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Snake is a good idea, but might be tough to get past a tee fitting if there is one. You could also plug one of the potential returns, put a drain king or similar bladder type clog cleaner in the other one, and see if water comes out of the pipe at the pad. Then switch the plug and drain king...

Looks like hydrostatic relief valves/plugs to me. If you have a high water table, draining your pool can result in the pool shell literally being pushed up out of the ground by the surrounding water pressure. In such cases, hydrostatic relief valves are put into the shell, which allow water...

To add to the "stupid question", since the line between the skimmer and pump obviously is allowing at least some flow through, what makes you sure it's a restriction/clog on the intake side rather than the output side? Also, a picture of your equipment pad plumbing might help others to diagnose...

It may or may not be plumbed, and there may be another one elsewhere, but the hole in your autofill pot (to the left of the float in your picture) is designed to be used as an overflow. You should be able to stick something in that hole to see if it's been plugged/capped or if it's plumbed for...

I'm not sure, but I'm planning on putting them in as part of my remodel. Likely not necessary, but I think it will look nice, and have some degree of functionality as well. We're doing a darker pebble, and I'm searching for small tiles that will contrast it nicely. Have been looking at the glass...

It allows the coping/decking to move independently from the pool walls. Without it, the waterline tiles could crack/break from any slight settling/movement of the decking. Sometimes a small gap filled with silicone or another flexible sealant is used rather than the plastic. My waterline tiles...

Actuators are the motors that turn the valves when they receive power from the controller. You need an actuator for every valve you want to control. Load center is another way of saying electrical panel, breaker box, etc. The enclosures that house many pool automation systems act as a...

I put in a single 2" pipe before backfilling. More pipes might have been a good idea. Having struggled with the rebar loops and pouring concrete through the small gaps in the deck, and then reading that, were I to do it over I'd cut more of the deck out and put an expansion joint between the...

The pictures looked like concrete pavers rather than flagstone to me, so I was confused. Then a google search for "3 piece random heritage pavers" tells me that they're concrete pavers made by a company called "Flagstone Pavers". Talk about a confusing business name...

The grade at the equipment pad is about 22" lower than the pool decking on the other side of the wall. I wanted to avoid drilling through the wall, so decided to take the same route under the footer. Had I known there were so many roots, and the footer was so deep, I may have opted for something...

A little update. Progress is slow but sure. Digging the trench for the new skimmer plumbing proved to be the most difficult task yet. Had to be careful not to damage the return line plumbing, the pipes all ended up being over 3 ft deep to get under the footer for the wall around the pool, and...

Yep, there are more than one of those guys around here. Some keep them natural steel and let them rust, others use the day-glow paint. I prefer the rusty ones, but my SIL bought us a day-glow 6 ft tall flower that we put in our garden.

Went with a weaker M20 mix for the equipment slab, 1:3:1.5, and a stronger M30 mix (1:1.5:0.75) around the skimmer. Planning to use M20 for the footer and either M25 or M30 for the Baja shelf and patching the holes I cut in the decking. Placement will be a combination of elbow grease and...

Was thinking about that. I exposed some rebar on the opposite side of the pool from the light, when tapping into plumbing for the sheer descent, so I could test continuity between that and the light niche and the bond wire. I'll attach a photo hint on the slab. You can probably guess how the...

Thanks all. Yes, there's a 10 ga bonding wire going to the equipment pad. I just poured a new equipment pad yesterday, and tied the existing bonding wire to the rebar in the new pad, along with the new 6 ga wire I ran from the brass light conduit. I sanded the corrosion off of a section of the...

That's a good idea, I'll look into it. Around here they're hesitant to get involved unless there's a permit for work or a complaint filed about non-permitted work being done, and what I'm doing doesn't require a permit here, so it might be a bit of a challenge. Hard to say when the pool went...

During my pool remodel I uncovered what I'm fairly certain is a bonding wire, which was hiding in the dirt next to the equipment pad (which was tiny and broken into pieces). The problem is that it's only 10 ga wire, instead of the standard 8 ga. While cutting a portion of the deck out for a...

I'm so sorry to hear about all of these issues. The fact that the concrete was mixed for 3.5 hrs before even arriving at site would really concern me, and may have something to do with the weak sections you're seeing in the shell. With my job I design and supervise the installation of a lot of...

You might try using a garden hose with an appropriately sized clog cleaning bladder. Something along the lines of this...