It's a long story, but my MIL allowed her 40,000 gallon inground pool to go native. We received control of things in October and started talking with a local pool company in our area on how to fix things, but unfortunately did not receive permission to hire them until after they closed for the year. I really like the guy and he seems like a good person, and we'll be talking with them as soon as they open again for the season, but in the meantime we'd like to know if there is anything we can do to get a jump start on things so it doesn't become mosquito central when the weather breaks. We're finally getting caught up on everything else and can start to think about other things like the pool.
The guy who came out and saw the pool was in shock. I'm honestly surprised he even agreed to talk with us about. He said that in 20 some years of doing pool care it's the absolute worst he's ever seen. The automatic cover is broken so all the leaves from the wooded property are in the bottom of the pool now. There is probably sediment run off from uphill as well. When he came to see it there was some kind of decent sized dead animal floating in the water, and I had also spotted a drowned mole prior to that.
He would not touch the water until he sent it out for bacterial testing, and we were told it would take 18-20 CASES of chlorine (the way he was acting leads me to believe this is an insane amount?) to even start the process, and that what we were looking at was getting a winter cover, and sealing it off to stew for a year to break down the leaves and who knows what else at the bottom before it would be safe again. He said that the testing company had called to confirm with him that the sample was real, because it was so completely disgusting!
We are not really wanting to use it for swimming anytime soon. We're looking at closing it for several years if possible.
She apparently hired a different company to come and open the pool in June and we assume that the water was safe then, but we have no proof of what they may have done.
Three years ago she had let this same thing happen when the cover broke - though not to this extent - and my husband and I drained it completely, got all the sediment and leaves out, and got it sparkling and useable again. However, due to the state of the liner and the hydrostatic pressure we witnessed when it was empty, we cannot safely get away with this a second time.
Neither of us have real pool experience. I just went by online guides and was very careful about chlorine levels and water chemistry when we got it running for a couple of months three years ago.
We also can't find a winter cover to buy until the local pool places open again (ordering online is not an option unless they will take a personal check by mail) so the pool remains open to the elements.
Any advice? Or do we just need to hang tight until warm weather when the professionals are available?
The guy who came out and saw the pool was in shock. I'm honestly surprised he even agreed to talk with us about. He said that in 20 some years of doing pool care it's the absolute worst he's ever seen. The automatic cover is broken so all the leaves from the wooded property are in the bottom of the pool now. There is probably sediment run off from uphill as well. When he came to see it there was some kind of decent sized dead animal floating in the water, and I had also spotted a drowned mole prior to that.
He would not touch the water until he sent it out for bacterial testing, and we were told it would take 18-20 CASES of chlorine (the way he was acting leads me to believe this is an insane amount?) to even start the process, and that what we were looking at was getting a winter cover, and sealing it off to stew for a year to break down the leaves and who knows what else at the bottom before it would be safe again. He said that the testing company had called to confirm with him that the sample was real, because it was so completely disgusting!
We are not really wanting to use it for swimming anytime soon. We're looking at closing it for several years if possible.
She apparently hired a different company to come and open the pool in June and we assume that the water was safe then, but we have no proof of what they may have done.
Three years ago she had let this same thing happen when the cover broke - though not to this extent - and my husband and I drained it completely, got all the sediment and leaves out, and got it sparkling and useable again. However, due to the state of the liner and the hydrostatic pressure we witnessed when it was empty, we cannot safely get away with this a second time.
Neither of us have real pool experience. I just went by online guides and was very careful about chlorine levels and water chemistry when we got it running for a couple of months three years ago.
We also can't find a winter cover to buy until the local pool places open again (ordering online is not an option unless they will take a personal check by mail) so the pool remains open to the elements.
Any advice? Or do we just need to hang tight until warm weather when the professionals are available?