We just purchased a house with a pool. Everything looked good with the pool during inspection when we purchased the house. We hired a pool guy to show us clean up and maintenance. After 3 weekly cleaning sessions, he left us a note saying that he can't service the pool until we fix 2 issues: a) we have black algae everywhere in spite of him dumping $10-$20 worth of chemicals weekly. Here is a link to an image of the pool with the algae: https://picasaweb.google.com/1034455269 ... 9322881810
b) the pool has a leak as we are loosing 2-3" of water weekly.
We have scheduled a leak detection to address the leak issue and hopefully it is not anything major.
As for the black algae, since the pool is 10 years old, he (pool guy) suggested re-plastering at ~$6500. This is too expensive for us and way sooner than we expected! He suggested that our short term alternative wld be acid & chlorine wash.
My pool guy has been shocking the pool and using chlorine and cleaning it every week but the black algae comes back within 2 days. He has not used any harsh chemicals such as algicides. We run the motor twice a day for 4 hrs.
I got in touch with the prior pool guy the prior owner of the house used. He (prior pool guy) did an acid wash 1.5 years ago but according to him the pool was not well maintained by the prior owner and cleaned it only on a monthly/bi-monthly basis.
So, my question is: shld we get over the sticker shock, bite the bullet and go for re-plastering? Or go for couple of other approaches before resorting to this last ditch attempt such as: 1) fix the leak, so chlorine level doesn't keep dropping and then shock, use algicide + daily brushing for a week to see if the black algae comes under control? 2) drain pool, go for acid & chlorine wash if 1) doesn't work?
We feel like our pool guy is only suggesting the expensive options and since there are so many other house related expenses, we need to know if we need the pool is going to be a high budget issue. Thanks in advance for all your help and suggestions.
b) the pool has a leak as we are loosing 2-3" of water weekly.
We have scheduled a leak detection to address the leak issue and hopefully it is not anything major.
As for the black algae, since the pool is 10 years old, he (pool guy) suggested re-plastering at ~$6500. This is too expensive for us and way sooner than we expected! He suggested that our short term alternative wld be acid & chlorine wash.
My pool guy has been shocking the pool and using chlorine and cleaning it every week but the black algae comes back within 2 days. He has not used any harsh chemicals such as algicides. We run the motor twice a day for 4 hrs.
I got in touch with the prior pool guy the prior owner of the house used. He (prior pool guy) did an acid wash 1.5 years ago but according to him the pool was not well maintained by the prior owner and cleaned it only on a monthly/bi-monthly basis.
So, my question is: shld we get over the sticker shock, bite the bullet and go for re-plastering? Or go for couple of other approaches before resorting to this last ditch attempt such as: 1) fix the leak, so chlorine level doesn't keep dropping and then shock, use algicide + daily brushing for a week to see if the black algae comes under control? 2) drain pool, go for acid & chlorine wash if 1) doesn't work?
We feel like our pool guy is only suggesting the expensive options and since there are so many other house related expenses, we need to know if we need the pool is going to be a high budget issue. Thanks in advance for all your help and suggestions.