Swimming pools blog

Greetings everyone,
I’ve been away from this group since we closed our pool last fall,
but we have been busy getting it ready for this season. All we need
now is a few more degrees!
At the close of last season we accepted that we’d need to repaint
the pool - a major and costly job, and beyond our experience.
Perhaps other pool owners do this routinely? Here’s a summary if
anyone is interested.
Pool:
Gunite (shot concrete).
Size (in feet): 18 x 38
Pool depth (in feet): one third 9+ feet, two-thirds 4 feet
Water volume (in cubic feet): 3,031
Water volume in US gals: 22,675
History:

Built: 1964
Purchased (by us): 2001
Last Paint: Probably 2001
Paint type: Matches the house colour…
Major Repairs: New skimmer. New suction side pipes. New pump, new
booster pump, new Polaris sweeper. Added solar panels and
controller. Removed old gas heater. New cartridge filter (up from
100 to 400 sq. ft.). New under water light fixture and added CGFI
protection. Rewired branch circuit and timers.
As you can see, we’ve invested quite a bit of effort (and $$) to
keep the pool in good repair, while upgrading it to reduce
maintenance and operating costs.
Paint History:
We suspected that the pool was painted to make the home more
attractive for sale, and that ordinary house paint was used. After
two seasons we got a lot of paint debris in the filter, and wear
marks in high traffic areas. During the third season the paint
started to fade to dark brown- mostly at the water line but
gradually down about two feet. We suspect sunlight damage to the
paint.
Last season we had trouble maintaining a good FC (Free Chlorine)
level, had cloudy water, high TDS (Total Dissolved Solids - 1500ppm)
and high Cyanuratic Acid levels (200ppm against a sub 50ppm target).
The water has not been drained, except when the skimmer and under
ground pipes was replaced, and then only down about 3ft to clear the
work area.
Prep:
We rented a gas powered 2in pump (rated to 1875 gals/hour) and
pumped the pool into the service sewer. It took about five hours to
reach the bottom drain (last few inches could not be drained with
this equipment).
We did on-line research for new paint and concluded that a two part
epoxy finish would last up to eight years.
Painting Contractor:
Next, we got a painting contractor to bid the project and buy the
materials. He wanted to break out the old tile (at the waterline)
but we decided to keep it, even with cracks and scratches.
Pool Tub Cracked:
We did discover a hair-line crack across the shallow end, near the
house, and had already noticed cracked tiles where the hair-line
crosses the water line. The coping is also cracked in that area. We
suspect the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake (or an earlier one). We know
the person we bought the house from sued the neighbour over “a
crack” that was claimed to be from the neighbour `s tree roots. (We
bought from a nasty person, as we hear other stories from the
neighbours. We had to undo some other questionable work on the
house, not to mention the undisclosed and hidden structure fire in
the pool house attic).
Painting Prep:
The contractor chose to pressure wash the pool, removing a lot of
loose (powdered) paint, but leaving large patches that did not come
off. After a debate with the contractor and phone calls to the paint
vendor’s tech folks, I decided to sand blast the rest of the work
over the weekend. I purchased a 60lb sand blaster and used my
existing air compressor. The sand was salvaged from another yard
project and screened of debris and dried in the sun before blasting
it.
The work went smoothly until I fell off the ladder into the deep end
and fractured my Left Humerus Proxima, tore up the soft tissues in
the shoulder, bent the aluminium ladder, and spend some painful time
in the Emergency Room. (It now two weeks later I’m on the mend, X-
Rays look good and I’m just starting physical therapy for the
shoulder).
Bait and switch:
The painting contractor tried to move the project to Acrylic paint.
Bzzzt. Not what we wanted. Suggested sprayer painting. Bzzt, not
allowed. Then tried to skip the epoxy undercoat Bzzt, again.
Finally, agreed to buy the exact materials I had spec’d and apply
them with a 1/2in nap roller. We prevailed. Two coats of undercoat
went on one day apart, then two coats of top coat one day apart. We
waited seven days for full cure and turned on the water.
This is a contractor that we’ve used before, and he is a neighbour
from our old place that we sold in 2001 - I guess he operates to
survive in this line of work. We part as friends.
Refill:
I tried to remove some sand in the bottom drain, and washed the
walls down with a garden hose. The new finish is deadly slippery,
and I wasn’t able to enter and exit the deep end without a tow rope.
I gave up on the work after falling down on the slope.
We turned on the water over the three day weekend, giving us a
chance to monitor the progress. We used the water company’s meter in
the street to measure the water, and shut it down for the garden
sprinklers and our showers. We didn’t bother to subtract out the
other water uses (mostly flushing toilets). We now know the pools
volume (22,675 us gals or 3031 cubic feet), I had estimated 26,000
gals from the size dims before we drained it. Not sure how much the
new water will cost (estimated from $350 to $600).
The pumps could not be turned on until the water reached the skimmer
port, after about forty hours of run time. We did a further three
hours to reach the top of the tiles. We could then turn on the solar
heater.
The water came in at 68degF, pH of over 7.8 (beyond the tester’s
range) and although chlorinated by the city, we couldn’t measure any
FC. We added chlorine as soon as there was a few inches in the pool,
and monitored the water as it filled up.
The solar panels came to life at 8am yesterday, and with the cover
on over night I think it will add one or two degrees per day. We are
at 73deg today - too cold for me!
Comments Welcome!
Peter