Opening with water on the cover

[SBK]

HI guys. Not trying to thread jack this post so please excuse. If you have the slightest fear of thread jacking it is always better to start a new topic, rather than tacking onto some existing topic. Starting a new topic is easy and prevents answers to your questions from getting mixed together with answers to the original posters questions. Split into a new topic. JasonLion

My IG was closed by the PB via the contract. Opening it up is up to me but they will charge $200 to open it up. I called and they will do a partial opening for $100 if I remove the cover etc.
Here's my concern: There was literally hundreds of gallons on the cover which was full of debris and leaves. I have pumped most of the water off and gotten about 95% of the leaves/debris out. I wanted to sneak a peak under the cover to see how clean it was.
WHOA......the steps were green/brown and just simply nasty. Around the only return I could see it looked almost stained. Mind yoyu, my pool is about 7 mos old so I was really disappointed in how the pool looked. My neighbor suggested that I start filling the pool up for a variety of reasons one of them being that it will raise the tarp up and is easier to clean the debris out. So, I started filling it up and went about my merry way. I returned about an hour later to be really surprised that there was more water on top of the tarp than should be; especially after I just pumped gallons of it off. I am thinking I have a hole in the tarp/cover which 1) let the fresh water get on top of the tarp after starting to fill it up today and 2) this is where all the "nastiness" came from over the Winter season. Tarp is brand new. Anyone ever seen this before ?
Also, is it normal to lose alot of water in the winter season? I am hoping it is due to evaporation as I know when the PB closed the pool, we did not pump out as much water as it will take to get it back up to the skimmers. At this point I am very concernend and depressed as I just dropped down $33K only to be this depressed 7 mos later. The hole in the cover/tarp doesn't bother me as much as how dirty the pool is and that I might possibly have a leak.
Again, not trying to hijack the thread. Any suggestions ?

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Somebody was quick to fix your hijack! LOL I go to post an answer to you and POOF, your post was gone! Those pesky mods.....

My water dropped this year too....partly from evaporation but also from the weight of the water on top of the cover, pushing the water under up the sides and out the top rails. Bizzarre, happened once before and we thought we had a leak too...but we didn't. Only way to tell is to fill it up and keep track of water loss, if any.

I also had a tarp cover rip once, letting the ickies in. Didn't notice it until it was too late.

So, you were pumping off the water, and you had an opening in the tarp...it is possible you were pumping out your pool water too, till the level dropped so low it was no longer pool water, just cover water. Does that make sense? Then when you raised the pool level back up, again, it started to fill the cover through the hole.... anyway, again the only way to tell is fill it up and track "normal" water loss.

It will clear up. Don't let it get you down. Wouldn't this be covered under some kind of warranty for their workmanship? Maybe they did something wrong at closing? I'd give them a call if you haven't already....

Let us know if you need any help on it when you get the cover off.

 

[SBK]

frustratedpoolmom,
thank-you so much for the quick reply. I think you have made it possible for me to get some sleep tonight... :-D
What you said makes total sense. I imagine somewhere over the winter, the tarp developed a hole. I am going to call the PB tomorrow to schedule my partial opening and discuss my situation with them. I highly dowbt they will cover this but I guess it can't hurt to ask. Here in s'west OH, they are calling for snow tomorrow or Tuesday. It was 72 here today and mostly sunny. It is thunderstrm outside at the moment.
So much for trying to get a jump on the pool opening early...
thx again.

 

[MJCP]

Do not get discouraged! You're not the only one and there is life after problems with a cover.

I too have had similar problems to yours - and many more.
Last year I was certain I was draining the whole pool not just the top of the cover. When I finally decided to take the cover off there was still a "LITTLE BIT" of water on top, well a little bit of water once pooled at one end of the cover is a heck of a lot more than what my wife and I could lift, so the dirtiest muckiest gallons all went into the pool - ARRGGHHH! But Don't be discouraged, cause as bad as it was using the BBB method the pool was fine in time for an early opening for my daughters May graduation party.

For a hundred bucks I would pay the pool person more to do the full opening as this is your first time. Watch them and learn the right way to get the cover off. You may learn to do it yourself next time, but if you try doing it wrong there's no turning back and the muck will all be in the pool (Get all the leaves out before they come).

Opening the pool is the best time to start with BBB so you will need to decide now wether to insist they follow BBB when opening your pool, or going with the method they will recommend (Lots more money and problems in the long run) BUt then if it is a new pool you may need to rely on them for warranty stuff and I don't recommend doing anything that will allow them to get out of the warranty.

Keep coming to this site with any questions - This will be my 3rd yr on this site and it is the only one I use, everyone here is very helpfull