New Home With Old Pool - Need Some Help!

[brantdkuehn]

I'm buying a beautiful old home in upstate New York that comes with a pool in need of some work. It's perfectly usable, but looks pretty rough. Problem is, I know nothing about pools and am a bit confused about the pool itself. It's not plaster over gunite, but it doesn't seem to be a one-piece fiberglass pool either - it seems to have seams. Knowing what exactly this pool is would help me get the right folks out to the house to give estimates (many contractors are pretty far away and I don't want to ask folks to make a long trip if it's not the type of pool they work on). Any advice? Pictures are attached.

Two more questions to start off:

The pool is plumbed for a gas heater, but the heater is broken and disconnected. I'd like to buy and install a new one to extend the season. Any recommendations? Are the combo heat pump/gas units worth considering? The house will mostly be used on the weekend, so I'm inclined to just stick with gas.

The deck around it is just concrete. We were planning on just doing whole new hardscaping, but I'm wondering if folks have had good luck with any of the concrete renewal / resurfacing products.

For context, eventually (say, in 10 years), we may want to replace the whole thing. But for now, I'd just like to make it look nicer for a bit and spend money on other projects.

Thanks in advance!
Brant

 

[ajw22]

Welcome to TFP.

Sounds like you have a Hybrid Pools - Further Reading

No one knows how to work on them anymore as they are not built now.

What size is your gas line? What size is the old gas heater?

Look at the Pentair MasterTemp or Raypak Avia heaters. Get a heater that someone locally repairs.

 

[kimkats]

What a pretty yard! Allen has you covered on what kind of pool it is. I will talk to you about how to freshen it and the area up.

I would get a power washing and get to work on the deck. You will be surprised how nice even plain concrete looks clean. I would NOT put anything on it as far as stain or paint as when that goes it looks even worst and it almost impossible to get all of it off so that puts you on the cycle of cleaning and redoing over and over again.

The with parts around the pool-I would get a Magic Eraser and see what it does on a very small part. If it helps then use that to clean it all.

I would do the same thing on the skimmer opening to see if it can be cleaned.

Good luck and let us know if it works!

 

[brantdkuehn]

Thank you both very much! Now that you've flagged the hybrid pool, that is definitely what it is. Thank you! Having reviewed the link you provided, Allen, it seems like the main options, in order of expense, would be:

1. Clean up and repaint;
2. Install a vinyl liner;
3. Replace top level with new gunite (or spray gunite inside of top level) and then plaster/tile whole thing;
4. Just dig a new pool.

If anyone has any other advice, would love to hear it! Re the new liner, years ago I would have stayed away from that option, but we have been renting a place for a couple weeks a year with a lined pool and it is awesome - no scrapes, nice color. I'll research the board, but seems it may be a good option. Would appreciate any advice folks have though.

Re: the heater, it is an older Teledyne Laars One Series, photo attached. I'm not sure the size, but the pool at the house we rent has a 400k btu heater, and this pool is about the same size. But I'll take your advice and call around for a professional who can check the gas supply, etc.

Re the concrete deck - thank you, Kimkats. I was actually thinking of something like Renukrete rather than stain or paint. From reviewing the forum, it seems people have decent experiences with it.