Hello everyone!
Been lurking for about half a week, pouring all the information on this forum into my head and trying to make sense of it all. It honestly isn't as bad as I thought it would be! You guys make things easy to understand.
Caution, big post ahead, just an fyi.
Anyways, just started renting a home with 2 other guys South of SDSU that has a pool. We are all out of school, ages 25-28. We are very excited to live in a place with a pool, which definitely caught our eye during our first walk through of the place. Your probably wondering, "Your RENTING a place with a pool?" and the answer is yes. Super random for us to do this here in SD, and I thought it would be fun. February 9th was our first day here. I'm very much a DIY personality with a passion for caring and maintaining the place you live in, so I can't help but want to care for the big basin of water that sits in our backyard. Part of this post, is going to be an inquiry of "is it worth it" to help keep things on track on my end.
First up, the pool.
I've never owned/rented a house with a pool, so I had no idea of what the heck was what. After 2 days of tinkering around, I'm familiar with the entire system (pump, filter, solar setup, etc). As you can tell from the signature, it's a tiny pool. As far as I know, all they (whoever that is), was fill the pool up with municipal hose water before we moved in. The pump filter basket upon first opening was packed to the top with leaves. The skimmer basin, which is a whopping 13'' wide and 2.5 feet deep (all metal), had about 4" of leaves and debris sitting at the bottom of it. The weir, is not there. Seemingly ripped off, as I can see 4 screws that hold plastic from an old one perhaps. There is no skimmer basket in the skimmer or on the property.
I checked out the breaker box for the pool accessories and it was off, I'm assuming for at least 1-2 years. I opened the DE Filter, and it was also in pretty dirty shape. I have since cleaned the DE Filter, the pump basket, and gotten the pool to be pretty much dirt and debris free. For as much as the previous tenants did not seemingly care about the pool, the water is relatively clear and all the components operate fine, after cleaning everything. I'm not sure if they had a pool service come out and maintain the chemistry of the pool during their tenancy.
The pool uses a Goldline GL35 solar heating system as well. The box only has the ground wire hooked up, and the two red ones are capped, so haven't gotten around to seeing if it will turn on or not yet.
2 out of the 4 pool deck drains work, which was one of the huge pita's we were working on today. The far end of the pool is next to a hill, where 2 of the 4 pool deck drains exhaust to. Those 2 are clear and operate fine. The other 2 are between the pool and the house, and after tons of unclogging work today, we have found that the clog is somewhere far down on the line maybe going to the street? Who knows, that's an issue we gotta worry about now.
With our rental, pool maintenance has been said to be included. I'm assuming this guy is purely responsible for maybe cleaning out the dirt in the pool, and maintaining levels. We have already chatted with management about when the pool guy is going to come. They said they would let us know, and so far we have not heard anything yet about a scheduled time. I'm tired of waiting on this slag to show up, because I want to get the pool up and running, and in condition to swim. Can't put off the house warming party forever!
Anyways, I need some opinions. If this guy does end up coming, it will likely be once a month, which from what I've gathered from this forum, is no way enough to keep tabs on the pool condition and keep it performing well. Is it worth it for me to try to keep up the pool over the course of the year since we are renting? I'm not a billionaire, but I'm also not made of money, so it will be an added expense that I would like to minimize. Again, I would like to have a nice backyard that people can come enjoy anytime they like along with us living here using the pool whenever too.
The dynamic of our situation will change once I meet our "pool guy" and chat with him about what he does, how he does it, etc. Personally I would rather just have the management company take off our rent whatever they are paying him per month and I can do it. I don't want it to consume too much of my time, but I spend a lot of time at home as a music producer, so taking a few minutes to go out, test levels, and keep things looking good is not the biggest issue for me. It's a fun, exciting, and challenging element of our living situation now that I would like to engage in, to learn more about pools and backyard care.
Sorry for the huge post, but had to give you guys some considerable context in which to formulate an opinion with. Any comments and questions are welcomed.
Been lurking for about half a week, pouring all the information on this forum into my head and trying to make sense of it all. It honestly isn't as bad as I thought it would be! You guys make things easy to understand.
Caution, big post ahead, just an fyi.
Anyways, just started renting a home with 2 other guys South of SDSU that has a pool. We are all out of school, ages 25-28. We are very excited to live in a place with a pool, which definitely caught our eye during our first walk through of the place. Your probably wondering, "Your RENTING a place with a pool?" and the answer is yes. Super random for us to do this here in SD, and I thought it would be fun. February 9th was our first day here. I'm very much a DIY personality with a passion for caring and maintaining the place you live in, so I can't help but want to care for the big basin of water that sits in our backyard. Part of this post, is going to be an inquiry of "is it worth it" to help keep things on track on my end.
First up, the pool.
I've never owned/rented a house with a pool, so I had no idea of what the heck was what. After 2 days of tinkering around, I'm familiar with the entire system (pump, filter, solar setup, etc). As you can tell from the signature, it's a tiny pool. As far as I know, all they (whoever that is), was fill the pool up with municipal hose water before we moved in. The pump filter basket upon first opening was packed to the top with leaves. The skimmer basin, which is a whopping 13'' wide and 2.5 feet deep (all metal), had about 4" of leaves and debris sitting at the bottom of it. The weir, is not there. Seemingly ripped off, as I can see 4 screws that hold plastic from an old one perhaps. There is no skimmer basket in the skimmer or on the property.
I checked out the breaker box for the pool accessories and it was off, I'm assuming for at least 1-2 years. I opened the DE Filter, and it was also in pretty dirty shape. I have since cleaned the DE Filter, the pump basket, and gotten the pool to be pretty much dirt and debris free. For as much as the previous tenants did not seemingly care about the pool, the water is relatively clear and all the components operate fine, after cleaning everything. I'm not sure if they had a pool service come out and maintain the chemistry of the pool during their tenancy.
The pool uses a Goldline GL35 solar heating system as well. The box only has the ground wire hooked up, and the two red ones are capped, so haven't gotten around to seeing if it will turn on or not yet.
2 out of the 4 pool deck drains work, which was one of the huge pita's we were working on today. The far end of the pool is next to a hill, where 2 of the 4 pool deck drains exhaust to. Those 2 are clear and operate fine. The other 2 are between the pool and the house, and after tons of unclogging work today, we have found that the clog is somewhere far down on the line maybe going to the street? Who knows, that's an issue we gotta worry about now.
With our rental, pool maintenance has been said to be included. I'm assuming this guy is purely responsible for maybe cleaning out the dirt in the pool, and maintaining levels. We have already chatted with management about when the pool guy is going to come. They said they would let us know, and so far we have not heard anything yet about a scheduled time. I'm tired of waiting on this slag to show up, because I want to get the pool up and running, and in condition to swim. Can't put off the house warming party forever!
Anyways, I need some opinions. If this guy does end up coming, it will likely be once a month, which from what I've gathered from this forum, is no way enough to keep tabs on the pool condition and keep it performing well. Is it worth it for me to try to keep up the pool over the course of the year since we are renting? I'm not a billionaire, but I'm also not made of money, so it will be an added expense that I would like to minimize. Again, I would like to have a nice backyard that people can come enjoy anytime they like along with us living here using the pool whenever too.
The dynamic of our situation will change once I meet our "pool guy" and chat with him about what he does, how he does it, etc. Personally I would rather just have the management company take off our rent whatever they are paying him per month and I can do it. I don't want it to consume too much of my time, but I spend a lot of time at home as a music producer, so taking a few minutes to go out, test levels, and keep things looking good is not the biggest issue for me. It's a fun, exciting, and challenging element of our living situation now that I would like to engage in, to learn more about pools and backyard care.
Sorry for the huge post, but had to give you guys some considerable context in which to formulate an opinion with. Any comments and questions are welcomed.
