Pool rehab, need advice

[ntobik]

Hi,

First time poster here, have been lurking for about six months. We purchased a house in Pittsburgh last summer. The house came with a pool, it wasn't something we sought out, but my wife had one growing up, liked it and so now we have a pool. We have three boys so it should be well used.

The pool has been neglected. It's a cement in-ground pool with a vinyl liner. Neighbors say it was installed in the 1980s. At some point the plumbing started to leak, and the former owner of the house didn't want to spend the money to fix it. The solution was to run two pipes across the top of the cement, one for suction one for return. It was a poor solution.

I want to get this rehabbed. Pictures are below. Here's what I want to do.

1) Replace the liner
2) Tear out all the concrete on where the pool and fence are and then along the house.
3) Get the plumbing fixed
4) Re-concrete over the areas it was removed, install a simple channel drain to tie into a downspout (it's at the corner there already)
5) Relocate the pad to the other side of the fence and get it cleaned up

I've talked to almost everyone in Pittsburgh who does pools and most either do pieces of the project, but only one will do the entire thing. I want to run the quote by for sanity and see if I'm missing anything.



Seems like I'm limited to pictures on this post. I'll post followups with more pictures.

In terms of quotes:
~$4k for a new liner and liner holder
~$9000 for moving the pad, re plumbing everything, new concrete along the fence and house

A back of the envelope for this seems fairly reasonable, but I wanted to double check with the pool experts.

 

[kimkats]

What fun! Very "interesting" way they "fixed" the leak! SCARY! Is there anything inside the house "fixed" like that????

I have not idea on the pricing but sure do want to see more! Use photo bucket or such to add more pics. EVEN better would be to become a site supporter to help us keep the lights on. It allows you more pictures AND a discount on the test kit!

Kim

 

[smforte]

Welcome ntobik.....can't wait to watch your Reno......keep us updated!

 

[Divin Dave]

Hi and welcome to TFP.
Considering all thats going to be done with new liner and track, demo of the old deck, new plumbing and new deck... that price dont sound all that bad to me as long as all of the rubbish is hauled off.

Of course Im basing my assessment on what I might expect to pay locally in small town Texas for comparable work. Not sure how that might compare to Pittsburgh though.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I want to see more pics!!

Welcome to TFP

 

[ntobik]

Thanks for all the replies.

A few more details and more pictures.

Whoever built this spent a lot of money to get it built. They put in a really expensive wall around the pool and did a nice job. The former owner was a lawyer who as neighbors claim "couldn't hammer in a nail." He hired someone to do everything. The interior of the house is in great shape, it was renovated fairly recently. The outside is a bit different. In the 20 years he lived there he never trimmed the landscaping or did any outside maintenance. I know he hired a pool company to open, close and maintain the pool. He and his wife divorced and I think the pool was dormant for a few years.

It's green because someone through it would be a great idea to plant evergreen trees right next to the deep end. When the trees were small it might have looked good, but they're towering now. They drop needles continuously. The bottom of the pool is coated with needles. The trees need to come out.

Here is another view of the length of the pool. Note that wall, it's in great shape in the largest portion. There is a small section that needs to be restacked, but it's not much of a problem.



Here is the pool from the other side by where the equipment currently is. The vegetation behind is is partially down. There is a Sport Court hiding up there.



From where a diving board could be. Note how close the house is to the pool. If we do get a diving board I told my wife the dining room windows need to stay closed unless we want to be mopping the floor with pool water. The pool is really smashed in. The plumbing runs under the concrete to the left of the pool in the below picture. This is going to be removed. There is a jet on the left side, and then on that back wall on the right side. My thought was when re-pouring concrete to pour up to the house and put in a channel drain. That way we don't need to keep weeding the hideous white rock and it will also keep water from resting against the foundation after it rains.



Here is the current equipment mess. The pump is new. One condition of the sale was the pool needed to be opened, the pump didn't work so he had to purchase a new one to get the thing opened. It's a Hayward something, I'd have to go outside to get the model. The sand filter works fine but needs new sand. The heater is a big question mark. Water flows through it, there are no leaks, but it doesn't fire up. I should say in the single time I tried to get it running I couldn't get it fired up. We might need to purchase a new one.

The new pad would move to the other side of the fence in this picture. We'd consolidate it and put a fence around it. That would free up a lot of room on the side of the house for tables.



And another view.



A few other odds and ends. When they built this someone ran a pipe from the filter to the street as a way to backwash the pool. The piping had been cut and I believe it's illegal in my area to backwash into the street. Oddly enough the downspout on the back of the house appears to be connected to the city sewer, which is potentially also illegal but somehow it passed the plumbing test. Regardless I'm thinking about putting in some sort of outlet so we could backwash straight into the sewer and not into the yard.

There is also a drain at the bottom of the pool, plumbing is in place but it's unknown if it works or not. Are these things important? If the plumbing is fine I'd keep it, but I'm not sure if they have much utility. I have a small pump I used to lower the water level for the winter.

Glad to hear the prices at least sound reasonable. I had one guy come out who said it'd be $40k or more. The more he talked the higher the price. Not sure if he was a scammer or what, but some locals with pools have said to never deal with his company.

Hoping to get this thing completed and running in the spring! My wife is the landscaper, she's itching to get to work.

 

[kimkats]

You do have your work cut out for you BUT it is all doable with a chainsaw and hard work! LOL

That wall is nicely done. I could see where some of the bricks were not happy but I bet you could fix that easy.

The main thing is to get quotes AND check their work on other pools and yards! Anyone can say anything. That does not make it true. The proof is in the product. Ask if you can see some of their past work. Talk to the people they did work for. "Would you use them again?" See where it goes.

Kim

 

[borjis]

Ya definitely get multiple quotes and research the pool companies. It's quite common to
have many dud companies but one or two gems you'll want to do business with.

Having just had a liner replacement your quote for 4k sounds like a good maximum estimate.

If they have to custom measure for a new liner it will be somewhere near that figure.
If they find a serial number on the old liner, it "should" end up costing less (possibly up to 1k off) as the dimensions/mfg
should just be able to make you a new one from that info.

The heater might be ok. Could just be spider webs or debris keeping it from firing. Is it shiny metal
and clean looking electronics and wiring inside? If so you might only need a repair person to do
some maintenance.

Sand usually never has to be replaced, I would do a deep clean of the sand filter first.
Most likely thats all it needs.

You mentioned a "sport court" is it yours? (pretty cool if so!)

Keep us updated with photos as you progress....That pools going to be awesome when its done.

 

[Brett_N]

Home Depot rents concrete saws and sanders

As for the concrete - I wouldn't rip ALL of it out. It's concrete. It can be resurfaced, patched and painted or stained. Just cut out the section where the plumbing needs to go and and refill that section. Some intense labor with a concrete saw and grinder to get some of the other broken patches out, and blamo - and afternoon with a cement mixer and you're good to go. Concrete's pretty simple and forgiving - and you can always knock it out and try again.

As for a diving board, I'd recommend skipping it. Insurance companies frown on them (I wouldn't even tell the insurnce company that you have a deep pool!)

 

[ntobik]

We went with the builder I had mentioned at the beginning of the thread. I really liked his vision compared to everyone else we talked to. He could also do everything, other builders recommended we sub concrete work to our own contractors. I didn't want to manage a project.

The rehab is well underway. I have taken a bunch of pictures of the progress.

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[ntobik]

I'm glad we re-plumbed the entire pool. What was underground was a mess, pipes decorated, joints falling apart and brittle plastic.

We put in a new skimmer as well. Figured we might as well while everything is opened. The old one was rumored to be leaking and was encased in 3ft of cement. I didn't envy the guys breaking that out.

Pool being drained, it had years of neglect accumulating under that green water.

Ready to pump the concrete into the back yard.

Installing a new fence.

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[ntobik]

The concrete turned out very nicely. These guys had incredible attention to detail. I had them out in a science drain as well. No more ugly rocks and water sitting against the foundation.

"Testing" the pool with the two older boys.

Fence progress

Concrete work

New steps into the pool. Note the extremely small shallow end.

Drying cement with drain visible.

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[ntobik]

Completed fencing

Ready for a liner.

New equipment pad with cleaned up plumbing.

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[ntobik]

The Sport Court...yes it's ours. The former owner was obsessed with basketball, we are the beneficiaries of that obsession. I think the court and pool scared some buyers away from this place. Too much to maintain.

Next step is to take out the trees along the fence as well as most of the overgrowth along the wall. My wife has been going nuts with the chainsaw on the overgrowth. Trees are scheduled to be removed this weekend if the weather holds.

I had the PB restack the falling back wall. It was $500, which is cheap considering the work. They back filled everything and it should be good for years.


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[ntobik]

I cleaned out the sand filter as well. I'm glad I did. It was filled with pine needles and algae. We're going to put new sand in there and we should have clear water!

I guess my next question is how do I go about getting the chemistry setup with a fresh fill?

I am going to get a test kit, and we'll be filling with city water. Do I need to buy anything besides bleach? Stabilizer or anything?


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[kimkats]

What a bunch of good work! LOVE the pictures of the boys! CUTE!

Until you can test your fill water do not buy anything other that bleach and CYA (stablizer) for right now.

Kim