Fire damage pool question.

[Jedisparky]

Hello good people, I'm not sure if this is the correct spot to post but here it is. We were luckily spared recently in the fires in Los Angeles however our pool has probably a good one inch of Ash sitting all over the bottom of the pool for 3 days now. I've had the pump shut-off I was unable to get back to the house until today and it's rather murky. I just don't want to do anything wrong before I start up my vacuum again I'm going to filter out as much material from the bottom of the pool with my skimmer by hand but it's going to leave a lot of Ash that's going to be messy and I just want to see if anybody has any proper ideas that I should do or do not before I get started thanks in advance for all your help.

 

[cfherrman]

Vac to waste, slam after

Ash is very fine it would probably act like de in a filter

 

[kimkats]

I also say vacuum that out of the pool. With you having a cartridge filter you might have to come up with a way to bypass the filter to get the water out. You do not want to go through the cartridge unless you are willing to buy a new one and even then it will take forever to get it clear.

If you are unsure how to do the by pass post up your equipment and someone should be able to help you out. I have an idea but need to see your equipment before I am sure it will work.

Kim

 

[mknauss]

Sounds like quite the mess. Sorry to hear that.

Since you have a cartridge filter it is not likely you can vac to waste. Likely, you are best to drain the pool with a sump pump and wash it down to remove the bulk of the debris. Lots of water, which I know could be an issue.

You might try searching this forum for "ash removal" or some other fire related search items.

Take care.

 

[Jedisparky]

I also say vacuum that out of the pool. With you having a cartridge filter you might have to come up with a way to bypass the filter to get the water out. You do not want to go through the cartridge unless you are willing to buy a new one and even then it will take forever to get it clear.

If you are unsure how to do the by pass post up your equipment and someone should be able to help you out. I have an idea but need to see your equipment before I am sure it will work.

Kim

At this point I was anticipating and I'm fine with purchasing a new filter it seems like the easiest way to go when I get a chance I'll post my equipment I'm using tap talk I forgot it doesn't have my profile TTP

 

[Jedisparky]

Sounds like quite the mess. Sorry to hear that.

Since you have a cartridge filter it is not likely you can vac to waste. Likely, you are best to drain the pool with a sump pump and wash it down to remove the bulk of the debris. Lots of water, which I know could be an issue.

You might try searching this forum for "ash removal" or some other fire related search items.

Take care.

Yikes, this is the one I was scared of. Full drain. I really do want to do what's best even if it's a full drain but ultimately that would be the last thing I want to do if there's other options that will work I'd rather do that but obviously if that's what I have to do that's what I have to do thanks

 

[mknauss]

Pool Fire??? Ash in the pool ......

Did a search and this is the only one that matched your situation. The OP has not posted since 2010 so not active.

See what others say. I would assume there are pool services in your area that have dealt with this. But, no matter what, it will take alot of water to waste to solve this. And it might be easier to bite the bullet and using a sump pump that will pump out the debris while washing the sides of the pool off may be the quickest, and cheapest, way.

Take care.

 

[PoolguyinCT]

A service call & a 3 way valve anywhere between pump & cartridge filter, will give you vac to waste capability.. see photos

I would also run the pool for a bit with return nozzles facing down, shut pool to settle & hopefully that will make heavier ash piles to conserve water.

This mess looks far worse than it really is.

I install my cartridge filters with ability to discharge or filter, comes in handy for vac to waste or routine water level maintenance.

 

[PoolguyinCT]

To the above, the “lock pins” need to be adjusted to make it impossible to “dead head” the pump - & you will have ability to filter or just discharge.

(Hopefully mas985 hydraulically approves — just clowning around buddy [emoji106])

 

[cfherrman]

You have 100% chance of plugging your filter before you make a dent in the ash.

 

[wjr75]

Hire a pool company that has a standalone canister vacuum.

 

[kimkats]

No need to hire anyone unless you want to. You can do it on your own with the above help. Three solid ways to do it:

-valve to divert water from filter like poolguyinCT

-drain pool and wipe it out

-rent or buy trash pump to pump out from the bottom

Let us know what you decide to do so we can use your thread to help others if they ever face this problem.

Kim

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Did you measure pH? Wood ash typically has high pH (basically it’s pot ash).

Flocculant can help to agglomerate the fine particles into heavier settled waste. Only problem is you absolutely have to vacuum it all to waste. You could wind up using a lot of water to refill the pool in which case, drain, power wash and refill may just be the easiest way to go.

Sorry your pool got trashed. Considering the images plastered all over the news of the massive destruction, I’d say you’re one of the lucky ones.

 

[Jedisparky]

Did you measure pH? Wood ash typically has high pH (basically it’s pot ash).

Flocculant can help to agglomerate the fine particles into heavier settled waste. Only problem is you absolutely have to vacuum it all to waste. You could wind up using a lot of water to refill the pool in which case, drain, power wash and refill may just be the easiest way to go.

Sorry your pool got trashed. Considering the images plastered all over the news of the massive destruction, I’d say you’re one of the lucky ones.

Yes I recently read about flocculant. This post is exactly what my decision is going to be to take care of it I'm going to contact some professional pool contractor stores and see if I can find a professional that can help take care of this for me I'm currently working 7 days a week through the holidays it's our busy. At the studios so that's going to be the answer I think I will let everybody know once it's on your way and happening I really appreciate all the information there's some very good information here as always.

 

[Jedisparky]

Yes I recently read about flocculant. This post is exactly what my decision is going to be to take care of it I'm going to contact some professional pool contractor stores and see if I can find a professional that can help take care of this for me I'm currently working 7 days a week through the holidays it's our busy. At the studios so that's going to be the answer I think I will let everybody know once it's on your way and happening I really appreciate all the information there's some very good information here as always.

I want to see a professional pool contractor store I don't mean Leslie's LOL there's one particular very good reputable big store that deals with many contractors and pool builders

 

[PoolguyinCT]

Yes I recently read about flocculant. This post is exactly what my decision is going to be to take care of it I'm going to contact some professional pool contractor stores and see if I can find a professional that can help take care of this for me I'm currently working 7 days a week through the holidays it's our busy. At the studios so that's going to be the answer I think I will let everybody know once it's on your way and happening I really appreciate all the information there's some very good information here as always.

I don’t blame ya.. you can make more money but not more time.
Just because you can , doesn’t mean it’s worth it- I have a JD tractor & monster snowblower gathering dust - & prefer to write a check for lawn & snow maintenance.

 

[Jedisparky]

I don’t blame ya.. you can make more money but not more time.
Just because you can , doesn’t mean it’s worth it- I have a JD tractor & monster snowblower gathering dust - & prefer to write a check for lawn & snow maintenance.

LOL, EXACTLY my friend!

 

[Jedisparky]

Hello good people, I'm not sure if this is the correct spot to post but here it is. We were luckily spared recently in the fires in Los Angeles however our pool has probably a good one inch of Ash sitting all over the bottom of the pool for 3 days now. I've had the pump shut-off I was unable to get back to the house until today and it's rather murky. I just don't want to do anything wrong before I start up my vacuum again I'm going to filter out as much material from the bottom of the pool with my skimmer by hand but it's going to leave a lot of Ash that's going to be messy and I just want to see if anybody has any proper ideas that I should do or do not before I get started thanks in advance for all your help.

So a follow up to my situation while I was waiting for a shipment of a pump for my pool so I could drain it I got a call back finally from one of the professionals that I contacted who was good enough to come and evaluate my pool and said he could vacuum to waste with his own pool pump setup and currently it's fairly clean its back in vacuuming mode and I'll just add some chemicals and give it some time and we'll be back to normal. And thankfully I did not have to drain the entire pool. So sometimes it's not a bad idea to let a professional help you out. I'm just glad someone called me back. Thanks for all your help and support here on this group as well, TPP Rocks!

 

[kimkats]

SO glad it is working out!

Could you tell us what he brought in to do this? This might help someone in the future.

Kim

 

[Alwayswantedapool]

SO glad it is working out!

Could you tell us what he brought in to do this? This might help someone in the future.

Kim

When we where at the beach this last summer, we stayed at a resort that had 12 pools, supposedly 3 acres of pools. Every morning they rolled out small carts that had a pool pump and small pool filter mounted to it. They used a standard setup on the vacum side and a heavy hose back into the pool on the discharge side. The pumps got power through a standard plug, 110 v. I think they had 3 of them and would just roll them around vacuuming all the pools. I would guess they had something like that.