Hello from the Triangle, North Carolina (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill),
We built a custom house that was completed in July of 2022 which included a 20' x 40' Gunite pool (I'll post some pics below). So we have had about 1 1/2 seasons of pool fun. The sub-contractor that my builder used for the pool has a service arm that initially provided some maintenance free-of-charge, but it was the bare minimum. During the 2nd summer (last year) I thanked him for the free service that he had been providing, and I asked him if he could provide me a quote for on-going service. He never got back to me. Whenever I had a problem I had to call him several times for any help. Eventually he stopped responding to me (I wonder how his business can survive, but I've found this to be the norm since Covid). So, the maintenance fell on me. I tried to learn as quickly as I could the basics of pool maintenance to try to keep up our pool. I also had a few guys come in to provide service, but none of them seemed too keen on providing service for a salt water pool.
So this season (Summer '24) I've decided that I would try to maintain the pool myself. It actually looks like a lot of fun, if I can find the time. The few things that I have done thus far have been:
Below are a few oics.
We built a custom house that was completed in July of 2022 which included a 20' x 40' Gunite pool (I'll post some pics below). So we have had about 1 1/2 seasons of pool fun. The sub-contractor that my builder used for the pool has a service arm that initially provided some maintenance free-of-charge, but it was the bare minimum. During the 2nd summer (last year) I thanked him for the free service that he had been providing, and I asked him if he could provide me a quote for on-going service. He never got back to me. Whenever I had a problem I had to call him several times for any help. Eventually he stopped responding to me (I wonder how his business can survive, but I've found this to be the norm since Covid). So, the maintenance fell on me. I tried to learn as quickly as I could the basics of pool maintenance to try to keep up our pool. I also had a few guys come in to provide service, but none of them seemed too keen on providing service for a salt water pool.
So this season (Summer '24) I've decided that I would try to maintain the pool myself. It actually looks like a lot of fun, if I can find the time. The few things that I have done thus far have been:
- Maintaining the salt level and adding when needed
- Making sure the chlorine is an acceptable level
- Maintaining the PH level and adding muriatic acid when needed
- Manually brushing the walls and floors
- Backwashing when needed (and replacing the DE)
- Performing chemical tests with a Taylor K-2006-Salt
- Removing the saltcell from the SWC, inspecting it, and washing off the crystal build-up with muriatic acid (if needed). One of the guys that did some maintenance for me did this. The cell was pretty caked with crystals, and I tried to watch closely what he was doing, but I would still like a little advice on the whole process.
- Opening the filter, removing the filter blades, hosing them down, re-building the filter, and replacing the DE.
- I also need to come up with a good schedule to run my filter, spa spillover, and floor system, and what % to set my SWC at. The original service guy (builder) has my filter set to run from 7am to 9pm daily, the floor system runs for 2 hours each morning, and the SWC set to 100%. The filter also runs in spa mode for an hour each morning and evening with the SWC set at 10%.
Below are a few oics.
