Overwhelmed in Bucks County, PA. Hi! : )

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Hobokenkitchen

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Apr 24, 2012
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My husband and I just moved from Center City Philadelphia to New Hope, PA.

One of the changes from city living to country living is that our house has a pool. We were initially quite excited about the pool, but are now wondering if we have bitten off more than we can chew. :shock:

I think the pool used to be reasonably high end, but we bought the house as a short sale and the pool was not opened last year at all.

The only things loving the pool right now are a multitude of frogs who sing (all night)! I thought the country was meant to be quiet? :-D

We have had two pool guys swing by to look at the pool and the conclusions so far are as follows:

1: All 4 pumps hum but don't work.

2: Both pool guys recommend draining the pool and refilling it.

3: I thought we had a mesh cover, but the last pool guy says it's a solid cover.

4: We have a hot tub heated by propane - no idea if that works.

5: The cover was badly covered in debris and water - we got a submersible pool pump (Rule 1800) and pumped off as much water as we could and scooped off all the leaves and debris (the frogs were not happy).

That's about it. I know nothing about pools, so it's hard to answer questions, but I'll give it a shot!

We're hugely overwhelmed as the quotes we're getting to drain, acid wash and open the pool (not including pump issues) are in excess of $1500 plus we would have to organize our own water trucks to refill at well over $200 per truck and apparently we need at least 4. :cry:

We're not sure what to do as everyone in person says drain the pool, and everyone on line says don't drain it, shock it. So we really have no idea what we should be doing and the cost has given us some pretty major sticker shock. It's all very overwhelming.

So that's it - we're clueless and overwhelmed and don't really know where to start. Any suggestions?

Anyone know a great pool guy in Bucks County, PA? :wink:
 
The pool in the listing photo. :wink:

nwhi89.jpg


The pool when we got it having not been opened last year:

346onxw.jpg


The pool now:

1y7iv4.jpg
 
Do not despair. With the help of this site you will be able to get your pool looking beautiful again. It will probably be a lot of work, but hopefully not a lot of money. You're off to a good start by getting the cover cleaned off. I do not think you will need to drain the pool.

I would:
1. Buy a good test kit - see this link for some good ones http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/pool_test_kit_comparison
2. Read as much as you can in pool school (link above). Especially about water chemistry and how your equipment works.
3. Remove the cover. Could it be that your skimmers still have the plugs in them and that is why your pumps don't work - there is not water available for them to pump?
4. Once the cover is removed, you need to get your equipment working and become familiar with how it all operates. You at least need the main pump operational, the other 3 are likely for the water fall, pool cleaner, etc..
5. Once your pump and filter are working, and you've got a good test kit, post a set of test results here for more advice.
 
Ok, we've been doing some reading and what I have realized is that we are even more clueless than I thought - I actually don't know enough to even answer the necessary questions. :oops:

1) The size of your pool in gallons
2) The type filter you have (sand, DE, cartridge)
3) If your pool is an AG (above ground) or IG (in ground)
4) If it's IG, tell us if it's vinyl, plaster/pebble, or fiberglass
5) If you know, tell us the size pump and the size (flow rate) of your filter.

Of these questions, I only know that it's inground.

Can someone guide us in what to look for to be able to answer the above? I can go around and take photos if that would help?
I am assuming that it's plaster/ pebble because it has tiles, but I don't know for sure.

We will start by investing in a testing kit - just have to work out a good place to buy it.

How do we work out which pump is the main pump?

I don't actually know what 'skimmers' are - can you clarify further?

Should we start by taking off the cover, or do we wait until we get a pump working before we take off the cover?

The previous owners sold all their pool equipment, so the only pool equipment we have is that little pump and a net. That's it.

Here are some pics of various bits of equipment - does this tell anyone anything? So sorry to be THIS basic. I'm almost embarassed to even post how little we know! :oops:

2mzcmt4.jpg


2pr7i1c.jpg


2we9gdu.jpg
 
That is a fairly fancy setup, and it has lots of parts. You may want to hire someone to come out and explain it to you one part at a time. There must be a remote control panel somewhere, which is going to require some studying.

The main pump is over by the other large pieces of equipment and should have a pipe running to the main valve and the filter, while the water fall uses the pair of pumps that appear in another photo. I only see three pumps in the photos, not four. Presumably the fourth pump is the spa pump.

It looks like the pool is winterized. You will probably want to hire someone to open the pool for the season. Opening, cleaning up the algae, and doing a full drain and acid wash are three completely unrelated issues. We can't see enough to get any idea if the pool needs to be acid washed or not. You need to take the cover off to be able to tell if there is any reason to acid wash. Presumably the people who have recommended acid washing have looked under the cover.

You really need to decide how much of this you want to take on and how much you are going to hire out. That is a complex pool and it is going to take a lot of work to open and to figure out what everything is and how to use each part. For a system that fancy most people would hire everything out. If you are going to do that you need to find a company you trust and do what they say. There is no point in hiring a contractor and then trying to second guess them.
 
Found out we have a cartridge filter.... which is apparently bad?

Pool guy is coming over next week to remove the cover for $150 (which seems like an awful lot to take off a cover, but what do I know?).

Then we'll see where to go from there.

Anyone know what is normal to expect the water to look like? Should we be able to see the bottom of the pool, or is it normal for the water to be completely dark?

Thanks!
 
$150 isn't too bad if he shows you how to operate the pumps etc...

There's nothing bad about a cartridge filter. All three filter types have their pros and cons.

It's normal for your pool to be dark/cloudy when opening, especially if you're opening this late in the season.
 
Drum roll......... he didn't show up. :hammer:

No idea if he will ever show up, so I guess we're still absolutely no closer to getting it cleaned up and meanwhile frog song continues to fill our nights (all night, every night and it's LOUD).
I was really hoping to have this sorted before the baby arrives, but I am seriously losing hope. :(
 
:wave: I'm from Bucks County! Langhorne to be exact. I now live in South Jersey but have tons of family in Bucks county and two aunts currently in New Hope, both happen to have pools. The one aunt and uncle are total do-it-yourselfers so they may not know a good pool guy, but I can ask them. The other aunt I'm almost certain hires everything out, so I'm sure they have a pool guy they use. If you want I can try and get contact information. Other than that listen to what the people on this site tell you. They really are awesome and helpful. The pool will be beautiful before you know it.
 

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Hi! :wave:
I would love any recommendations. Of course this guy was a recommendation too..... as was the other guy who never called back.
:?
People like unlimited budgets around here. If you don't have one, they tend to disappear. lol.

Feeling very overwhelmed by the whole house today - we have 2 weeks until our due date, the house is a building site and nothing they promised would be done this week is done. The pool guy not showing up was just the cherry on top of a stressful week.

I'm sure things will look better tomorrow!
 
I just texted my aunt, she told me Mountain Lake Pools in Doylestown is the "go to" in NH. Not sure if she has personally used them since they do most of the work themselves but they have been in NH for about 18 years and I'm guessing they have been around long enough to hear good or bad. Was this one of the one's you called?
 
Yeah, basically as soon as I ask if there's a less expensive alternative to emptying and refilling the pool, that's the end of it - never hear from anyone again. But $2500 + however much it costs to repair/ replace 4 pumps sounds really tough to swallow right now.

I've been reading the forum but without knowing what we have it's very tough and I hate feeling so uninformed.
 
That sucks. :rant: I'm not sure how people can tell you that you need to drain and refill a pool without looking at it. I'd keep reading on here, it may look like foreign language at first but you will start to understand the terms the longer you are here. I've see some really nasty pools clear on this site with the advice of the people here. Many of us are really clueless when we first find the site.
 

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