We are new owners of an older pool (late 1960's, in-ground gunnite with fiberglass/gel coat finish, 13,500 gallons, kidney bean style, 3ft shallow end and just under 6' at the deep end) with a number of things in need of attention. We are prioritizing a bit at a time, but pacing ourselves for want of budget, time, and learning. We removed the coping stones all around the perimeter of the pool and decked out over the entire yard with a custom picture-frame finish and fascia around the perimeter - this improved our ability to access the pool without the slip/trip hazards of the uneven landscaping, paver stones, and other mish-mash concrete slabs/decks that surrounded the area originally. Outside of that, the most interesting things thus far have been:
- Procure and cut-to-fit a floating bubble-wrap style solar cover to slightly heat and greatly reduce evaporation of the pool water
- Locate and purchase replacement main pump filters... and clean up the old ones for reuse since, though dirty, they still appear to be serviceable
- Design/Plan, procure, and install parts for a solar thermal water heater as a pre-heater leading to the main gas furnace to reduce heating costs (solar alone can get us up to 92 degree F with several consecutive hot days without the furnace in play... but we can raise it 3 degrees per hour with the two working together)
- Automation (water level top-off, temperature sense, heater enable/disable, low-power conservation mode, etc) with remote (IoT, schedule, manual controls, mobile app)
- Dealing with certain plumbing issues such as air trapped in the lines and best approaches to handling
- Replacing older components including furnace, booster pump (pool sweep), and multi-speed main pump
