Pool Work at the Bamboo Lagoon

This is the first home we have owned that has a pool. Five years of renting the house out and having to rely on inconsistent renters and somewhat lazy pool companies meant that the pool was a big project for me when finally moving to the house. As you can see from these first two pictures, the pool was covered at the end of the last season by the pool company but it wasn't done very well. They took parts off the pump and filter and "hid" them, which means it is halfway amazing that the pool is even functioning without us having to spend a small fortune to make it happen.

We were hoping that the water on top of the tarp would evaporate but no such luck. Mom and I had to unscrewed boards that were fastened to the deck on all sides of the pool, and then pull the tarp from both sides down towards one end of the pool. Foolishly we thought we were going to be able to pull the water and debris on the tarp up onto the deck and keep it all from going into the actual pool water, but reality was that there was no way, we were going to be able to pull the equivalent of a water bed up onto the deck. We did skim most of the debris off and we unfortunately didn't think of siphoning the water off until after the task was completed.

Once we got the cover off, we realized that the water beneath was in pretty reasonable condition. The pool was not filled with algae and the water was clear. It was very low so first off we had to put the hose in it to start filling it to get it to a level that would let us turn on all the equipment and see where we were on things. It took almost two days of running the hose almost non-stop to get the pool filled to the skimmer basket. I am terrified what that water bill is going to look like...LOL. Once the pool got to the right level, I went to check out the pump house and noticed water pouring out of the bottom of the pump from two different spots. I opened up the pump skimmer area and found two black screw in plugs beneath the basket and used them to close the two spots. Next, I tried turning on the system and realized that there was a cap of some sort missing from the top of the filter dome. I searched around some more in the bottom of the pumphouse and found another cap and put it on the filter dome. This reduced the water squirting out but didn't completely fix the issue (meaning there was probably a missing o-ring). I decided my best bet might be contacting a new pool company to have them come out and show me how everything is supposed to work so I didn't accidently mess something up.

Later in the week, my cousin came over and I turned the pump back on so he could see what I was talking about regarding the water squeaking out, and at this time, we discovered the leak in the solar heating system. We turned the system back off and I waited until my visit with the pool company. Joe came out and showed me how to run everything. He tested the water, found that it was pretty well balanced but obviously needed chlorine. He added 6 lbs of chlorine to the pool, gave me an o-ring for the top plug on the filter dome. We discussed vacuuming, skimming, brushing, testing and chemicals. As we were getting ready to close things down, he noticed water coming from another spot at the bottom of the filter dome. Turns out there was yet one more plug that the old pool company removed and "hid" from us that was missing. We managed to locate it and close that hole and everything seemed to be working well.

Since then, I have been running the pump as I should, testing the water, skimming, and vacuuming. The water is pretty good, while there still is a bit of debris on the bottom that I am working on getting rid of. It is a maintenance job on a weekly basis but for the most part, it has come along really well. Fixing the solar heating is next on the agenda and I am eager to see how warm the pool will be after that is done. I still have not swam in it, but that is coming up this week for sure. I am looking forward to getting the last of the debris out of it so it will be clear and clean!