Purchasing a home...pool inspection in winter??

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I agree with others here, a pool inspection in the depths of winter will yield little information of value.

You can certainly pull a cover back on a nice day and take a look. There would be no harm in that. A quick feel of the surface should tell you vinyl or plaster. You'll see what kind of water is in there.

duraleigh said:
Perhaps you can agree on an escrow amount to ensure the satisfactory opening and inspection of the pool.

Since it's THE house you want, make your best deal and see what happens this Spring.
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^^^^^ +1

If you have to have the home, then negotiating a few thousand dollars in escrow would be a great idea and quantifies/limits any exposure on the part of the seller....assuming the seller would be amenable to it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk,16k gal SWG pool (All Pentair), QuadDE100 Filter, Taylor K-2006
 
Since you can not verify that the pool is sound and operational, price your offer as if the house did not have a pool. Pool inspectors are a joke. We bought a house with a pool last September. Paid for a pool inspection and specifically asked for the projected life of the plaster and condition of the pool equipment. Crummy report. Turns out that this guy cleans pools.. Unfortunately, we were not able to be present and this is the guy the realtor recommended. Buyer beware!

Done with my rant.
 
Check with your mortgage lender before insisting on an escrow account. Many lenders these days will not allow a closing to move forward it there is anything wrong with a home that requires an escrow account to be set up.\

Depending on how motivated the seller is you may reduce the price assuming repairs will be necessary. Just do not allow there to be "problems" in any document the lender is going to get.
 
I can tell ya this...3 yrs ago I jumped into the deep end of buying a foreclosure with a pool...everything was as is! I could see the pool...which was a tad green and turned the pump on but..... I had no idea if everything actually worked or if the liner had a leak etc. I was mighty mighty lucky since everything did work....would I do it again? No I would have asked for allowances for the possibility of a new liner or equipment.
 
I am not an expert on winterizing pools (we don't do it here), but I can tell you that if it was winterized the water level should have been drained down below the returns and they should be capped off to keep water out of the plumbing. If water did get in the plumbing and not pool antifreeze then you may have lots of broken underground plumbing lines. Worst case with the pool is you will be looking at a near complete rebuild, with luck it will not be anywhere near that bad, but I think it is important going into things knowing a worst case. Without details on the pool, size, options, etc. it is hard to say how much that would be, and pool construction cost varies considerably around the country, in my area a basic rectangular in ground vinyl liner pool starts around $26,000+ permits, and electrical for a 16x32 with no bells and whistles, minimal decking, I suspect it is higher in NJ.
 
Isaac-1 said:
I am not an expert on winterizing pools (we don't do it here), but I can tell you that if it was winterized the water level should have been drained down below the returns and they should be capped off to keep water out of the plumbing. If water did get in the plumbing and not pool antifreeze then you may have lots of broken underground plumbing lines.
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I am hopeful...the owners had the pool for a long time and while it might need a liner if it's a vinyl pool, I believe they winterized it every year. I'm hoping that my worst case is liner replacement, new filter and new pump. Expensive, but if I can get the seller to give some money to escrow I'd be happy. A little worried about the lender issue mentioned by a previous poster. I'm getting a pool inspector who claims they can check the pool in the winter. I'm wondering if he will chip out the ice and test it?
 
I would make sure to be there while they are and take notes as well as lots of pictures to share with us.

We want to help you get and keep the pool working. With the sheer number of people here SOMEONE can help or have done it before.

Fingers crossed for you!

Kim
 
I am so on the same page with you! I plan to be at EVERY inspection with a clipboard, snapping pics left and right. And I hope to get the mini tutorial from the inspector on how to work the pool. I spoke to the pool inspection company, and they think my pool is likely cement (from looking at the pics online of the covered pool) and that it was most likely winterized before the safety cover was placed. Sending the seller my list of questions about the pool today, but my inspection isn't until late next week. The pool inspection folks think that whoever closed the pool should open it. Based on this site and some of the stories of bad work/advice I'm not so sure about that.
 
Poolmor said:
I am so on the same page with you! I plan to be at EVERY inspection with a clipboard, snapping pics left and right. And I hope to get the mini tutorial from the inspector on how to work the pool. I spoke to the pool inspection company, and they think my pool is likely cement (from looking at the pics online of the covered pool) and that it was most likely winterized before the safety cover was placed. Sending the seller my list of questions about the pool today, but my inspection isn't until late next week. The pool inspection folks think that whoever closed the pool should open it. Based on this site and some of the stories of bad work/advice I'm not so sure about that.
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Sometimes when professional companies close a pool, they actually take all of the disconnected equipment (filters and pump) with them for winter storage if the homeowner does not have storage on site. So, if anything is missing, check with the seller to see if the closing company stored anything for them. In any event, unless the pool equipment is in an enclosure, the pumps and filter might not be attached and could be stored anywhere (garage, attic, shed, etc).

Even if the surface is plaster, years of sitting dormant can cause damage. Specifically, the water can become corrosive towards plaster if the pH drops too low and you can actually get rough, etched plaster because of it. There's also the possibility of organic stains (some of which can removed by chlorination, other not), metallic staining and calcium scale. Any water in the pool could be a green mess as well. Often times, old water like that becomes stagnant and anaerobic bacteria flourishes. Anaerobic conditions are bad because that typically generates ammonia and hydrogen sulfide by products. So the water in that pool is likely not worth trying to rehabilitate. You would be well-advised to have a plaster specialist give you an opinion on the surface as the pool might require a drain and acid wash to clean up the surface.

Just some thoughts, see what the inspector comes up with.
 

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Matt, will the TF 100 testing kit tell me any of what you just mentioned? The filter and pump are on site and old. I don't have any model numbers or pics. Are you SUPPOSED to put your pump and filter indoors during freezing winter weather?!? I am quite sure this equipment has been outdoors forever.
 
Poolmor said:
Matt, will the TF 100 testing kit tell me any of what you just mentioned? The filter and pump are on site and old. I don't have any model numbers or pics. Are you SUPPOSED to put your pump and filter indoors during freezing winter weather?!? I am quite sure this equipment has been outdoors forever.
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The TF-100 will test for chlorine, pH, alkalinity (TA), calcium hardness (CH) and cyanuric acid (CYA or stabilizer) levels. It does not test for metals, ammonia or any contaminants. Pool stores can sometimes (if they're good and they are usually not) test for metals. Ammonia is very difficult to test for as the retail kits are usually meant for ponds and fish tanks where you need to determine low levels of ammonia. If you know the pH, TA and CH of the stagnant water in the pool, we can calculate the calcite saturation index (CSI) of the water to see if it is corrosive to plaster. But even knowing the CSI value is not necessarily a determination that plaster damage will occur, only that it is a possibility.

Sorry for the fire-hose course on pool chemistry (all of this must sound like i'm speaking Greek) but we're definitely in uncharted territory here as there is no telling what you will find when you pull back the cover.....It would be grand though if you did and the water was totally blue and clear. IN that case, I would just hang up my hat and go home....
 
Oh, and Yes, where you live in Jersey it's a good idea to remove pool equipment and take it indoors for the winter. Technically speaking, if the pool is closed properly, the equipment should be fine being outdoors, but bringing it in and storing it means that you're saving it from constantly being battered by the elements. Some people don't like to do it, especially if the plumbing was done in such a way (straight glue joints) so as to make it difficult to remove anything or if the equipment is heavy. But it is a good idea to pull what you can inside. A sand filter, for instance, would be really hard to take in (hundreds of pounds of sand inside it) but a cartridge filter would be easy. A pool pump, if connected with quick disconnect unions, could be brought inside but one that is straight glues to the piping would be impossible without redoing the connections.
 
Here are my thoughts - most of which are not covered above - and I won't duplicate any advice above...

Your pool in NJ won't be frozen. We are in MD and have no ice on ours. Unless swamps freeze at a higher temperature. There might be a skim but that's it. You will be able to remove the cover (unless it has a large volume of debris on top of it making it too heavy), easiest with a proper tool for a spring tension cover (google Loop Loc cover tool) which you can make easily out of of piece of pipe with a hacksaw. You don't want to pop a corner if there is a load of stuff on it because you may not get it hooked back in.

The other comment is that pools in the NE are EXPENSIVE relative to many other places (certainly many parts of TX and FL). So if you actually want a pool (it's on your must have list) then buying a house with a pool is a huge built-in value proposition, which way offsets even $10K+ in repair costs (this could easily be $20K++ if you need deck repairs/replacement or retaining walls that have failed (there does exist a disaster potential of course)). Houses with pools in this region, especially those in questionable condition, don't sell for any/much more than a house without a pool. In fact they are often seen as something that can decrease a houses value (based on the fact that only a small % of buyers want to deal with it for a short season). Now if you do want a pool, that's where it works in your favor. Consider that a new pool of decent size will range from $25K (bare bones vinyl with minimal additions) to easily $100K all in (don't ask me how I know). Then you have to look at prices of similar houses without pools - and figure that you'd put $X into it for a new pool (more than you think I guarantee) and then compare apples to apples. I hope I didn't make that too confusing. The absolute cheapest way to get a pool up here is to buy a house with one, so much in fact, that the price differential will cover much/all of your repair costs. I'm not saying to go in blind, but just to consider this idea. I will say that one very quick assessment that you can make is the following - if its a) a concrete pool and b) full mostly to the top, then you can be pretty assured the shell isn't cracked - which would be your biggest, large scale concern.

It is very different in the south, where every third house has a pool, and there is often little reason to buy a house with a pool that can't be evaluated.
 
Thanks for that perspective Bmoreswim. The pool inspector gave us similar huge numbers for getting a pool built and we were astounded. I took pics today of the equipment and made discoveries. The pool is oblong and narrows to about 14 feet in the middle and is around 16.5 at the wide ends. It is 36 feet long, and we are guessing that it's 4-8 feet deep (there's a diving board). There's a Hayward pump, model C48L2N134B1. The filter is sand and the markings are illegible..all I can say is that it's a Triton high rate sand filter. And we see a heater as well, a Teledyne Lars series 2 Model ESG. Lastly, Bmoreswim was right on the money....there's a few holes in the cover and the water is NOT FROZEN.
 
Poolmor, I bought a foreclosure with a pool up here in Michigan. I was very fortunate that although a swamp, we otherwise have not had to do a thing for 5 years ;) But its a crapshoot.

Bmore made some excellent points re: how to look at the situation. If the owners haven't operated the pool in several years, they'd not likely be comfortable warranting its operation but perhaps would take a slight reduction for this unknown.

In addition, you have an opportunity that I didn't, which is why I'm posting. Ask the owners' agent to simply supply all the information about the pool's build, year, builder name and equipment now, and ask that any manuals, receipts etc. be given to you on closing. That info will help you plan for upgrades/replacements etc. down the road, but also look into the history of the pool.

I eventually got some of that info by tracking down the original owner, but that was no small feat ;) But taking to the original builder did help us project the likelihood of function and what kind of worst-case costs we might be looking at for repairs, that together with equipment inspection helped us weigh our options. We were in a competitive bid situation and foreclosures are sold as-is.

Also, re home warranty...ours will and did cover anything that had been inspected as "functional" at close, but its like pulling teeth and you're stuck with whoever the warrantor uses for repairs...we had an issue with the boiler.

After that experience, I will say that if the inspector opens the pool to test the equipment, then closes it again, technically, you'd be covered, but that you might just prefer to avoid the hassle and use your own vendors from proceeds of an adjusted sale price than to fool with home warranties. I've never bothered with them again ;)
 
imgur.com also works for uploading photos for free then posting here in the forums

I was in the same boat as you, though I had a failed liner at my new house.

It was a nerve racking experience to say the least, as you never know how bad it is, but
the previous owner promised me everything was fine equipment and plumbing wise. Turns out her word was good and all I needed
was a new liner installed and a pump seal replaced.
 
You can also use Tapatalk app on iPhone(and I assume android) to post pictures. I find it easy to take pictures with phone and then post them with Tapatalk. If you have ever sent a picture in a text message, you will easily pick up on what to do in Tapatalk


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

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