HELP.. abandoned pool

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alexl

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Sep 16, 2016
17
Aiken, South Carolina
Hello Everyone,

My wife and i are are likely going to submit an offer on a foreclosed home. The house itself is actually in pretty good condition. The backyard, however, has a lovely swamp that is supposedly a "pool." In all seriousness, the pool is a 20x40 inground liner pool. The pictures below show it's current condition. What would be my best course of action? You cant see through the scum but given the large growth hardwoods and southern pines surrounding the pool, i can only guess at the amount of leaf matter in the pool. The house has been foreclosed since March but my guess is the pool has been abandoned longer than that. The large suction pump does work, the small pump (what is this for?) just hums. I grew up with a liner pool so i have a grasp on general maintenance - but this is an extreme case.
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Alex
 

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Hi, welcome and I will be watching this one with interest. The general process of cleaning such a swamp is to scoop out as much material as possible before following the SLAM process to clear the water Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain there are any number of inspirational threads you may want to read. Also see Turning Your Green Swamp Back into a Sparkling Oasis

Now down to practical stuff that larger pump is your main pool pump, the motor will likely need to be replaced, although it may be possible to repair. If replacing the motor you may want to invest in a 2 speed motor, as it can be ran on low once the pool is cleaned and save considerable electricity over running the energy hog single speed pump. The smaller pump is a dedicated pump used to power a pressure side cleaner, the most common pressure side cleaner are those sold under the Polaris brand. Also in this case you probably need to drain the water down a few inche to see he condition of the liner. Most pool liners start to fail in the normally exposed above water portions first. So this may tell you if a liner replacement is in your near future which would of course mean water replacement. You can expect to pay around $3,500 for a professionally installed liner in a pool that size, just don't skimp and buy an economy liner, in the long run they usually don't last nearly as long as a quality premium liner (think 2-3 years vs 10-12 years so the extra couple of hundred dollars for the premium is well worth it)
 
Welcome to TFP! :wave:

That's actually a beautiful setting for a pool and the decking looks to be in good structural shape.

The smaller pump is a booster pump that's used to run an automatic pool cleaner/vacuum. Long term, you could remove that pump from service and go with a robot cleaner instead if the motor proves to be costly to repair.

Onto the pool... the good news is... the pool holds water! Probably don't have any significant leaks... but that could change when you get the pool cleaned up.

Your first steps, should you chose to not spend $$$ filling in the pool, would be to rent a waste pump and remove at least half the pool volume. Try to put the suction hose for the waste pump in the deep end to remove debris from the bottom while you pump out some water. Then use a leaf rake (hopefully they left you one?) to get as much debris as you can off the bottom. Keep blindly raking the whole bottom until you are coming out fairly clean.

Then you're to the point of refilling to skimmer level and checking out this article: Pool School - Defeating Algae ... that is assuming the liner is in one piece and doesn't need immediate replacement.

Check out Pool School here. Specifically starting with ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry and SLAM Process.
 
Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. Once we go under contract i have 10 business days to do my own inspections with the option to back out if i find something i don't like. I plan to get a trash pump to at least take a few feet of water out of the pool and go ahead and try to get all of the gunk removed and the mosquitos killed. The rest of the back yard (1/2 acre) actually slopes down quite a bit to where the bottom of the yard is lower than the bottom of the pool. Water table is also very deep here (wells are often 400-500') Given this, i don't expect hydrostatic pressure to be too big of an issue if i do have to partially drain the pool. If it is too bad, i may go ahead and fully drain and replace the liner while i am at it.

Alex
 
Congrats on the new pool. I wouldn't be too worried about the green, the water will clean up nicely in a few days/week after you get your equipment running and do the slam/shocking as stated above and balance your chemicals. With vynal liners you do not want to completely drain the pool or even drain pool to low due to possibly pullling the liner up.
I would be more concerned about the pipes/equipment. It doesn't look like the pool was actually winterized? Not sure how cold it gets where you are, but if it freezes and the pool was not running/winterized, you may have issues of leaks in your plumbing. One other item, it looks like you have a sand filter, before you get the pool running you might want to change the media, and backwash often during the cleaning process watching the pressure gauge to keep media filtering. Good luck.
 

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alexl said:
GREAT SUGGESTION! any ideas on how to start the siphon on that large of a hose? i would prefer not to take a big gulp of that soup!

Alex
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I don't blame you on that one! You might not like the fastest/easiest way much better though: since the pump works, holding the hose in front of a return will fill the hose almost instantly, but with the level that high, you may have to reach far down to reach the return.

Another method is to just sink the hose in the pool. Cap the outside end with your hand or a plug until it's below siphon level.
 
blue pool said:
Congrats on the new pool. I wouldn't be too worried about the green, the water will clean up nicely in a few days/week after you get your equipment running and do the slam/shocking as stated above and balance your chemicals. With vynal liners you do not want to completely drain the pool or even drain pool to low due to possibly pullling the liner up.
I would be more concerned about the pipes/equipment. It doesn't look like the pool was actually winterized? Not sure how cold it gets where you are, but if it freezes and the pool was not running/winterized, you may have issues of leaks in your plumbing. One other item, it looks like you have a sand filter, before you get the pool running you might want to change the media, and backwash often during the cleaning process watching the pressure gauge to keep media filtering. Good luck.
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Thanks! ill leave as much water as possible and go fishing for the solid stuff.. haha. the wildlife in there may not appreciate it. I believe the plumbing is okay. There is rarely a hard freeze here, the plumbing that is above ground appears fine, and the frost line is only 9-10 inches.

Alex
 
I would be careful draining down below 1/2 for right now. While water table is a factor with a liner pool you don't know the condition of the walls. You don't want a wall collapse. Though it looks like its old but in good condition.

A good trash pump and a good leaf net will be your best friends here. Rig up a pole so you can direct the hose around in the pool like a vacuum.
 
Amail said:
If you've got 10 business days to decide, maybe draining the pool completely can be considered part of your due diligence. If the wall collapses or you find something you don't like, well, how else would you find out?
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That isn't a very good plan. Draining the pool will create problems that don't currently exist. Vinyl pools should not be completely drained, always leave at least a foot of water in the shallow end to prevent liner shifting, shrinking, cracking, wall collapse. Those things won't happen if you don't drain the pool.
 

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