removing brown/muddy water from pool

[garybtru]

Hi all, we had a huge amount of rain (3" within 20 minutes or so) flood our property a couple of weeks ago and I want to try getting the pool back into shape.

Our liner is pulling away from the wall a bit, and the pool is filled with dark brown water which prevents us from seeing the bottom. We had a good 1-2 inches of mud (including water) in our basement so I can only assume there's a bunch of mud sitting at the bottom as well. My question is: is it possible to re-attach the liner? Step 1 would obviously be to drain the gross brown water, but should I use the pole vacuum and vacuum it to waste rather than use the pool's floor drain? Once it's drained, is it possible to re-attach/re-seat the liner?

The local pool store wanted almost $100 just to come and "look at it"!

Thanks a bunch!

 

[YippeeSkippy]

WOW. That's a whole lotta mud!! I'd suggest trying to vacuum the bottom to waste...refill with fresh water as needed... keep the pump and filter running and backwash often...

You do NOT want to empty a vinyl lined pool below 12" in the shallowest end. If you decide to drain some be aware that it may affect your liner. I do believe the liner can be repaired/rehung if it isn't damaged.

May the Force be with you.

Maddie

 

[zea3]

Yes, vacuum to waste and have a hose running to refill the pool while you vacuum. It may take a couple of vacuum and fill cycles to get all the mud out. Judging from the mud on the step it is probably quite a bit of mud down there. When the water gets to around 18" in the shallow end stop vacuuming and let the pool refill. If you notice the sides of the liner start to bulge, you will need to refill at that point so ground water does not cause wrinkles in your liner.

 

[garybtru]

WOW. That's a whole lotta mud!! I'd suggest trying to vacuum the bottom to waste...refill with fresh water as needed... keep the pump and filter running and backwash often...

Thanks, I'll try vacuuming to waste. Do you mean keep the pump and filter running and backwash after the mud is all out and I've refilled it with water? Because If I'm vacuuming to waste, the mud and water will go directly out to the backwash hose, and not touch the sand in the filter, correct?

You do NOT want to empty a vinyl lined pool below 12" in the shallowest end. If you decide to drain some be aware that it may affect your liner. I do believe the liner can be repaired/rehung if it isn't damaged.

Well the liner is already jacked up - I saw it floating away from the walls just before the storm water hit a couple of weeks ago. So it probably needs to at least be re-hung. I don't know how to do that, is it hard to do? Should I still not empty it below the 12" even if I plan on re-hanging it?

 

[zea3]

If there is ground water under the liner you will have a hard time rehanging it. Usually once you remove the ground water the liner will go back in place. Do you know if you have a well point near the pool?

 

[garybtru]

Yes, vacuum to waste and have a hose running to refill the pool while you vacuum. It may take a couple of vacuum and fill cycles to get all the mud out. Judging from the mud on the step it is probably quite a bit of mud down there. When the water gets to around 18" in the shallow end stop vacuuming and let the pool refill. If you notice the sides of the liner start to bulge, you will need to refill at that point so ground water does not cause wrinkles in your liner.

Ok thanks re: the hose and refilling while vacuuming.

We already had a few small wrinkles even before this, and the liner was floating out away from the walls a couple of weeks ago, so I think it may need to be re-hung? I'll have to check as the water level gets lower, but I don't know what to look for. Haha.

We had some guys from the fire dept. begin to drain it, after they got done draining our basement, but they noticed water leaking in between slabs of concrete (behind the liner). So they stopped draining it, and that's why those 2 parts of the liner are pushed out away from the coping.

 

[garybtru]

If there is ground water under the liner you will have a hard time rehanging it. Usually once you remove the ground water the liner will go back in place. Do you know if you have a well point near the pool?

Shoot, ok. Well I guess the water table was just super high because of all that rain, plus we've been getting a lot of rainthis year - it's been raining on and off all summer and spring! It's only rained once in about a week, so it may be lower now. Is there any way to determine the water table level??

There are no wells around that I'm aware of, since we are on village water & sewer. But there is one of these things out in front of our yard and our neighbor's yard:

Not sure if these are sewer vents or old wells, or what.

 

[Bandit5]

Those pipes are clean-out access for your sewer pipe. It shouldn't have anything to do with the pool.

Fixing that liner is actually easy. You want to pour hot water onto the hanging parts of the liner to make it more malleable and then you just push it up back into place. The J-hooks will pull themselves into position. The last time I did, I heated up a tea pot and used that to fit it in only a couple of minutes.

Emptying the pool will only leave you with a floor full of mud that it still hard to clean up. Vacuuming to waste will actually be the easiest and fastest way to clean it out. It is going to take some work though.

 

[zea3]

A well point is a hole in the ground lined with pvc pipe large enough to fit a small submersible pump. So it would be about 6-12" diameter with gravel at the bottom, and some sort of cap on top. It would be located within 6 feet of the deepest part of the pool. It is possible if you have one it would be hidden under the lawn. Did you build the pool or was it already there when you moved in?

You can tell how much ground water you currently have by digging a hole and seeing how deep you can go before you hit water. Water will seep into the hole. If it gushes you probably hit plumbing!

You can go ahead and put the liner back in the track as Bandit5 described. If there are still wrinkles in the floor after you get all the mud out, you can try resetting the liner yourself using a couple of plungers, or you can have a pool company reset it.

 

[garybtru]

A well point is a hole in the ground lined with pvc pipe large enough to fit a small submersible pump. So it would be about 6-12" diameter with gravel at the bottom, and some sort of cap on top. It would be located within 6 feet of the deepest part of the pool. It is possible if you have one it would be hidden under the lawn. Did you build the pool or was it already there when you moved in?

Ohh, okay, I have nooo idea if anything like that exists - yeah, the pool was here when we bought the house back in September.

You can go ahead and put the liner back in the track as Bandit5 described. If there are still wrinkles in the floor after you get all the mud out, you can try resetting the liner yourself using a couple of plungers, or you can have a pool company reset it.

Ah-ha, ok thanks - I'll have to scour Youtube for some videos on that maybe. Any idea what a pool company usually charges to reset a liner?

Edit: tada! How to put your Swimming Pool Liner back in the Track - YouTube

Thanks!

 

[garybtru]

Alright thanks for the help - I got the liner hooked back into its track.

I shut off the floor drain in case it gets clogged and vacuumed out a bunch of the mud last night. Probably still a bunch to go... but I wouldn't know since I can't see the bottom at all, lol. I was watching the water go into the valve from the pump though (we have a clear tube going from the pump to the filter valve) and it was dark, dark brown. So I'd move the vacuum closer to the surface to give it a break from the mud, until the water in the tube coming off the pump cleared up a bit, then went back to sucking up the mud. And repeated that process a bunch. And the fun continues today!

If I put water into the skimmer with a garden hose as I vacuum, can I keep vacuuming until the water level gets way down to 12" in the shallow end? That is, as long as I'm providing water on top of the skimmer, it shouldn't suck any air in there right?