Dirty pool, first time pool owner

[poolnewby]

Hello everyone,

I just bought a house with a pool. I have never owned a pool before. The water is very brown and has leaves and pollen in the pool. I assume my first step is to get the solids out first. However, the water is so dark, I won't know when everything is out. At what point should I attempt to clear the water? Basically, what are my first steps to ready the pool?

 

[tagprod]

I know it's hard without seeing the bottom, but I would do my best to get as much of the debris out of the pool as possible with a pool net. Next I would make sure the filter is clean. If the pool has been neglected, odds are so has the filter. Can you list all the particulars of the pool. Size, gallons type of filter, cleaner etc?

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

You might want to read this writeup on cleaning up a neglected pool.

The first step is to get out all the debris you can. This can be tricky if you can't see what you are doing. Fish around with a skimmer net and see what you can dredge up. At first you will probably pull up lots of stuff. When that stops working it is time to switch to the pool vacuum and vacuum everywhere you can as best you can. For seriously dirty pools you may need to shock for a while to clear the water enough to really vacuum throughly. If you have a robotic cleaner that can help greatly since the will get most everywhere without much attention.