Can I make my pool dormant for 12 years

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knowolive2000
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Can I make my pool dormant for 12 years

Postby knowolive2000 » Wed 11 Aug, 2010 20:47

I bought a vacation house with a 10X30 in ground pool in central Florida. I do not know anything about pools. I do not want remove the pool. I would not use the pool more than 1 week per year. I will not permanently live in the house for 12 years. I do not want to pay for regular pool maintenance. I do want to use it once I move there permanently. How do I make the pool dormant for 12 years? Can I drain it, leave the drain open and store the filter and pumps and build a deck over the top? If I must fill it with something, can I fill it with sand to stabilize the walls then remove the sand when I want to use it again? I understand there will be some start-up costs. What is the best way to do this? Thanks.


floridapooltech
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Can I make my pool dormant for 12 years

Postby floridapooltech » Wed 11 Aug, 2010 22:53

knowolive2000 wrote:I bought a vacation house with a 10X30 in ground pool in central Florida. I do not know anything about pools. I do not want remove the pool. I would not use the pool more than 1 week per year. I will not permanently live in the house for 12 years. I do not want to pay for regular pool maintenance. I do want to use it once I move there permanently. How do I make the pool dormant for 12 years? Can I drain it, leave the drain open and store the filter and pumps and build a deck over the top? If I must fill it with something, can I fill it with sand to stabilize the walls then remove the sand when I want to use it again? I understand there will be some start-up costs. What is the best way to do this? Thanks.


This is fairly strange as most people will either use the pool if they have one, or knock out the bottom and fill it in if they don't want it. While you may have a hydrostatic relief valve in the main drain, I wouldn't trust it too much as our water table in Florida is an average of 8 ft. ASL. Basically, you will have water not too far under the pool at all times no matter where you are in FL, also, when we have a big storm such as a hurricane (which we do often), it will cause that ground water table to raise, therefore you are at serious risk for a hydrostatic incident (pool pop), which will cost you your pool.
knowolive2000
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My Pool: In ground 10 X 30 X 6

Can I make my pool dormant for 12 years

Postby knowolive2000 » Thu 12 Aug, 2010 12:08

swimnsaveusa,

Can I fill it with sand to prevent pool pop then remove the sand when I want to use it? I understand the drain may get sand in it. I was hoping to water jet it out when I reopen the pool.

Thanks.
floridapooltech
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Can I make my pool dormant for 12 years

Postby floridapooltech » Thu 12 Aug, 2010 12:18

knowolive2000 wrote:swimnsaveusa,

Can I fill it with sand to prevent pool pop then remove the sand when I want to use it? I understand the drain may get sand in it. I was hoping to water jet it out when I reopen the pool.

Thanks.


the problem is, without water in the pool, the surface will begin to deteriorate quite rapidly, leaving you with thousands of dollars in damage. Also, when water pressure begins to rise under the pool, it will start pushing that ground water through your hydrostatic relief valve. With sand in the pool (main drain too), sand will then get lodged in the valve keeping it slightly open. When you go to "use" your pool years down the road, even though you may think you have all the sand out, it only takes one tiny particle to keep that hydrostatic valve from shutting all the way causing a "leak" in your pool water that you may never even realize this issue that caused it. Honestly, the best option would be to just keep water in the pool, install a salt system which will maintain the chemistry for the most part for you, then leave it at that.
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Can I make my pool dormant for 12 years

Postby chem geek » Thu 12 Aug, 2010 15:51

If the pool is kept covered with an opaque cover, then that will eliminate the chlorine loss from sunlight. Use an opaque white or reflective cover to keep the pool cooler and have that cover be thin or otherwise not very insulating (except to prevent sunlight and evaporation) since you want it to cool off at night (i.e. you don't want a bubble-type cover). During the cool months, the chlorine usage will be very low, but during the summer even with a cover it could be around 0.5 to 0.7 ppm FC per day if the temperature approaches 90ºF. One could manually dose once a week.

A saltwater chlorine generator (SWG) will still need maintenance for the pool, mostly in controlling pH, probably once a week, maybe every other week, even after you get things in balance.

Instead of using chlorine, you could use algaecide since you don't really care if the pool isn't sanitary but you don't want it to turn into a green monster from algae. Copper would be the most long-lasting, but you'd risk staining the plaster surface if the pH rose. PolyQuat might work OK since it normally breaks down from chlorine (some gets caught in the filter since it's also a clarifier, but after a while the water should be free of any particles if it's covered) and might last a month or more, but it probably won't prevent algae on its own when the water is warmer. Phosphate removers could be used though that only works well if you don't have any organic phosphates in the water. You normally wouldn't go this route when using the pool since chlorine alone will prevent algae, but when not using the pool and not using chlorine then perhaps these other alternatives would work for you. You could use both the phosphate remover and PolyQuat which might work well.

Don't forget that you will still need to circulate the water, but using a variable-flow or variable-speed pump (or even a 2-speed pump on low speed) will let you do that relatively inexpensively and it won't have to be for as long as when the pool would be open and used.

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