closing of swamp

[rlefig]

Good morning, this site is great! I do a lot of reading, not much posting, yet. Being in MA when we closed on the house in late august I did not bother "opening" up the pool. It is a gunite inground built in the 1970's that has not been opened in 2 -> 4 years. The pool is a swamp and has a very brittle tarp covering it. There are leaves and debris under the tarp and on top of tarp. I have been skimming out the leaves and debris on top of tarp trying to remove the weight. Now for the questions.

1. The pool holds waterup to where it should (halfway up decorative tile). I pumped some of the water out to get to more leaves and notice none of the jets were plugged and I dont think the skimmer baskets are. Should I plug them? What is the best way to make sure water is out of them?

2. the tarp, should I just leave this thing on till spring or take it off and continue scooping leaves or does it matter at all?

thanks

rob

 

[zea3]

If you get hard freezes where you live you should drain below the skimmer and returns, blow the water out of the lines and plug them. Also drain the water out of the filter and pump. As far as cleaning the pool goes I would just keep everything covered and wait until spring.