Cover came off over the winter, what am I in for?

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B

bmrobinson

0
Mar 26, 2015
19
Katy, TX
Pool Size
16000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Pardon if this is not the right forum for this!

So, we had a brutal winter here in Ohio. The snow started in mid-December and didn't melt until last week. At some point in time, the tie downs on our deck broke under the weight of snow and ice and the cover started to fall in. I was unable to get it reattached because of how heavy the ice was. Annnnnd, now that the ice is melting, it has folded under and is submerged.

I ordered a proper cover pump to replace the cheap one I had last year and am going to start clearing water from the top. The lovely brown color is from the leaves that fell on the cover in the fall, and have now made their way into the pool.

My question to you folks is: do you think I will need to drain the pool entirely? I know cleanup is going to be a pain due to the leaves alone, but is the water recoverable with heavy treatment?

Pics:
http://imgur.com/a/Wssbz

Thanks in advance!
 
I'd like to start off by welcoming you to the forum! For sure the water can be cleaned, but it's gonna be alot of work as all the leaves must come out. My question before we start with any advice would be for you to tell us about your pool. How big is it? This will tell us if it's more practical to drain the majority of the water (always leave about a foot in) then clean the leaves out or if it's in your best interest to simply work with what you got. To tell us about your pool I'd suggest adding it to your signature, which can be done here.
 
So using PoolMath you're looking around 13-14 thousand gallons of water. This surely makes it worth spending some time to work with what you've got. You'll need to start by raking as many of the leaves as you can using a rake and then start to SLAM Process the pool. The forum has seen water MUCH worse than that clear up, and without a doubt yours too can be cleared.
 
Welcome to TFP !
This won't be a problem with the advice you'll get here.
While your waiting on the freezing temps to subside your going to need to get yourself one of these Test Kits. The best value is the TF100. Order the XL option with it so you have enough reagents to SLAM the pool. You won't be able to SLAM the pool without a good test kit.
 
Welcome to the forum Bmrobinson :wave:

Toss on a set of gloves and rake all the stuff you can off the bottom, adjust the pH and SLAM as recommended above and you'll be good.
 
Geebot said:
We had a similar situation and went for the full drain and scrub. Your situation may be different but we had a lot of leaves break down and muck up the bottom.
Click to expand...

You have a plaster pool. They have a liner. Liner pools should never be completely drained.
 
Question around adding chemicals...

I've cleaned up as much of the mess that I'm able to see, so I'm confident that the debris is mostly gone. I want to start circulating chemicals, but the water level is far too low to feed water from the skimmer into the pump. Is it safe to start adding fresh water prior to adding chemicals? Should I put a direct hose from the pool into my pump for the time being and try to balance the water I have in there before adding more water?

Thanks!
 

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Unless you do it by accident, like I did last year....DOH !!!!!




e: Cover came off over the winter, what am I in for?
Originally Posted by Geebot
We had a similar situation and went for the full drain and scrub. Your situation may be different but we had a lot of leaves break down and muck up the bottom.
You have a plaster pool. They have a liner. Liner pools should never be completely drained. ❄Closed❄
24' Sharkline
Solid Cover
❄⛄❄⛄❄⛄❄
 
Last edited:
I would add water to get it up to the skimmer so you can run the pump and filter. Once you have the skimmer covered it's time to get the pump going and start adjusting your water.
Have you tested for CYA yet ??
Please post some test results so we can see where you are at.
 
I would add water to get it up to the skimmer so you can run the pump and filter. Once you have the skimmer covered it's time to get the pump going and start adjusting your water.
Without having test results I'd still be adding a little chlorine blindly to keep it from going green.
 
I got my CYA kit, and its reading <20 ppm. CC and FC were both zero. I got the cover off completely this weekend (which I found had ripped ~5 feet at one of the seams) and need to clean up some more leaves. Unfortunately the leaf vac I bought was defective, so I need to be a bit more thorough with the rake. I want to clean it up some more before I start putting water and chemicals in, its just a bit of a challenge since I cant see the bottom of the pool!
 
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