Old pool, pipes leaking, concrete deck cracked, need help

15 years ago

Hello all and especially Muddy (I have read lots of your postings here),

I am in need of help. Here is the situation:

We bought a house last year with IG pool, which has been neglected for more than 8 years (neighbor's testimony). When I opened the cover last fall it was a swamp underneath. I poured a ton of chemicals and within 3 days it was a blue cloudy water. That is when I gave up and closed it for the spring.

Last week we opened it, the swamp was back. I shocked, and shocked, and threw many bottles of algaecide etc, until the water got blue and cloudy again. Some foam appeared and after going through many forums, I got a solution to that, too. In the basket of the pump I placed 5 giant tabs of chlorine and the next morning we had a miracle - I could see the bottom. I was vacuuming and cleaning the filter (D.E.) all along, as it would get frequently clogged with algae and debris.

At this point I should say that I did also something I read about in the forums and I need your help assessing if this was a big mistake or not: I bought from Lowes a bottle of Root Kill and threw 2 tbl spoons (18,000 gal pool). On the bottle it says 99% Copper Sulphate, which is what I was looking for to kill the remaining algae.

Now all looks good, the water is clean, but smells of chlorine, and I still do not dare swim in it. Here is why:

Once the water got clean, the terrible truth got revealed - a dead squirrel at the bottom. It must have died last fall when I attempted cleaning the pool. The poor creature was still intact but some of its skin fell off when I was pulling it out of the water. I vacuumed everything, but I am afraid that it is not safe to swim in this water. The pool guy in the store claimed that I can disinfect with more shock and chlorine and also that there is NO way I can drain the water and replace it.

Finally, the concrete deck around is all cracked, and more worrisome - I believe that I have leaking water lines feeding the pool. The pool is vinyl 15x30 4ft to 7 ft. The reason why I think the pipes are leaking is that when the pump works and the filter is clean, I loose about 2" to 3" over night. The amount I lose is smaller when the filter is clogged. Also, around the edges of the concrete deck, when I dig a bit in the ground, water surfaces and it smells of chlorine.

My questions:

1. Is it safe after all the chemicals I poured in, to swim in the pool in which I found the dead animal?

2. I would like to change the feeding lines but they are under tons of concrete. How to do that?

3. I also would like to change the concrete with flagstone. Can I do that with the pool filled up? Is there a risk for the pool to collapse if I remove the concrete blocks in order to put the flagstone?

I know the posting is long, but I think the info is important. Thanks to anyone who has read it and I will appreciate your responses.

Best,

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Comments (6)

tresw
15 years ago
Hello, what you are smelling is not chlorine, it is CC (combined chloramines) and indicates your pool is fighting something. You need to run a full test of your water with the following determined at a minimum: FC (free chlorine), CC (combined chloramines), PH, TA (total alkalinity) and CYA. Post the results here and we can give you some more specific info on what to do. When you have gunk in your pool and you start shocking it, it will use up the FC you dump in there almost as soon as it hits the water. So you have to keep testing and adding more FC every few hours. The goal is to stabilize the FC at a high level and hold it there for a couple of days to kill everything off, then you can bring it back down to normal. Once you clear the CC's out the smell and cloudiness will go away.

You may want to quit buying stuff from the pool store and switch over to BBB (see link below) to shock the pool. If you get a good test kit (see link below for that too) then you can take care of this using bleach, borax and baking soda from the store of your choice and doing all the testing yourself. It's a lot cheaper than buying the armloads of stuff the pool store will tell you that you need!

No good news on the leaking lines, if they have to be replaced you're going to have to tear out the concrete to do it. You may want to hire a leak detection company that specializes in pools to pinpoint exactly where the leaks are.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.troublefreepool.com/viewtopic.php?t=5208
picha69
Original Author
15 years ago
Hi,

I am very grateful for your fast response. With my wife we discussed what to do first, and we arrived at the conclusion that it makes no sense of pouring more chemicals in the water until we fix the leak. Perhaps, I will just keep running the filter every now and then for the sake of keeping the water fresh.

I bought a test kit and tonight I will do the tests and post them here.

As for the BBB, wow! that is great. Thank you so much for posting it here...

I still would like to ask about the dangers of removing the tons of concrete from the surface for the structure of the pool - is it safe?

Thank you,

L
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jennifer_in_clyde
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It should be safe to remove - the concrete is only the top few inches - there is a lot of soil holding that pool up and where it belongs. I'd talk with a professional about what you need to do to get the leaks fixed - sounds like it may be a big projects - but worthwhile if you can fix the leaks and replace the concrete with the flagstone you want. Many people "remodel" pools to change the coping, liner or plaster, and upgrade or replace decking - you just want to make sure you know what all you want to do and make sure the steps are in the right order so you don't have to tear out newly installed decking to make repairs.

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picha69
Original Author
15 years ago
Jennifer and Tresw,

Thanks a lot for your advice. In fact, we swam today in the pool, yeaaaahhhH! Well, not really swimming, because the water was cold, about 60F and because I let the garden hose running in fresh water for an hour to lift up the level, but as a side effect it got even colder...

But the clarity is now great. It is amazing comparing to a week ago, when was a swamp... What a miracle. I got the 4 way test kit, as suggested by TRESW and the readings were not that bad. Chlorine was really really low 0.4-0.6, but Ph was just right 7.6 and TA was 80 ppm (could have been 70 ppm, but with the background coloring I could not really say).

The leaks are really big issue though. I broke the cement around the skimmer and now I can see the top plastic of the feeding tunnel (about 3-4 inches deep down), and it has about 0.5 inches water. What is even more worrisome is that the water is about 2" above the pool level, which means that the walls are all filled up with water all the way to the concrete deck and it is overflowing from any crack the water can get through.

Also, the lines around the concrete deck are wet, as I dug about an inch deep around and now water started amassing around. And this is on the other side of the pool... I am having a serious leakage, that is for sure. I will rent these days a power hammer from Home depot and I intend to break to pieces the deck. The problem is I have not decided what to do with the debris yet. Any suggestions?

As for the dead animal, I am no longer worried. I cleaned, and shocked, and cleaned, and shocked and now I believe there is nothing left from it... I hope. I certainly will avoid any contact of the water with my mouth for the next month or so, but overall I think I am over this now :)

Thanks for all support and advice. If something else comes out, please shoot. I am ready to make some pics and post them online for discussion.

Best,

Lubo
barco
15 years ago
Concrete is not easy to get rid of it. Most dumps won't even take it. Try and find a concrete recycler....they may take it for free.
picha69
Original Author
15 years ago
I am more and more inclined to cut only pieces where the pipes are, to replace them, to patch with sand and to lay the flagstone all over the concrete, leaving easy access to the pipes shall I need it in the future. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

L

Old pool, pipes leaking, concrete deck cracked, need help

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