foreclosure pool -- clean pool, then start testing equipment?

[Burntwoods]

Hi all -

We just recently bought a foreclosure with an inground cement pool + spa. It seems to have been mostly covered, but there is still a lot of debris that has gotten in.

I know that we'll need to get most of the leaf & branch debris out (and ensure there are no lawn chairs or similar at the bottom) before we do anything else.

I guess my question is when can we start to test the equipment? Much of it seems to be in pretty rough shape, so we expect to have to replace some things. I know that we can't start a SLAM process without knowing that the pump runs, but how do we know when it'll be (probably) safe to try the pump?

Some photos of the pool and condition of the equipment:
Pool - Album on Imgur


Thanks
Matt

 

[Arizonarob]

Before you turn anything on, I would seriously clean out all the dead overgrowth around the equipment. If anything sparks etc, you could have a serious fire on your hands.
I’ll let the pros chime in on the rest.

~Rob

 

[Burntwoods]

Oh, yes, totally agree about that!

I think that the prior owners liked having a visual screen between the pool and the equipment. That "screen" has turned into an "overgrown wall" after two years of no yard maintenance!

 

[Jimrahbe]

Matt,

If all your want to do is check to see what is running, as soon as you get all the floating debris out of the pool you can test things out. Lawn chairs in the bottom of the pool will have little impact on your testing..

I would not even think about SLAMing or any real water maintenance until all the sludge is removed, including the odd lawn chair...

Obviously, you need to clean the pump and skimmer baskets before turning anything on...

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Jimrahbe]

On second thought... I would open up the filter and see what it looks like first... before turning anything on. If you get really lucky the cartridges might be in good enough shape to run while you get rid of the Algae. If in really bad shape it would make sense to replace them before pushing 'junk' through the rest of your plumbing and equipment.