Just bought a home with a pool. Needless to say, I've never owned a pool in my life and know ABSOLUTELY nothing about upkeep, maintenance, etc. The buy of the home was a short sale, which took an extremely long time, and nothing has been done during that time as far as keeping the pool clean. It's got TONS of leaves in it. The water looks like swamp water (dark green) and there's a good bit of algae around the edges. I know that the pump is working right and I know that the liner is in good shape. When I started the buying process, it was clean and in perfect working order. My question is where do I need to start? Like I said, I'm completely clueless on this pool thing. Hoping to get it cleaned back up and a cover on it until it warms back up.
New Pool Owner
- Thread starter jlewis713
- Start date
Welcome to the forum. :lol: What city and state do you live in? If it's gonna stay cold for a while longer, I would do nothing until it starts to warm up. Then start the process by physically removing all the debris and junk that you can. There are several articles in Pool School that should help you as well.
I'm from Warner Robins, GA. It usually starts warming up some mid-March around here.
- read pool school (link in upper right corner of site) then re-read it, seriously, it has all the info you need
- you need a quality test kit - strips are not sufficient, you need a drop based test kit, this is important because you need to build knowledge of your water and how it reacts to environmental factors
- clean all the crud out
- in pool school read up on "shocking", your gonna need to blast that sucker with alot of bleach in order to clean the water
There are some amazing threads on here showing people with absolute swamps and they turned them into pristine pools.
I suspect it's going to be some work to clean the pool properly, you'll need to do it properly so the algae dosn't keep coming back, once it's up to par it's not that difficult to keep it there.
Also, dont' be conned by maintenance systems claiming to do all the work for you, those are marketing schemes and BS. The BBB system used here is easy and effective if it's followed properly.
Good luck!!
- you need a quality test kit - strips are not sufficient, you need a drop based test kit, this is important because you need to build knowledge of your water and how it reacts to environmental factors
- clean all the crud out
- in pool school read up on "shocking", your gonna need to blast that sucker with alot of bleach in order to clean the water
There are some amazing threads on here showing people with absolute swamps and they turned them into pristine pools.
I suspect it's going to be some work to clean the pool properly, you'll need to do it properly so the algae dosn't keep coming back, once it's up to par it's not that difficult to keep it there.
Also, dont' be conned by maintenance systems claiming to do all the work for you, those are marketing schemes and BS. The BBB system used here is easy and effective if it's followed properly.
Good luck!!
Yeah, you'll be seeing decent air temps in a few weeks at the most. Water will stay colder, of course, but you can start to work.
I would suggest two purchases.....
1. A heavy duty leaf net that will help you get the leaves and sludge off the bottom. That's the first step and you really can't do it effectively with a really good ( maybe $100)f leaf rake.
Once your pool is as clean as you can get it physically, turn on the pump, run it 24/7 and start the shock process. As indicated above you will need a very good test kit to make this second part suvccessful.
We'll all help you get the pool crystal clear but as you progress, people are gonna' want to see current test results so be prepared.
I would suggest two purchases.....
1. A heavy duty leaf net that will help you get the leaves and sludge off the bottom. That's the first step and you really can't do it effectively with a really good ( maybe $100)f leaf rake.
Once your pool is as clean as you can get it physically, turn on the pump, run it 24/7 and start the shock process. As indicated above you will need a very good test kit to make this second part suvccessful.
We'll all help you get the pool crystal clear but as you progress, people are gonna' want to see current test results so be prepared.
duraleigh said:
I use one of these.
http://www.lesliespool.com/Home/Automat ... 20144.html
$37.
Since my pool has no fittings, I can't run a Polaris to keep leaves out of my pool during the fall and winter. I wait until all the leaves fall and my pool gets a really heavy coating of leaves on the bottom, then clean them out with this. Even in my large pool it only takes me about 5 loads, takes me about an hour or maybe a little more to complete the job.