How to drain pool?

[neen01]

I did a quick search but with the words drain and pool it is a bit hard to find the specific answers.
I am draining my pool (35,000 gallon concrete).
We did not hit water when we had the pool built. There are 2 plugs in the deep end. I have heard about pool float.
At what point do I have to get to the plugs. How do I get them out? They look flat and smooth against the bottom of the pool. Is it easy to get them out and back in?

If I take them out while there is still water in the pool how do I know if water is coming in or not? If there is water coming in can I not full drain it? Do I just put the plugs back in and fill it up?

Also I put the DE filter on waste to drain it. Is this ok? I searched around and it seemed like people rented a pump from Home Depot to drain their pool. Is it bad to just use the filter?

 

[march2012]

just out of curiosity, why are you draining your pool?

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

Using the main pump is fine, as long as you have some way to draw water from the main drain and turn off the skimmers. Otherwise the pump will lose prime as soon as you go below the skimmers. If you do use the main pump be sure not to stop in the middle. Once the water goes down about 18" you won't be able to prime the pump again if you turn it off.

If you can't seal off the skimmers or don't have a main drain it is simpler to rent a large sump pump and pump the pool out that way.

There are different kinds of plugs. Some are permanent and others are removable. If you post a picture we can make a guess at what kind you have.

If your plugs are removable, you can wait to remove them until the water is down around that level. Then replace them right before refilling the pool. If water is constantly flowing in through the plug holes it means the water table is above the bottom of the pool. If that happens you will either need to be constantly pumping water out of the pool or rig up a separate well point with it's own pump to lower the water table locally.

 

[neen01]

They are removable and my notes from when we built says to use a screwdriver.
Is it a matter of seconds that we have to rush to get them out? There are two at the deepest part by the main drain so it would be almost fully drained if we waited until it was down there.
If we never got water during the build is it not a problem? We also have a basement and have never gotten water in that either.

 

[smooth2222]

Why are you draining the pool?