Vacuuming and Sealing of Flagstone overflow and Waterfall

[ajones02]

All,

I've posted on a couple of the other forums on this site with great results. Based on my questions, I'm thinking this is the best place to post so here it goes.

Our pool was completed back in February and the PB had to vacuum the pool a couple of times to get the bottom of the pool clean. Once thing I have noticed is there is always dust on the steps that are located on the steps that are next to the spa overflow. I also have notice the same thing on the seat that is under my waterfall located on the backside of the pool.

My PB treated the flagstone coping but did not treat the flagstone spa overflow nor did he treat the moss boulders/rocks that the waterfall was built with. When i asked him about this he said that he doesn't treat these area's and that it was not necessary. I guess my question is that with the dust continuing to show up in these areas, does it make sense for me to treat these myself in hope to alleviate this issue?

That leads to my second question. When brushing these areas, i know that the pool cleaner probably does not clean the dust off the bottom. It never seems to get any worse but I can see when i brush the bottom of the pool, it always kicks up dust. My PB never told me that I would need to vacuum the pool and therefore I have never purchased a vacuum head or a hose to do this task. Is it necessary to vacuum the pool where the cleaner runs for 3 hours a day or is this just a personal preference thing?

Thanks again for all of the help!

 

[257WbyMag]

My thinking is that the dust that you are seeing probably not originating from the flagstone, so I don't think that sealing those few stones would make a difference. I would be surprised if any noticeable dust would be originating from the flagstone anyway and if it were, I would probably want those replaced because I wouldn't consider them to be suitable for pool use.

What I do think is that the dust your are seeing beneath the waterfall and the overflow from your spa is exactly that, dust, that is sitting on the surface of the pool water until it gets disturbed by the downward force of water flowing from these areas. It causes the dust to sink and collect in these spots. My pool gets it too, especially under my waterfall. It's part of springtime living in North Texas where we must deal with dust from West Texas being blown in with regularity every time the dryline passes through us.

Aside from getting a robot, most pool cleaners, be they pressure side or suction side, don't typically get everything. My cleaner works well most of the time but it never gets everything and therefore, I do find it necessary to manually vacuum once a week or so. Just a quick vacuum run. It doesn't take long.