP!!!

1. Wait until you have solved problems 2 and 3 fill the pool with water. Most will go away with proper balancing of the chemicals. It may take a while.

2. No get some 5 gallon buckets and start filling . Be careful so as not to damage the vinyl liner.

3. Watch 3 or 4 videos on You tube on vinyl liner repair. Order patch kit from InyoPools.com then follow the directions in the kit and on the videos.

4. That thing is your light. Get us a better picture and we can help you with a replacement

5. You need to make sure your pump and filter are working.

6. Read Pool School - Pool School to learn how this thing works.

7. Order a test kit from TFTest kits

8. Fill up the pool, you don' want it empty too long.

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! I was looking at the picture. It looks like that spot by the return/cleaner port has been patched before. The fitting appears to be attached with screws, so remove the screws and pull out the fitting. You may want to invest in some stainless steel screws before you re-install the fitting. You will need to cut a patch twice the size of the one already there, glue it down, then cover that area with a patch that extends out another 6 inches from the edges of the new patch. Then you can re-install the fitting. The small patch a little lower on the wall needs to have a new patch placed over the top of it. It doesn't look like the edges are glued down.

The stains are from the breakdown of organic material. Once the pool is filled and chlorinated properly the stains will go away.