Hello,
I live in North Dallas, Texas.
We were recent victims of the Great Texas Power Outage of February 15 - 19. We were out for five days straight with no power during freezing temperatures. That of course rendered our pool's freeze guard feature useless as the freezing temperatures froze our pool and spa real good. All equipment and PVC pipes cracked and are inoperable.
Frozen Pool Pic --> frozen pool.jpg
We've been waiting on our insurance claim – however, we discovered too late that USAA doesn't cover any pool or equipment damage due to ice or snow build up (don't worry, we've already switched to an insurance carrier that does) – and on getting three pool renovation quotes from PBs here in North Dallas. During that period, our pool turned into a pond.
Pond Pool Pic --> pool pond.jpg
Yesterday, we decided to empty the pool given its hideousness, potential for mosquitoes this summer, as a safety precaution should our pre-toddler grow up quickly and somehow get into the backyard, and anyway, a PB will be redoing the entire pool anyway within a month or two, we reasoned.
Empty Pool Pic --> empty pool.jpg
I texted the picture of the empty pool to one PB and he cautioned: "Did the hydrostatic plug in the main drain get unscrewed? Needs to be with all the rain coming... best within 24hrs...it takes a "t bar". Indeed, it has been raining for much of the past 24 hours and is still raining right now.
I am a first-time pool owner so I didn't know anything about pools popping and all that. I have no idea about the water table in my area of North Dallas. I went to Home Depot where I had rented the submersible pump yesterday and they had no t bars in inventory. Neither did any retail pool supply stores I called. Nor did the two commercial pool supply companies I called in my area.
I texted my weekly pool cleaning guy (who has been on hiatus since February because we have effectively had no pool for him to clean) about my situation. He didn't have a t bar, nor did the pool supply distributor he visited today. He suggested, "you may go to Home Depot and just get a piece of square tubing that’ll fit over the plug I’ve done that before should be about an inch and a quarter to inch and a half square tubing they’ll fit over the square part of the plug."
So, it sounds like I will have to create my own t bar tool if I want to get this done in the next few hours. Or, wait at least 72 hours for one to come by mail from an online pool supply store.
Questions:
1. Have I made an egregious error in emptying my pool?
2. How much should I be stressing about my empty pool popping given that I don't have a t bar available to me within the next 72 hours?
3. How would I make my own t-bar?
4. Should I just run the hose and add to the 1/2 foot or so of rainwater that has already been collecting in the pool since I emptied it yesterday?
5. Should I just do nothing and not worry about it while waiting for a PB to finally get around to renovating the pool in a month or two?
Thank you in advance for your wise advice and counsel.
A Novice Pool Owner
P.S. -- I couldn't get the photos to upload correctly to this site, thus my DropBox links to the photos.
I live in North Dallas, Texas.
We were recent victims of the Great Texas Power Outage of February 15 - 19. We were out for five days straight with no power during freezing temperatures. That of course rendered our pool's freeze guard feature useless as the freezing temperatures froze our pool and spa real good. All equipment and PVC pipes cracked and are inoperable.
Frozen Pool Pic --> frozen pool.jpg
We've been waiting on our insurance claim – however, we discovered too late that USAA doesn't cover any pool or equipment damage due to ice or snow build up (don't worry, we've already switched to an insurance carrier that does) – and on getting three pool renovation quotes from PBs here in North Dallas. During that period, our pool turned into a pond.
Pond Pool Pic --> pool pond.jpg
Yesterday, we decided to empty the pool given its hideousness, potential for mosquitoes this summer, as a safety precaution should our pre-toddler grow up quickly and somehow get into the backyard, and anyway, a PB will be redoing the entire pool anyway within a month or two, we reasoned.
Empty Pool Pic --> empty pool.jpg
I texted the picture of the empty pool to one PB and he cautioned: "Did the hydrostatic plug in the main drain get unscrewed? Needs to be with all the rain coming... best within 24hrs...it takes a "t bar". Indeed, it has been raining for much of the past 24 hours and is still raining right now.
I am a first-time pool owner so I didn't know anything about pools popping and all that. I have no idea about the water table in my area of North Dallas. I went to Home Depot where I had rented the submersible pump yesterday and they had no t bars in inventory. Neither did any retail pool supply stores I called. Nor did the two commercial pool supply companies I called in my area.
I texted my weekly pool cleaning guy (who has been on hiatus since February because we have effectively had no pool for him to clean) about my situation. He didn't have a t bar, nor did the pool supply distributor he visited today. He suggested, "you may go to Home Depot and just get a piece of square tubing that’ll fit over the plug I’ve done that before should be about an inch and a quarter to inch and a half square tubing they’ll fit over the square part of the plug."
So, it sounds like I will have to create my own t bar tool if I want to get this done in the next few hours. Or, wait at least 72 hours for one to come by mail from an online pool supply store.
Questions:
1. Have I made an egregious error in emptying my pool?
2. How much should I be stressing about my empty pool popping given that I don't have a t bar available to me within the next 72 hours?
3. How would I make my own t-bar?
4. Should I just run the hose and add to the 1/2 foot or so of rainwater that has already been collecting in the pool since I emptied it yesterday?
5. Should I just do nothing and not worry about it while waiting for a PB to finally get around to renovating the pool in a month or two?
Thank you in advance for your wise advice and counsel.
A Novice Pool Owner
P.S. -- I couldn't get the photos to upload correctly to this site, thus my DropBox links to the photos.
