New, proud owner of neglected 50 year old gunite pool

[ulrichsd]

Took the pump apart and can not get the impeller unstuck. Talked to a pool maintenance person and he said to replace the pump 1.5 hp jacuzzi would be $300 plus removing the heater (doesn't work) and labor $120. It has a Polaris and pump but that doesn't work either. He said down the road he could replace it with some cleaner system that would be about $1200 (forget the name but has a hose that stirs up the bottom and moves it around or fix the Polaris.

Also, should I look at replacing the pump with a variable speed or one with the safety shut off?

Thanks,
Scott

 

[onestout]

Looks like you have a deck that needs staining also. We just bought our house with a pool at the beginning of this month with neglected deck that needs work as well. Our pool wasn't kept up the best but was in pretty good shape. We bought a 2200 sq./ft house and it has 2600 sq. ft. of deck I'm going to be spending the next couple weekends working on the deck watching the kid swim instead of being in there also. Follow the advice given on here and things will go fine, good luck.

 

[ulrichsd]

Yes our deck definitely needs staining! Another project on the list so will get it done before winter! Try to find a little time to get in there with the family!

 

[mfederwi]

We remodeled our 50+ year old pool last year. One thing to consider would be thin pavers instead of tearing out and replacing all of the concrete. Our deck and some major cracks and broken up areas. Those small areas were torn out and new concrete poured. We then covered everything with thin pavers which are about 1 1/4 inch thick and they also have a matching coping. The cost of this was much less than tearing every thing out. Attached is a pic of the final product. The pool was actually steel with a concrete bottom. We tiled the sides and the bottom was plastered. I would also vote for the automatic cover, keeps everything clean, minimizes water and chemical loss and it is safe.
Mark

 

[ulrichsd]

Great looking pool! Thanks, it's good to have some other options to consider. Right now we are looking at $10k for replaster and $15k for replacing the decking. Their previous owner put down a pebble coating that is coming up so not sure how to get that off but would probably need to for that option

 

[Pflugerpool]

I bought a house with a 50 year old, 20x50 gunite in-ground pool. When we were looking at the house the selling realtor told us they didn't open the pool last season. During inspection, the sellers then said it hadn't been opened the "last couple of seasons". After moving in, the neighbor says "they haven't opened the pool in at least five years...

I dunno, maybe it's kind of like watching a car wreck, but I wanna see what was under that cover!

 

[ulrichsd]

Here you go: plenty of tap poles, cracks, debris, and missing tiles

You can see at the top right where the pebble substrate goes over the coping and entire sections off the stuff have fallen off.

 

[rabbet]

Does your pool have seams and square corners? My 64 year old pool does and they are real crud catchers and hard to clean. If you have the same, I'm wondering if the corners could be rounded and the seams eliminated as part of a resurfacing project.

 

[ulrichsd]

I don't know about seems but it does have square corners. I can ask the guy before the work starts.

It also has a standing ledge around the deep end so you can stand by the wall I guess, but those corners will probably collect dirt also.

 

[rabbet]

It would be great if you could show pictures of your progress. Are you doing the work this summer? Then would you fill the pool and close for the winter? Or are you waiting until next year?

 

[ulrichsd]

Thanks for the interest! I promise to post pictures but currently there is no progress, but we are going to do the work this fall. I talked with my bank last week and they said I'll be able to get a HELOC but waiting for it to finalize so we can start.

I've lined up a concrete and pool resurfacer. It is going to be $12,000 for the pool resurfacing and tile work (including up to 15% replastering), with up to an extra $2500 if they have to replaster more than 15%.

I scaled down the concrete dimensions to 5' in the front, back and deep end and 10' on the shallow end by the stairs. It is going to be $12,000 for the pool concrete (stamped) and coping, and another $5000 for the patio.

I will keep everyone updated!

 

[ulrichsd]

Officially getting started! Tearing out the concrete today.

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

Fun to watch the project. Please keep the pictures coming as the progress continues !

 

[Patrick_B]

Yea, I like these re-dos. We've seen worse for sure, and this one will be a nice transformation I'm sure.

 

[rabbet]

Wonderful to see. Please keep the pictures coming.

And the pool appears to be holding water, so no leaks in the tank, which is v. good.

 

[bmoreswim]

Did an autocover make it into the mix?

 

[bmoreswim]

Deleted for accidental duplicate.

 

[ulrichsd]

We did not go with the autocover, just out of the budget.

I am thinking of adding a pool light if anyone had any advice or recommendations. Have not got an estimate yet.

 

[bmoreswim]

I hear you on the cover budget. Our pool is less some goodies because of the expense.

No recommendation other than the fact that we LOVE our 2 color changing LED's. We have the Hayward. Many also have Pentair.

 

[ulrichsd]

Here's the current layout. I will add the pavers section later when we can afford it.

Thinking about one led light in the deep end pointing toward the shallow end. We have 8 floodlights on the house which illuminates things pretty well too.