Help, please! My kids will love you.

Jump to latest Follow Reply
R

reluctantpoolmom

0
May 3, 2012
28
Pahoa, Hawaii (East side Big Island)
Hi,

We just bought a house that was a foreclosure. The kids are awfully excited about the pool, but I am not so sure. We had a guy come to give us an estimate about fixing it up and it was $10,000!! I think that was to redo it with gunnite. I think I understand that what we have now is a metal liner with concrete or some other kind of support under that? It seems like a new liner would cost more like $1000. If that were all there was to it, we might be able to afford it, but we can't get the pump to turn on and know nothing about the filter system or how to check it or how to maintain or how much those things would cost to fix / replace, etc. I don't know if we can really check those things out until we fill it with water? We bought some liner patches for the 2 holes in the liner. I also wonder what we would find under the liner? Do we need to worry about that? It seems like we have 3 options:

I have read the pool school, and that helped a little, but still not sure how to proceed from here.

1) fill it in with sand - the kids are not so keen on that idea.
2) buy new liner and fill with water and then find out more about the pump and filter, risking not being able to afford to replace them if they need to be replaced, so maybe the water will get all stagnate and yucky and not be swimmable anyway?
3) fix hole with patches, fill with water, figure out pump and filter, since maybe we have some $ to replace or fix, and then wait till next season to buy new liner when we have more $

As an aside, I think we would have to use a water truck to fill the pool since we are on catchment water.

Feeling a little overwhelmed.

Thanks for any help or suggestions you have to give us,

Emily

PS - we do have a water pump that was used for the house, but it was replaced with a new one. It still works. Is there a difference between pool/spa pumps and house water / catchment tank pumps?
 

Attachments

  • Photo on 2012-05-03 at 09.13 #2.jpg
    Photo on 2012-05-03 at 09.13 #2.jpg
    107.7 KB · Views: 307
  • Photo on 2012-05-03 at 09.15.jpg
    Photo on 2012-05-03 at 09.15.jpg
    120.3 KB · Views: 307
  • Photo on 2012-05-03 at 09.16.jpg
    Photo on 2012-05-03 at 09.16.jpg
    102.1 KB · Views: 307
Well, it's a liner pool, so I'm not sure why he wanted to make it a gunnite pool. That seems very strange. Get a few more people out to give you an estimate to see what other opinions are. Not sure about the equipment but you want to make sure your pump works before you fill it with water, otherwise you will get into trouble with algae. I would get a few more estimates if I were you. Where are you located? Big difference between the two pumps you are referring to.
 
Vinyl lined pool, and the liner has pulled away/ripped/deteriorated, etc. etc. etc. You would be better off budgeting to replace the liner.

As far as what's behind it, most are built with steel walls. Nothing to worry about there.

You would benefit from getting your pump situated first. That way, you can verify its operability, then you can address the liner, and swimming season should be underway!

Good luck!
 
Whoops, sorry, I tried to add my location, but I guess I didn't hit submit the first time. We are in Hawaii.

Sounds like we won't be able to use that other pump. It also sounds like we should get the pump and filter going before filling with water to prevent algae, but is there anyway to test them out without first filling the pool with water and trying it out?

I guess I will try to find someone else to take a look at it for us. I think I was a little scared to call anyone else after that last estimate. Yikes!

Thanks so much,

Emily
 
Check out this link and you may be able to fix your pump problem. http://wetheadmedia.com/hayward-super-p ... -a-second/
First I'd check to make sure the pump turns freely then go through the steps in the link. I've fixed one with a sticky centrifugal switch (a couple squirts of WD40) and two with bad capacitors (be careful because capactiors can shock you even after you turn off the power). I suspect you can get the pump running for under $20 if you're pretty handy.
 
Thanks macgulley, that link looks great, my husband is pretty handy and that noise sounds just like what he described when he tried to turn it on.

I also followed the advice about looking for someone else for an estimate and I found a guy who was much more helpful, and much more reasonable about how much he thought it would cost. He hasn't come yet, but he talked me through a lot and already the pool has much less of a chance of becoming a sand box.

He made two suggestions that I wonder about:

He said that if the pump is old, it might be an energy hog, and that we might want to pay the $275 for a new more energy efficient pump. Does anyone have an opinion about this? We live in an area with very high electric costs - .37+/kwh. I don't have a sense of how much the pump will need to run to know how long it would take to pay back the investment of a more efficient pump (assuming we can salvage the pump we have for not much, which he and everyone else seems to think possible.)

The other thing he suggested was that we try not to put a new liner in ourselves because we are likely to make mistakes. He does not do that, so he wouldn't benefit, but he did suggest some other pool guys that do. What do you all think? Is it worth paying for?

I am trying to get a sense of how much all of this is going to cost us.

Thanks again,

Emily
 
If the pump is as simple a fix as I believe, I would at least wait until you get everything else running. That expense can wait for now. I would not attempt to do the liner myself because it is a fairly involved process. I know I'm a cheapskate but if your liner seems to still be strong and flexible, I'd try patching it before buying a new one. If you go that route you still want to get someone involved who knows how to install a vinyl liner because you need to vacuum the liner into place and make sure it is evenly stretched before putting in the water.
By the way, my advice is probably worth exactly what you paid for it. :)
 
Hi reluctantpoolmom and welcome to TFP! :)
Yes, a newer pump will be a good investment with electric cost that high, but that can wait like macgulley have said if you can fix the pump motor you have now for cheap.
Make sure you also save up and budget for your own test kit from tftestkits.net.
Here the link:
http://tftestkits.net/splash-page.html

The TF-100 would be the one to get for the best value.
I looked at Fedex shipping and tftestkits could use the ground shipping as these kits cannot be shipped air freight.
Here the link:
http://tftestkits.net/splash-page.html
Fedex link:
http://www.fedex.com/us/freight/interna ... awaii.html

On another note...I think you will not regret fixing up this project pool because this forum is the best on the web, with lots of friendly and helpful information! :whoot:
The help I got from TFP has made life owning a pool a joy for the whole family and easy to take care of through the methods taught here! Big Plus, it's free and you can't beat that...

I became a lifetime member to give back to help this site live on and help newbies like yourself enjoy the ownership of having a pool! :party:
Link: become-a-tfp-supporter-f27.html

Chuck
 
Welcome to TFP.

Just kind of reiterating what the others have said.

1) Fix the pump you have if you can.
2) Patch the liner if you can.
3) Test the rest of the equipment.

I wouldn't go to any more expense than you have to right now until you know what it's going to take to get it going. Then work through things one at a time until you see if things are fixable and how things operate. The first thing to do is get someone to look at the liner and see if it's at all patchable. If it is then move on the the pump. If you can get the pump running you can stick a water hose in it and run it long enough to test it. Once you'e done that, it's time to fill the pool.

At the rate of electricity there you may be a candidate for a variable speed pump. They're expensive but very efficient. You at very least want to look at a 2-speed, but that's in the future. If the liner is good enough to get you through a couple of years without much patching you can plan on a replacement in the future. You can worry about all that once you've ran the pool a season or two and gain confidence and knowledge with it's ooperation and then you'll know if you want to keep it up.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Hey, I am no expert, just a newbie myself, but check out my photobucket and the pictures of MY liner, which I was able to save. The pool store told me don't bother, but I'm glad I tried. I know trucking in the water is a big expense but it might be worth it. Good luck, I know how it feels when you don't want to disappoint your kids.
 
Thanks for the suggestions about the liner. We have had a few folks look at it and I guess it is too late to save it - it is very shrunken and the rips are large.

So, I have found a place in Ca that will send us a new pool liner, part of my problem was getting one here because of shipping to Hawaii. There are guys here who will give us a bid for fixing up the whole pool for us, but we just can't afford it, so we are going DIY. In case anyone else is looking to do this in Hawaii, I found Polyfabrics in Orange, CA who will manufacture liners and ship to Hawaii. Our shipping cost was $200, which I think is pretty good.
 
Also, about the pump. I guess it can't be fixed, so we are looking at a new pump.

I really appreciate all the links you folks sent for helping us to try to get the pump and liner up and going on the cheap, but I guess we are lucky that an uncle said he would help us out to fix the pool because the liner and pump just couldn't be saved.

I am going to ask a separate question about the pump now, I am ready to buy a 2 sp, but I want to make sure that we don't regret it and wish we had gotten a variable after a few months with our high elec. costs.

Happy Memorial Day!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply