Cleaning a REALLY dirty pool Help Ideas?

[blakeusa]

Helping a friend open a really dirty pool - any suggesting about getting rid of debris, muck, dirt etc

20 x 40 vinal liner pool has not been opened for 3 years as home was in foreclosure.

Has sand filter and I now have all plumbing working.

Was planning on using a separate pump and filtering through a pond type box to start. Have already shocked and other numbers are OK

JUST FULL OF MUCK AND algae.

 

[zea3]

Get a couple of good leaf rakes and keep scooping out as much solid debris as possible, then vacuum to waste. You will need to keep the pool at shock level until you pass the overnight test.

 

[Swampwoman]

Blake, I went through the heavy-debris phenom of a foreclosue pool. Leaf rakes, a leaf gulper that attaches to a garden hose, wheelbarrow and dumping area are all essential tools, plus as much labor as you can find.

A trash pump might help (we were too afraid of water table/well capacity to do so in our case -- also vinyl, so ya gotta keep up).

Once all the leaves/heavy material is gone and you're not working blind (through filtering, you will finally see bottom) a few slow, careful vacuum-to-waste sessions will be in order. In our case it took more than one.

You will likely also want to keep the bottom drain mostly closed while filtering to avoid clogging problems. Do not try to vacuum blind -- we found all kinds of things like cell phone batteries, cleaning accessories, stones, bark etc. That would have clogged and possibly even ruined our lines.

In my case, I ended up filtering and shocking for about 12 days.

If you want to see pics to encourage your friend, visit my initial thread here foreclosure-swamp-and-errant-pool-service-t43119.html

Tell your pal he's lucky to have you and that there is a beautiful pool waiting to happen ... Keeping up hope is what helps ya keep raking the muck!

 

[topher]

i did a 4 year pool with no cover.. IK drained most of it.. left about 3-4" of water.. took snow shoveld (plastic) and a pile of buckets.,.. filled buckets and dumped the mud in the garden... then sucked up what was left with a shop vac. filled it up.. and was good to go! however.. my liner is stained around the edges... should of done an AA treatment when I had the water out..

 

[Swampwoman]

Topher, was that an above-ground pool?

Can't do that with an in-ground vinyl -- liner will float...even IF the walls don't cave in. Just FYI.

 

[topher]

yes it was an AGP.

 

[blakeusa]

Good ideas - thanks.

Will try to manually get all out and shock and plan on maintaining for about 2 weeks.

Yea he already had a pool company out and for $200 and 15 minutes pressure tested his lines and said all was OK.

After I rebuilt his pump (as it was left outside), fixed his filter and rest of his pool equipment --- we clearly have one line
that is leaking. I can isolate it via a plug and guess what - no leak or water drop. I told him I will start cleaning then
will properly pressure test that one line - and let it sit for at least 24 hours. I plan on video taping with my Iphone and
having him show it to the pool company that took his $200.