Flooding Procedures for Pools
When the rain is coming down multiple inches by the hour, an overflow drain may not maintain the pool water level. For some people, that could mean water coming into the back of the house.
Appropriate water level in the pool:
Normal circumstances: halfway up the skimmer, give or take an inch.
Torrential rains:
WITH an overflow drain, keep watch on the rate of rainfall and water level rise. Often the overflow drain will keep up. If the water is lapping under the coping and is not holding steady, get busy preparing for another way to drain water from the pool.
WITHOUT an overflow drain, don’t wait until the water level is lapping at the coping.
It’s an individual call on when to act. Experience with your pool and with your area’s downpours makes it an easier decision.
Draining below the skimmers is for extreme circumstances:
1. Turn off your pump and drain below the skimmers. It’s an individual call on how much.
2. Open the Main Drain and shut off the skimmers and follow directions below.
3. *** The equipment valve handles:
ON = handle is perpendicular to or crossing the pipe
OFF = handle is parallel to the pipe
***Never pre-drain your pool entirely. If you do, you risk your pool popping up out of the ground.
To drain water:
1. hose bib/spigot to drain water from the pool: Open up the spigot between the filter and main pump. If that's an unwise place to drain, see #3. Respect your neighbors and drain away from their property. If you need to drain faster to keep up with rainfall, attach hoses to each spigot from other pumps you may have.
2. Important***** pump must be on: Keep the pump on high to get the greatest flow out of the hose. When the pump is on low, it is usually a very low flow rate out of the hose. Use the speed that gives you a margin of safety from the pool overflowing.
3. where to drain: You can attach your garden hose to the pump spigot and drain to a better place - driveway, street, etc. In the Hurricane Harvey situations, we could not have used our deck drains to put the hose end (the deck drains that run to the street). Our street was a rushing river, so my logic (correct or not) said that water with no place to go would all back up in the deck drains. Then the rainfall on the deck couldn't drain. That may not have been true. We ran the hoses to our long driveway which has a decent slope and no chance of pooling near the house.
4. SWG system: Turn off the salt system. There’s no point using up your cell as your pool water drains down the street. Some systems may allow you to turn it off; on others you simply turn the % level down to zero.
5. A Bleach pool: Remember, if you have your swg system turned off, you now need to watch the FC level. When you’re sure the torrential rains are coming, take the FC level up to SLAM level or at least high enough to give you wiggle room for timing of testing (using the breaks from the storm bands to get out there and test or to add more bleach)
6. skimmers: If you're dealing with storms that have bands as with hurricanes or tropical storms, use the break periods from the rain to get the debris out of the skimmers to keep the flow going well.
Alternate Methods to Drain a Pool
1. Filters that drain to waste (not cartridge filters): Turn valves to waste
2. Sump pump: If you have one available and have power, throw that into the pool.
3. The old siphon method: You know, like you used to use when you "borrowed" gas from your neighbor's car...
Fill a garden hose with water and then put one end of a garden hose in the pool and the other end down hill somewhere without damaging anyone’s property.
For vinyl pool owners:
Sand bag the shallow end corners, plastic stair areas, and the center floor of the shallow end. If the liner floats, it won’t walk too far.
For Solar panels:
1) Fill up the solar roof heater. There are cutoff valves on the send and return lines from the panels, so close (very quickly so pump isn’t dead headed for more than a second) the return line. Then send so if wind gets under the panels, they at least have weight. (If you do not have these cut offs, that is something to look into getting.)
Miscellaneous
1. Remove or tie down furniture, pool toys, etc.
2. Divert or block mulch, soil, etc to keep out of the pool.
*** Remember: Don’t risk your life saving your pool during major winds or electrical storms.
You might want to print this out while you have power!
When the rain is coming down multiple inches by the hour, an overflow drain may not maintain the pool water level. For some people, that could mean water coming into the back of the house.
Appropriate water level in the pool:
Normal circumstances: halfway up the skimmer, give or take an inch.
Torrential rains:
WITH an overflow drain, keep watch on the rate of rainfall and water level rise. Often the overflow drain will keep up. If the water is lapping under the coping and is not holding steady, get busy preparing for another way to drain water from the pool.
WITHOUT an overflow drain, don’t wait until the water level is lapping at the coping.
It’s an individual call on when to act. Experience with your pool and with your area’s downpours makes it an easier decision.
Draining below the skimmers is for extreme circumstances:
1. Turn off your pump and drain below the skimmers. It’s an individual call on how much.
2. Open the Main Drain and shut off the skimmers and follow directions below.
3. *** The equipment valve handles:
ON = handle is perpendicular to or crossing the pipe
OFF = handle is parallel to the pipe
***Never pre-drain your pool entirely. If you do, you risk your pool popping up out of the ground.
To drain water:
1. hose bib/spigot to drain water from the pool: Open up the spigot between the filter and main pump. If that's an unwise place to drain, see #3. Respect your neighbors and drain away from their property. If you need to drain faster to keep up with rainfall, attach hoses to each spigot from other pumps you may have.
2. Important***** pump must be on: Keep the pump on high to get the greatest flow out of the hose. When the pump is on low, it is usually a very low flow rate out of the hose. Use the speed that gives you a margin of safety from the pool overflowing.
3. where to drain: You can attach your garden hose to the pump spigot and drain to a better place - driveway, street, etc. In the Hurricane Harvey situations, we could not have used our deck drains to put the hose end (the deck drains that run to the street). Our street was a rushing river, so my logic (correct or not) said that water with no place to go would all back up in the deck drains. Then the rainfall on the deck couldn't drain. That may not have been true. We ran the hoses to our long driveway which has a decent slope and no chance of pooling near the house.
4. SWG system: Turn off the salt system. There’s no point using up your cell as your pool water drains down the street. Some systems may allow you to turn it off; on others you simply turn the % level down to zero.
5. A Bleach pool: Remember, if you have your swg system turned off, you now need to watch the FC level. When you’re sure the torrential rains are coming, take the FC level up to SLAM level or at least high enough to give you wiggle room for timing of testing (using the breaks from the storm bands to get out there and test or to add more bleach)
6. skimmers: If you're dealing with storms that have bands as with hurricanes or tropical storms, use the break periods from the rain to get the debris out of the skimmers to keep the flow going well.
Alternate Methods to Drain a Pool
1. Filters that drain to waste (not cartridge filters): Turn valves to waste
2. Sump pump: If you have one available and have power, throw that into the pool.
3. The old siphon method: You know, like you used to use when you "borrowed" gas from your neighbor's car...
Fill a garden hose with water and then put one end of a garden hose in the pool and the other end down hill somewhere without damaging anyone’s property.
For vinyl pool owners:
Sand bag the shallow end corners, plastic stair areas, and the center floor of the shallow end. If the liner floats, it won’t walk too far.
For Solar panels:
1) Fill up the solar roof heater. There are cutoff valves on the send and return lines from the panels, so close (very quickly so pump isn’t dead headed for more than a second) the return line. Then send so if wind gets under the panels, they at least have weight. (If you do not have these cut offs, that is something to look into getting.)
Miscellaneous
1. Remove or tie down furniture, pool toys, etc.
2. Divert or block mulch, soil, etc to keep out of the pool.
*** Remember: Don’t risk your life saving your pool during major winds or electrical storms.
You might want to print this out while you have power!
but with the expected torrential rains and flooding, it might be wise to bring your pump inside so it does not get some submerged. Or if you do not have unions around your pump perhaps even just bringing in the electric motor.
If I don't order one, I'll be regretting it.