Neighbor complained: Draining pool.

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Thinkly

Thinkly

Well-known member
Oct 12, 2009
326
Overland Park, KS
For the first time since I've owned a pool I had a neighbor confront me because my pool draining " flooded" his back yard and he couldn't mow.

This neighbor lives 2 doors down and oddly enough the neighbor between us didn't say anything.

Anyway, I drain my pool out behind my back fence. There is a city owned multi use path that is built up behind all of our houses which tends to chanel water laterally instead of towards the street. (There are no houses behind any of our properties, only the walking path.)

I can sympathize with his feelings and I guess I'll have to find a new option and divert the water out in to the street in front of our houses. However I'm anticipating I might get even more complaints. With a 2" hose and 9 hours of draining, I'm almost certain someone will complain about the water in the street. What does the law say on this?
 
Could you just ask him when he is going to mow the next time you need to drain and do it afterwards..free yard watering for him...


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In my city, it is against code to drain pool water into street/storm drains. We are required to drain into the plumbing system clean outs of the house. If you do this, be careful not to flood the house. You should frequently check inside make sure the plumbing system is not overwhelmed.
 
I've thought of discussing with him next time to see if he is going to be mowing. Hard to tell if he'll be agreeable. His attitude today was like I was trying to flood his house intentionally which I wasn't. And there is no way it could reach his house anyway if graded properly, which it probably is. These are all newer houses.

Funny thing is he probably never even would have figured out where it was coming from if he didn't happen to ride his riding mower behind my house to see it.
 
In my city, it is against code to drain pool water into street/storm drains. We are required to drain into the plumbing system clean outs of the house.
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My small town does not have such a code but I do this anyway--and the five neighbors who have stained (temporarily, it eventually goes away within a year) the cement curbs and streets by draining into the road got a kind lesson from me on how to properly drain. To me, code or no code, mowing neighbors or whatever, this is the proper way to drain.

I get that if you live out on five+ acres somewhere OR do not have city sewer, draining out in a field or country road is no issue. But in a subdivision type area, it seems kind of being a bad neighbor. No offense to anyone, just the way I look at things.

That said, I still backwash into my side yard but it drains well and never creates a problem--and obviously much less water than full drain. Even still, I feel a little bad about it and have plans to extend my backwash opening underground and tie it into my drain tap in the front flower bed. However, doing so would require disrupting the beds. I have designs on redoing the landscaping in that area (been talking about it for ??? years), so figure I will do that when I tear up the beds--two birds with one stone.

I guess my only question is why a full drain. I see you are in Kansas, so you situation (and winters) is far different than what we have in North Texas but a full drain? Maybe this is only occasional but I inferred it was an annual occurrence. I have had to drain half my pool a couple of times because CYA got too high but I never understood, excepting for CYA or replaster or repair, the need for an annual full drain. Not judging, just interested to know why this would be a regular thing.

- - - Updated - - -

And yes, if you drain into main tap, be sure to check the lowest drain inside your house (usually a tub) for water backing up. It is rare and after about 30 minutes, if it is not backing up, no worries to check again. Of course, if it is backing up, likely you have a blockage between that point and out to street that will need to be addressed, not just for pool water but your overall plumbing will become problematic if you do not rectify.
 
I had this nightmare with my neighbor across the alley. Difference was that no water went onto anybodys property at all!! It went into the alley and channeled perfectly down the middle to the main street and right into the storm drain. So far he has called the building department, code enforcement, environmental services, and the epa. I tried very hard to keep him happy until it made me miserable then I just quit caring, he was a butthead. My city allows us to drain it onto our property and if it runs off no harm no foul, just cant pump it directly into the street.
 
I'm confused, is this just simple backwashing or are you actually draining all 10,000 gallons? If you are draining your pool, then why would it happen so frequently as to bother a neighbor? There is typically never a need to drain a pool on any regular basis...
 

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Like Matt I'm confused is this backwash or a pool drain? There are few reasons to regularly drain a pool.

The American rule on this situation is that the downhill owner must accept and deal with the natural flow from the uphill owner. If the flow is channeled, increased or artificial it is the responsibility of the uphill owner. Since this is artificial it is the responsibility of the uphill owner. This doesn't take into account things like the common enemy doctrine or local law but I doubt those apply
 
Well, just as a funny aside.....

Our local municipality (I'm outside the corporate limits)has funny rules. A friend inside the city just built a pool. Included in his paperwork from the city regarding the permit was a notice that any pool water discharge off the property into either storm drains or city sewer MUST be de-chlorinated prior to discharge. When he called to ask how to do that he informed them his would be a "salt" pool. Their response was, OK, don't worry about it. We don't regulate salt pools, only chlorine pools......
 
gwegan said:
Like Matt I'm confused is this backwash or a pool drain? There are few reasons to regularly drain a...
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I usually try to drain at least some water at every opening mainly due to my use of stabilized chlorine.

This year I drained till I got the CYA to ~ 40. That happened to take a LOT of draining.

Coincidentally my last post that someone linked to just so happened to mention that I had this brilliant theory to just use Trichlor and drain annually. Probably not a bad idea but as Murphy's law has it, fixing one problem creates another.

My CYA is low now so I won't be draining for awhile. I'm going to forgo using stabilized chlorine as long as I can, which is usually about the time I get tired of lugging bleach bottles around. ?
 
Thinkly said:
Where do you get trichlor without stabilizer?
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There is none.

I think scooperhsd means no stabilizer in addition to what the triclor adds.

scooperhsd said:
I use Trichlor too, but I NEVER use pool stabilizer (only what is in the trichlor) - with all my shade, I don't need to worry about the sun burning off my chlorine. My CYA is typically below 10 .
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scooperhsd said:
I use Trichlor too, but I NEVER use pool stabilizer (only what is in the trichlor) - with all my shade, I don't need to worry about the sun burning off my chlorine. My CYA is typically below 10 .
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Sun burn off is half the story. The other is the fact that the CYA buffers the FC and makes the water less harsh on skin, hair, and suits ... even though the actual FC level needs to be a little higher.
 
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