First off, Cheers!! as I can only tell this tale while having a cocktail...
We recently bought a beautiful victorian home at the Sheriff Sale. Naturally it has no A/C (built in 1900), and an in ground pool poured sometime around the late 60's. Since it sat vacant for a few years, I knew I was in for some work! When we opened it up, she was about half full, riddled with "repaired" cracks, and bright and blazing green. I had a local pool company come out to take a look at what it would take to get it up and running... $20 grand to fix cracks and replaster, or $40 grand for a whole new pool. I instantly hated pool ownership.
Naturally, I didn't trust this assessment, and set off to go it alone. I shocked the C R A P out of it, scrubbed it up, and began filling. After about 4 days of running that hose, it finally was up to the filter, and we all crossed ourselves and fired it up. Thankfully, the filter worked. Unfortunately, we were losing water too fast to keep it above skimmer line, and once below that, was going out at about 3 inches a day. This is a 20x40 pool, so 3 inches is ALOT of water. Without being able to clear up the water to see the cracks and dye test, we were dead in the water.
Luckily, I have a bit of plumbing background from a few summers in high school, and we thought to plumb the skimmer out and down into the water level (the leak slowed around two feet low or so). After a few days I was able to get the water clear enough, and we vaccuumed all the sledge out into the yard with a borrowed pool vac. Then, day after day I dove around finding cracks and patching with two part epoxy, then filling it up a little more. A few long months later, and I now have a fully functioning pool, that loses maybe an inch a week, which with temps in the 90s, is probably about right. Now its more the game of managing my chemical balances, and possibly future advice on what to do with this sucker long term. I attached a photo, including the water slide and diving board (photo taken before water was crystal clear)
Anyway, I've been reading the advice here, and becoming increasingly frustrated with the advice from Leslie's, so I figured it might be time to join up and enjoy this trouble free pool I've heard so much about.
Looking forward to help when I need it, and being able to help out others that might be tackling similar problems to those that I've solved.
Now, another Cheers!
We recently bought a beautiful victorian home at the Sheriff Sale. Naturally it has no A/C (built in 1900), and an in ground pool poured sometime around the late 60's. Since it sat vacant for a few years, I knew I was in for some work! When we opened it up, she was about half full, riddled with "repaired" cracks, and bright and blazing green. I had a local pool company come out to take a look at what it would take to get it up and running... $20 grand to fix cracks and replaster, or $40 grand for a whole new pool. I instantly hated pool ownership.
Naturally, I didn't trust this assessment, and set off to go it alone. I shocked the C R A P out of it, scrubbed it up, and began filling. After about 4 days of running that hose, it finally was up to the filter, and we all crossed ourselves and fired it up. Thankfully, the filter worked. Unfortunately, we were losing water too fast to keep it above skimmer line, and once below that, was going out at about 3 inches a day. This is a 20x40 pool, so 3 inches is ALOT of water. Without being able to clear up the water to see the cracks and dye test, we were dead in the water.
Luckily, I have a bit of plumbing background from a few summers in high school, and we thought to plumb the skimmer out and down into the water level (the leak slowed around two feet low or so). After a few days I was able to get the water clear enough, and we vaccuumed all the sledge out into the yard with a borrowed pool vac. Then, day after day I dove around finding cracks and patching with two part epoxy, then filling it up a little more. A few long months later, and I now have a fully functioning pool, that loses maybe an inch a week, which with temps in the 90s, is probably about right. Now its more the game of managing my chemical balances, and possibly future advice on what to do with this sucker long term. I attached a photo, including the water slide and diving board (photo taken before water was crystal clear)
Anyway, I've been reading the advice here, and becoming increasingly frustrated with the advice from Leslie's, so I figured it might be time to join up and enjoy this trouble free pool I've heard so much about.
Looking forward to help when I need it, and being able to help out others that might be tackling similar problems to those that I've solved.
Now, another Cheers!
