New House & First Time Pool Owner

[mcolflesh]

Hello,

I am buying a home with an inground vinyl liner pool. Through the home inspection process I had the pool company that serviced the pool come out to inspect it. The pool has not been opened in what will be three years this coming spring. The vinyl liner was replaced three years ago. According to the pool company that inspected it this winter, the pump works, the cover needs to be replaced/remanufactured (Loop Loc Dura Mesh), the filter grid/nest needs to be replaced (Pentair DE Filter). The pool does not seem to have any leaks and the water is at operational level. The water is fairly green and mucky.

I have several questions but have been reading through the Pool School posts so I will finish reading there before asking more specific questions about what to do to clean up the pool and prepare it for opening in the spring. I would like to know what kinds of information I should ask for from the pool company that has serviced the pool. What should they be able to tell me? For example, I have no idea the capacity of the pool, the pump and filter information (model and other details). Any suggestions for next steps would be welcome. Thank you.

mcolflesh
Inground, vinyl liner, Pentair DE Filter

 

[triptyx]

A new pool! How exciting. I just got mine with my house last April.

Capacity - we can probably help you to figure that out, first based on pool shape/depth, secondly you can make a number of very controlled chlorine additions and measure their result on the water, which can give you a much closer idea of true capacity (mine turned out to be almost 75% of what the pool inspector guessed).

The pool service should be able to tell you what all of the valves do. Take a sharpie marker with you and as they explain each valve, write on the pipes next to the valve what it does. With a DE filter, if you can get them to walk you through the multiport valve on the filter (it controls backwash, or filter, or waste, rinse, etc), when to use what setting, and how to backwash and recharge (and how much DE to use to recharge it), that would be good too.

There may be a few more good items, hopefully another expert can chime in if I've missed something.

If you can add the details of your pool to your forum signature, that will help people who come across your posts to tailor their advice to your particular situation. You can add a signature here: Trouble Free Pool
Once added, click the Show Your Signature checkbox on your next post and it will start showing up from now on.