Newbie returning from Afghanistan needing help with project!

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pzmotorsports

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LifeTime Supporter
Jul 29, 2007
30
San Antonio, TX
First I will like to thank the people that put together such an excellent forum and also everyone that helps people like myself take these projects in our own hands. I will be returning home to San Antonio TX on a 15 day vacation from Afghanistan, during this time I will take the task of installing an inground vinyl lined - poly wall pool.

Specs: 18' x 36' Depth 3' 1/2" to 8' Appr. 30,000 gal.
Hayward Super Pump 1 1/2hp and Pro Series sand filter 300 lab
Automatic Clorinator, In Line
Intermatic Pool timer
1 skimmer and 2 main drains

This is were I need your assistance, I will have a very tight schedule during my time home and about 95% of my time will be devoted to the construction of the pool; I believe that I will not have time to treat my water and get the chemistry up to specs within that short period of time according to what I have learned from reading the forum and getting an idea of what is involved (possibly a week or more of backwashing the filter etc.)

The initial treatment to get everything correct is something I believe my wife and kids will not be able to do.
Will a professional be able to do all initial treatments to ensure my pool chemistry is correct and do you believe my wife and teenage soon will be able to handle the follow up care once the initial adjustments have been made, or should I pay a pool servicer to handle the service task until I return to the US in March? I have spent most of my time deciding which kit I was going to select and ensuring the subcontractor work, permits etc were lined up and now I feel the time had come and I have little knowledge of the chemical part and maintenance, but I became an expert with the construction aspect. I am planning on using the liquid chemicals as recommended by the forum, but this might vary if I select a pool service person and he uses another method. I am planning on getting the testing kit offered at the forum but not until I am sure my family can handle the maintenance task.

My kit is on it's way and I will begin the project on the 20th of this month. Do you think it will be a good idea for me to start this not having enough time or knowledge to work the chemistry part? My kids will be very upset but I am even considering to re-schedule this project until my return to the US in March.

I will like to thank everyone in advance for the support and look forward to sending pictures of a successful project with your help, thank you and God Bless America!
:?:
 
Just have your wife come here for advice on the chemistry. We'll be glad to get her on the right path. It's really, really easy if you start out right. The main thing that needs to be done in advance is to get a good test kit. While you can get by with the cheap one from Walmart, the one that one of our members sells at TFTestkits.com is far better, especially when trying to recover from a problem. If you get a test kit, you can test your fill water and post the results, and we can advise ahead of time what kind of chemicals you'll likely need to have on hand.
 
Your wife and children will certainly be able to handle the start-up and daily maintenance. I see you are planning on an inline chlorinator... if you are going with bleach, you really won't need that... unless your wife is going to be gone frequently...

The day to day routine involves testing in the evening and adding some bleach. No biggie! If your wife does this daily, she most likely will not encounter any problems!! And if she does we are here to help!

Save your money on the chlorinator, the fancy chemicals, and the pool service, and order the kit linked in my signature. You won't be disappointed!!

Thanks for your service to our country, and welcome to TFP!
 
It'll be easy for your family to maintain the pool during your absence! Make sure you have a good test kit available and do some practice testing with it. I'm thinking of a bucket of tap water to which you'd add a small amount of bleach and baking soda . . . maybe one of the experienced members can give you a 'recipe' of how much B&B to a 5 gallon bucket. I hate to have to admit that I can't seem to do the math :(

Once everyone understands how the test kit works, what 'ideal' values are for your system, and how to use Jason't pool calculator to make adjustments, it'll be a cinch.

I have a chlorinator (for trichlor pucks) on my pool. Mostly I don't use it but it has come in very handy when I've had to be gone for some days and there's nobody to check the water.

Please stay safe!
 
I will like to thank John T, The Mermaid Queen and AnnaK for the quick response and the warm welcome. I guess its not that hard after reading your advice, I will be purchasing the kit tomorrow from testkits.com as you recommended. My kit includes the inline chlorinator, can I install it anyways? We go out of town quite often as stated by The Mermaid Queen, would it be a good thing to have and how does it work, do you put a chlorine tablet in it and it desolves within a few days period? Any initial set amount of chemicals you believe I should have my wife purchase to get us started?
I printed some good information from the site regarding water chemistry and products found at local store, acronym etc.
I will be reading this information during my trip home coming up in a few days. In the mean time I will continue to check the post and take notes. Thanks for the help.
 
pzmotorsports said:
I will like to thank John T, The Mermaid Queen and AnnaK for the quick response and the warm welcome. I guess its not that hard after reading your advice, I will be purchasing the kit tomorrow from testkits.com as you recommended. My kit includes the inline chlorinator, can I install it anyways? We go out of town quite often as stated by The Mermaid Queen, would it be a good thing to have and how does it work, do you put a chlorine tablet in it and it desolves within a few days period? Any initial set amount of chemicals you believe I should have my wife purchase to get us started?
I printed some good information from the site regarding water chemistry and products found at local store, acronym etc.
I will be reading this information during my trip home coming up in a few days. In the mean time I will continue to check the post and take notes. Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

The chlorinator is handy to have when you go out of town. You can fill it with a stack of 3" trichlor pucks, and it will last a while. Avoid the pucks that Walmart carries, as they contain copper, which can eventually stain your liner and turn blond hair green. The downside to all solid forms of chlorine is that they keep adding CYA (see below) to the pool, and it can get to levels that require draining to correct.

The one thing that you will need to have on hand is Cyanuric Acid or CYA, which is also known as stabilizer. I like to maintain the CYA at 35ppm.

You'll also want to have chlorine available. Many of us here just use Great Value bleach from Walmart for both shocking and normal chlorination. Once you get a kit and test your fill water for hardness, total alkalinity and pH, post the results, and we can give you advice on chemicals to have on hand. You can get everything you need but the CYA at a Walmart.
 
The chlorinator I have takes seven 3" trichlor pucks. It has a little setting wheel on the front with which you dial in the amount you want it to feed into the pool. Mine has a default notch at just under 3/4.

Whenever the pump runs the chlorinator fills with water and dissolves the tablets. How much and how fast depends on how you set it and how long you run your pump.

I've been testing mine all of July and August because I'm anticipating a lengthy absence with no one to babysit the pool. Talk about anxiety! And NWMNMOM's post about mechanical malfunction did not help one bit!

Anyway, with my system and my settings the 7 pucks lasted 30 days and maintained FC at 3, CC at 0, pH at 7.6, CYA at 35-40. The pool has been used daily, causing considerable water loss and the need to refill, and we've had some serious rains. Overall, I'm quite happy with how the chlorinator functioned and, hopefully, will continue to function during my absence.

I get trichlor pucks from the pool store. Yes, go ahead, gasp :) On the bucket it says Seaboard Slo Tab 8. Sixteen pounds for just under $50.00.

Chemicals to have on hand are chlorine, baking soda, CYA. You will have learned from reading here that CYA dissolves slowly and doesn't show up on tests for a few days. I don't remember where you're from but around here, pool season is winding down and CYA isn't as critical anymore as it was during high summer.

Given your situation of having to leave right after the build and not being able to play with your new toy I would let the builder treat the water for startup. I realize that may not be the popular opinion but under the circumstances, you'd get a jump start on somewhat balanced water and would't be in a position of having to have your family . . . um . . . sink or swim :)

The builder will most likely dump in granular 'shock', an algaecide, and something to adjust pH either up or down. For a vinyl pool you don't have to worry about calcium hardness. Everytime I take water for testing to the pool store they want me to buy 40+ pounds of something to raise my calcium hardness, which is pretty much zero. The builder will get close to acceptable numbers (if he's any good) and your family can tweak it later.

We'll be here to guide them and hold their hands.
 
Sounds like you are already getting some great advice. I just wanted to say welcome to the site and thanks for your service to our country! As a very small way of saying thanks, I'm setting your account as a TFP Lifetime Supporter so your wife will be able to take advantage of a few special discounts as well as the supporter only area of the site. ;)
 

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First and foremost! THANK YOU FOR WHAT YOU ARE DOING FOR OUR COUNTRY!!!!! :cheers: :angel: - also, welcome to TFP!

I will join the others who have posted assuring you that we will provide the info to your wife and son that they will need to keep the pool in good shape! I've installed a good few hundred liner pools, so if you need a little info while doing yours, just ask me (*I'll be on vacation from Fri. to Wed [ 8/17 - 8/22], but I may be able to check in during that time).

The only thing which might be beyond your wife and son's ability would be closing/ winterizing the pool - if you plan on closing it, you may well hire someone to do it, but we'll be in touch with your family and can tell them how to insure it's done correctly :goodjob: .

Please don't worry about your pool when you go back! If there's nothing else we can do for you, we can help your wife and son maintain the pool, it's the least we can do!

Please feel free to pm me if there is anything I can do for you, your family or your pool. Thanks again for what you are doing!

waste [Ted]
 
Re: Newbie returning from Afghanistan needing help with proj

pzmotorsports said:
First I will like to thank the people that put together such an excellent forum and also everyone that helps people like myself take these projects in our own hands. I will be returning home to San Antonio TX on a 15 day vacation from Afghanistan, during this time I will take the task of installing an inground vinyl lined - poly wall pool.

Specs: 18' x 36' Depth 3' 1/2" to 8' Appr. 30,000 gal.
Hayward Super Pump 1 1/2hp and Pro Series sand filter 300 lab
Automatic Clorinator, In Line
Intermatic Pool timer
1 skimmer and 2 main drains

This is were I need your assistance, I will have a very tight schedule during my time home and about 95% of my time will be devoted to the construction of the pool; I believe that I will not have time to treat my water and get the chemistry up to specs within that short period of time according to what I have learned from reading the forum and getting an idea of what is involved (possibly a week or more of backwashing the filter etc.)

The initial treatment to get everything correct is something I believe my wife and kids will not be able to do.
Will a professional be able to do all initial treatments to ensure my pool chemistry is correct and do you believe my wife and teenage soon will be able to handle the follow up care once the initial adjustments have been made, or should I pay a pool servicer to handle the service task until I return to the US in March? I have spent most of my time deciding which kit I was going to select and ensuring the subcontractor work, permits etc were lined up and now I feel the time had come and I have little knowledge of the chemical part and maintenance, but I became an expert with the construction aspect. I am planning on using the liquid chemicals as recommended by the forum, but this might vary if I select a pool service person and he uses another method. I am planning on getting the testing kit offered at the forum but not until I am sure my family can handle the maintenance task.

My kit is on it's way and I will begin the project on the 20th of this month. Do you think it will be a good idea for me to start this not having enough time or knowledge to work the chemistry part? My kids will be very upset but I am even considering to re-schedule this project until my return to the US in March.

I will like to thank everyone in advance for the support and look forward to sending pictures of a successful project with your help, thank you and God Bless America!
:?:
Click to expand...

You'll get plenty of help with the project and afterwards.

More importantly - THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE AND YOUR FAMILY'S SACRIFICE FOR OUR COUNTRY.
 
Once again thanks for the overwhelming support I had received from all of you in a short period of time. Special thanks to AnnaK, JohnT, Waste, Rangerman, Buggsw and SeanB for the support and account gift. It amazes me how a group of people can get their thoughts and ideas together to help many others that like me that had very little clue on the subject.
AnnaK recommended me to have the builder do the initial treatment on the pool, the issue is that I am the builder, now does this mean I should be contacting a pool servicer as soon as I arrive home and have him stand by upon completion for him to handle the initial treatment? I will be purchasing the test kit today and I hope to be able to use it once or twice and train the family on how it works? Thanks to everyone in advance, 4 days and I will be home :-D
 
Personally I think your wife and family will be able to handle the opening. It is just a matter of testing the water and adding the proper amounts of things, and we can surely assist them with that.
Closing an IG pool for winter, well, that can be trickier, but in San Antonio, do you need to worry about freezing pipes? That would be the main tricky issue... getting the water out of the plumbing.
 
Startup on a vinyl pool isn't that difficult. Plaster pools have complications, but vinyl is comparatively easy. The key is to have a good test kit and to not be intimidated by using it. If you have well water there may be some minor complications, in that case get your well water tested for TA, CH, and metals in advance.

At startup, as soon as the pool is full and the pump is running, you want to start adding CYA (also called stabalizer) aiming for 30-50 and bring your TA up to 80 if it is below that to start. You also start testing the chlorine and PH daily in the evening and adjusting both each day as needed. With any luck PH will be fairly stable but chlroine needs to be added every day, preferably in the evening.

If you test your fill water and post the numbers we can make more detailed suggestions. In a few areas the TA or CH will be very high to start which may mean a little extra work. Most places will be fine, but good practice using the test kit.
 
You guys brought tears to me eyes....sniffle.

God bless you pzmotorsports, safe travels!

Your wife will be fine with the daily stuff, if I can do it, anyone can, and despite my screenname I haven't been frustrated since the end of May (at least not about the pool!) Take Care...
 
pz,

First of all, Thanks for your service to our country. have a great time during your short stay stateside and be safe 'til you return.

Secondly, I'm gonna' suggest some caution on your undertaking. Professional pool builders can seldom install an inground pool in two weeks. It is a pretty big undertaking that almost never goes as smoothly as you hope. I'm horribly slow at all the projects i undertake, but I still believe you are attempting a project in a time period that may overwhelm you.

Some other folks here might have a different opinion, but unless you can recruit about 20 helpers, some with pool experience, I think success in two weeks will prove incredibly difficult.
 
pzmotorsports said:
AnnaK recommended me to have the builder do the initial treatment on the pool, the issue is that I am the builder
Click to expand...


That's right! I had forgotten that tiny detail. My apologies.

I really admire what you're doing. Back in my day, guys took R&R in Hawaii with the family. You're coming home to build a pool for yours. That's awesome.

No, don't hire anybody to do the startup or to supervise. You've got the entire TFP forum standing by to help build, start, and maintain it.

Anna
 
Thanks frustratedpoolmom you will be an inspiration for my wife! She believes that she is not very mechanically inclined but I know her and if she gets her mind into things she usually accomplish them. As far as freezing weather this is our first year in Texas moved from KY and we were told it does not get too cold, but I guess this past winter was an exception, we had freezing temp and snow in some areas, very uncommon for this area. I will like to share a little more in detail my plan as I was advised by duraleigh that two weeks are cutting it close and see what you guys and gals think.

First day-Dig and remove soil (Done by friend I will assist, equip. will be standing by prior to this day, subcont. soil removal)
Second day - Install and level walls (I will have two helpers and myself)
Third day - Pour concrete for collar and support beams 1/2 day, other half get vermiculite and concrete bags for pool bottom
Fourth day - Mix and install concrete vermiculite bottom (subcont. 2 concrete finishers) at the same time I will install the plumbing with the help of my son (as a last resource I can use a plumber)
Possibly also on the fourth day I can have the electrician take care of the wiring, light switch and timer install (subcont.)
Fifth day - Liner install and begin filling pool (wife and two kids will help) (might look into having a water truck etc fill it faster than small hose?)
Six day - Back fill, friend will operate equip (if possible form work will be initiated for deck, subcont. work)
Seven and Eight day - Concrete work will continue until completed.

I hope this gives everyone an idea of the build and my schedule, hoping the weather is in our side and nothing falls thru the cracks. My wife works for a big concrete foundation subcontractor and plans are in place to borrow some workers for the different phases of the build to include concrete work and at the same time pay company prices for the work, I guess is not too bad. But if this is not feasible I am willing to re-schedule this project until the beginning of April when I am home for good, I will just hate to have the kit sitting in the garage and the kids upset. :cry: What do you think I should do??
 

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