Bought a home- they drained the pool- what now?

[JessBlake]

Hello! I have never had a pool and we just bought a house by the beach with an in-ground concrete pool. The previous owners decided to drain the pool just prior to closing on the house. They covered it with a basic tarp. It has been a couple of weeks and I am thinking I need to get this figured out sooner than later. The hot tub section of the pool has water and the deep end of the pool as well. The tarp is useless. I am including pictures of the pool when it was filled and posted for sale. And pictures now. I’m ready to do the work, just need some guidance. Thanks!

 

[ajw22]

Welcome to TFP.

From your subject line I thought ALL water was drained from your pool by the prior owner. But from the pics it looks like there is water in the pool and they lowered the water level. They may have closed and winterized the pool. If so the pool can sit this way until you are ready to open it in the spring.

Post pics of the equipment pad. And open a skimmer and see if the skimmer has a plug in it.

 

[mguzzy]

Yeah I agree with Allen.. it looks like the water level was lowered below the level of the jets from your last pic. In addition to the previous suggestion I would scoop the pine needles and leaves out of the pool and reset the tarp. It looks like there are a fair amount of tannins in the water already. No sense letting it get worse and stain the plaster.

BTW WELCOME! we are here to help.. There is a wealth of information on the site about how to manage your pool. Are you planning to do it yourself?

 

[JessBlake]

The kids say they looked under the tarp and it was empty when we moved in. I only saw the hot tub was empty. Here are pictures of what equipment I could find. Sand filter, pump, skimmer, dial timer. We are cleaning out the leaves now.

 

[JessBlake]

Also, thanks for the input!

 

[JessBlake]

Yeah I agree with Allen.. it looks like the water level was lowered below the level of the jets from your last pic. In addition to the previous suggestion I would scoop the pine needles and leaves out of the pool and reset the tarp. It looks like there are a fair amount of tannins in the water already. No sense letting it get worse and stain the plaster.

BTW WELCOME! we are here to help.. There is a wealth of information on the site about how to manage your pool. Are you planning to do it yourself?

Yes we are going to have a go at it ourselves! And thanks for the welcome!

 

[ajw22]

Clean the debris out of the pool the best you can and then fill the pool and spa with water at least up to the returns. That gets the pool safe from popping out fo the ground.

Do you intend to get the pump running and water circulating now or leave that until the spring? If you get things running now you need to be concerned with freeze protection with cold spells.

Your pics don't give an overall picture of the water flow. You have two pumps and I can't tell what each does. You need to make sure your valves are properly positioned and open before you turn on the pump. We can help you if we see enough pics to understand your pool plumbing and water flow. Good luck figuring it out.

Do you have a pool water test kit? I suggest you read...

ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

Pool School

www.troublefreepool.com

Pool Test Kits - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[JessBlake]

Clean the debris out of the pool the best you can and then fill the pool and spa with water at least up to the returns. That gets the pool safe from popping out fo the ground.

Do you intend to get the pump running and water circulating now or leave that until the spring? If you get things running now you need to be concerned with freeze protection with cold spells.

Your pics don't give an overall picture of the water flow. You have two pumps and I can't tell what each does. You need to make sure your valves are properly positioned and open before you turn on the pump. We can help you if we see enough pics to understand your pool plumbing and water flow. Good luck figuring it out.

Do you have a pool water test kit? I suggest you read...

ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

Pool School

www.troublefreepool.com

Pool Test Kits - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

I believe I do have a test kit. I will go take better pictures right now.
I am debating what we should do. All of the neighbors have their pools open and uncovered currently. From what they tell me it may be easier to fill the pool and keep it the way they have kept theirs. I’m a newb though, so that may be wrong. Also, should I remove what water is in here before I fill it or leave it. It doesn’t appear to be growing anything. I think it’s recent rainwater from the past few weeks.

 

[JessBlake]

In the hot tub. The pipe down in the hole (with the drains?) has a steady trickle of water coming out of it. And the one jet is dripping.

 

[JessBlake]

Now I will upload more pictures of pool and pipe orientation. Let me know what I can show better.
All the pipes and equipment is under the deck. It wouldn’t let me upload videos

 

[mguzzy]

Does the temperature in your area get low enough in the winter time to worry about freezes? You might want to ask your other pool owning neighbors what thier experience is. Then you can decide whether you should winterize or go semi open.

In the dry summer time I would suggest pumping the dirty water out first. But I think it's probably best to get it filled given the ground around you is probably saturated with moisture from the rain creating a situation that could cause the pool to pop out. And worry about cleaning if with the filtration of your equip.. @ajw22 will no doubt confirm.

As to your test kit... In order to help people best with their pool chem we have standardized on pretty much one testing product, the TF100, check out this article: Test Kits Compared. Its not that other products are necessarily bad (some are).. it just makes it easier if we are all using the same thing. And they price it pretty competitive, especially if you look at the bundles.

 

[kimkats]

I would clean out everything you can get your hands on then start filling the pool. While you are waiting for it to fill read the links shared with you above. We will get you all set up on taking care of your pool.

That 3 way test is a very basic test kit that will at least get you started but to take complete control over your pool you will need one of the "grown up" test kits as shown in the link above. We can help you learn how to do the tests. I will tell you they are easy to do and fun as well!

Kim

 

[IMissNimoy]

Hey Jess,

I'm just over in Columbia! Here's my $.02. I just completed my 3rd season as a pool owner. I allowed my maintenance company to make many mistakes before finding this forum and breaking up with them. The Trouble Free Pool method works. It's also the cheapest I've tried. It's made my pool VERY predictable and simple to manage. A basic requirement is the right test kit so get one of the two kits folks here recommend. Most importantly don't listen to the pool store or rely on their test results. You won't need any of the chems in the picture. I couldn't tell if you had a salt water cell. If not, avoid using the chlorine pucks. With our SC UV, the CYA from pucks will build up in your water and you'll have drain at least once a year to get rid of it.

We don't get enough cold duration or extreme here to worry about freezing. If this is your primary residence, just keep the pool open all year. I've learned that it is much easier and cheaper than dealing with a close/open/green monster procedure. You only have to run your pump enough to circulate a little in winter and I only have to add chlorine once a week. Chems and maintenance (other than leaves) are very minimal. On those occasions it drops below freezing, I just run the pump on low overnight. If it's really cold for several days like last winter, I cover with furniture blanket.

Hope this helps.

 

[ajw22]

Now I will upload more pictures of pool and pipe orientation. Let me know what I can show better.
All the pipes and equipment is under the deck. It wouldn’t let me upload videos

You need to upload videos to a host site like YouTube and post a link to it here.

There is a lot to figure out with your plumbing and valves before you try and run your pump. I will comment about that tomorrow when I have some time.

In the meantime cleanup the debris and fill the pool with water. Order a TF-100 Test Kits and the Speedstir Magnetic Stirrer

 

[YippeeSkippy]

You're in an area with a high water table, right? Myrtle Beach?.... PLEASE FILL THAT POOL UP NOW. You risk having the pool "float" or "pop up" out of the ground without water weight in there holding it down. We can fix water issues in a filled pool. We can't fix a floated pool.

Maddie

 

[wireform]

Your biggest enemy now is the proximity to the beach and water table. Get in there remove all the junk asap and fill that pool. Time isn't on your side for the unknowns. You can always play with the water and get things right over the winter but if it pops out of the ground there is no more pool.

 

[JessBlake]

Ok guys! I def still have some cleaning up to do. But I got the water in the pool last night. I’d say 8 hours with the garden hose. Here is a link to a video I took this morning before work to give a better idea of set up. Space is limited under the deck so you will probably need more videos. But it’s a starting point! Thanks for your help, I’m so glad my pool won’t come out of the ground now!?

 

[wireform]

With the leaves already off the trees there's not much else falling from the sky. Get a good quality pool rake and get the water/pool as clean as possible. You'll have to clean up around the complete pool area as the video clearly shows lots of foliage on the ground. That'll make it into the pool and become a nuisance. Will let the professionals chime in with the pump and filter setup. Go get yourself liquid chlorine and get some into the water asap for starters.

 

[kimkats]

Get the solid stuff up and out. Go looking in your area for liquid chlorine. Some pool stores sell it if you put a deposit down on the jugs. Most of the time it is 11% strong. If your don't have a convent one close to you then Home Depot has their HDX (think that is the brand name) chlorine that is 10% BUT make sure it is kept out of the sun AND check the date code. You do not want any that is older than 3 months. Get as much as you can load in your car without any chance of it tipping over.

I am going to share a set of links I put together for new pool owners. I think they will be very helpful for you:

Print these out:
Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule
Pool School - Recommended Levels

Bookmark these:
Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals
Trouble Free Pool
Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

I forget if you have a good test kit or not yet. If you do not you need to get one on order asap as that is the number one thing that will help you care for your pool. Look in my siggy below for the one I think is the best bang for the buck. I would get the XL one as it is going to take some frequent testing to get that water cleared up.

Kim

 

[setsailsoon]

Looks like you don't have a salt system. You'll see them referred to as swg (salt water generator). After you get your pool cleaned up you just follow TFP recommendations and you'll never need to carry liquid chlorine jugs around again plus your pool almost takes care of itself while you're away. Ask Santa for one. You'll love it and if there's a Mrs Blake she'll love it too. Makes your pool like a spa (or at least that's what my wife says).

Chris