Pool Startup

Initial look of the pool... usually a nasty load of water in the deep end and all kinds of leaves laying around in the shallow end.

Step 1: Clean all the leaves out of shallow end and drain the pool... look at the drain pool post. (~1/2 day)

Step 2: Pressure wash the heck out of everything. (~1 day)

You will probably have to make one initial deep cleaning pass in the pool and then hit up the settling tank and deep well. After chipping out all the cracks in the pool and refilling the cracks you will have to of course do a clean sweeping pressure wash for it to be prepared for paint.

Step 3: Begin painting Deep Well and Settling Tank first... (~1 day)

because you shouldn't have to do any crack repair... just pressure wash them both well and you should be good to go. We have painted this blue or white in the past... either way it looks good. This year we painted it white... it required ___ gallons to paint 1 coat in both the deep well and settling tank. We ordered ___ gallons so should have some white left over.

Remember... when painting the deep well it is absolutely imperative that you have fans down there blowing air up and out. While doing all the painting it is very important to take breaks every 15 minutes or so to get some fresh air... and this is absolutely essential when painting the smaller areas (deep well and settling tank).

Step 4: Chipping out the Pool (~ 1/2 day)

This usually entails walking through the pool with a hammer for a day chipping out any cracks where the previous year's repairs have grown weak. Look for hollow sounding spots and paint that is chipping off from the sun beating down on it. In this picture most all of the cracks have been filled in (note the crack on the right below the basketball hoop) but you can tell that the back wall had a good majority of last year's paint chipped off as it was cracking off terribly.

Step 5: Crack Repair (~ 1 day + 1/2 day to pressure wash)

Clean the cracks thoroughly and then repair with whatever product you are going to use. Things used previously that haven't seemed to have worked too well... sure-wall, tar w/ duct tape over it, and last year we tried "Dynamite" pool patch. Last year we stuck with the "Dynamite" pool patch and Hydraulic Cement, which seems to have worked much better than the "Dynamite" product.

This year we did our repairs with three different products. We again used Hydraulic Cement because of it's success last year, though it cures pretty much instantaneously thus making it a pain in the butt to smooth out well. We also got a product from Taryn at Charlotte Pool Supply called "Epoxybond Pool Putty" which we hope will work very well (picture).

While at the Home Depot we noticed a crack filler type epoxy, "Sikadur Crack Fix" (picture), that would fit in a caulk gun that we thought might be worth trying and we are hoping that this might be the solution to the problems of the smaller cracks near the beginning of the deep end where the water seems to leach out the most. This product ran $15 a tube but covered more ground than we thought it would with the small cracks... and at an almost water like consistancy it seeped through extraordinarily well to hopefully seal the cracks.

Step 6: Paint the pool BLUE (~1 day per coat)

After getting all the cracks filled and all of the paint chips and debri pressure washed and swept out it is time to paint the pool. This year we purchased 40 gallons of blue paint and found that it took roughly 17 gallons to do 1 coat. We did 2 coats this year though 1 coat does a seemingly stout job... 2 coats probably doesn't hurt though. Just paint the whole things blue and then come back and redo the racing lanes and numbers.

P.S. It can get extraordinarily hot in the pool so be sure to drink lots of fluids, wear sun glasses and sun screen, and take frequent breaks. Be careful in the deep end as it can get really slippery on the slope.

Step 7: Black Paint - Racing lanes and numbers. (~1/2 day)

The racing lanes had a little ledge where the black paint sat atop the blue so you should be able to get them retaped fairly simply. The stencils should be easily found and spray paint usually works the best with them... a good stout epoxy spray seems to work well enough, and it doesn't hurt to go back later with a small brush to go over them with the rubberized pool paint.

Do not forget to paint the drain in the deep end and to redo the "No Shoes" pool deck signs and to do a couple of "No Diving" stencils along the sides in the shallow end. The numbers can also be used as a good gauge for your where you want your water level to be.. so try to drop the tops of them down to 4-6 inches below the rim.

Last year we did the sides of the ledge of the pool black to distinguish where the rise is and that seems to look well so it would be a good idea to keep that going. This year we didn't have to purchase any new black paint because we had 5 gallons left over from last year. So far it has only taken less than 3 gallons to do all of the black painting so 3 or 4 gallons seems to be enough to do the racing lanes and stencils with the black.

Jeremy also got the idea to do "Cave Drawings" in the deep end to match the summer's tribal theme... and idea with some merit that could be capitalized on next year if the theme has been decided yet.

Step 8: Add Water (~ 1 week either way)

Strategy #1 = Fill the pool completely with lake water and then flock the whole thing for a day or two and vacuum it and add chemicals and then repeat until clean.

Strategy #2 = Add tanks of treated water ran through the filters over the course of a week or so while running some garden hoses periodically to help fill it up with clean water.

Finished product... the only thing yet to be done is to repaint the lifeguard chairs and to make sure the cracks on the cement pool deck are filled and and not edgy.

Pool - Proper Drainage Procedures

1.) Make sure that both the pool valve and settling tank valves are open to the deep well.


2.) Make sure that the circuit through the filters is closed... so the handles should be pulled up...
also make sure that the drains to the lines are shut (i.e. spickets down by the chlorine room are closed).

3.) Begin to agitate the main drain in the pool (use the two longer sweepers to push in a rotating motion). This should be done continually as the water drains out to prohibit a large bunch of leaves from being sucked in to clog the drain.
* There are two approaches here...
-A = Move the grate... and try to suck all of the leaves through the drain, then through the deep well (mind if you have been able to get the skrim out), then through the pump, then through the valve and then down the hill. The problem here is that if a cloggage occurs... which chances are it will... then you are left with snaking the drain with P.E. tubing or whatever else you can.
-B = Leave the grate... let it catch all the leaves while draining all the water out... then removing all of the wet leaves from the pool via bucket or wheelbarrow. (this is what Jeremy Britton recommends)

4.) Open square nut valve in front of Katie's Place. (Usually have to dig out some of the mulch above it). Fully open it to ensure that the leaves can pass through and not get stuck in a pinched valve... remember this will make for a larger surge of water and thus more opportunity to flow outside of the drains but you do not want leaves stuck in the valve.

5.) As water is released take a shovel down to sweep leaves along the drain on the road from
K.T.'s place down to the bunker. There should not be water flowing across the road but rather down to the drain.




6.) Go below the bunker to ensure that the water is being directed on a path to the right where
the drainage has flowed before. If the water diverts itself.. which it will.. it will flow onto the
upper part of the 8th hole of the golf course and not down to the drainage ditch by the tee box.

7.) Go down to the 8th green tee box to ensure that water is not flowing out onto the golf
course... it probably will because of all of the leaves coming down initially with the water so
take a few shovels and clear out the drain.

7.) Continue to follow the path of drainage to ensure that water does not spill onto the course... there could be trees, leaves, and debri along the ditch so follow it until the main drain right off the road. Make sure that you take a shovel to keep the water flowing so as to not drain onto the highway.

Repair done 4/6/07

This repair was made in April of 07. It was a result of the waterline being loosened at the upper field as the lines were pulled apart somehow (possibly when the edges of the upper field eroded years previously). You can tell here where we dug up the road, we made some cuts with the concrete saw first to try to make it clean. On the other side of the main road where Nate's bucket was we dug as closely as we could to the road to find the leak and realized it went under the road somewhere so we came across to cap it and will run a line to the upper field from the Cabin 5 line.

This is a view of the cap put on. The repair was just past on the corner where the barn road met the main entry road on the cabin side... where there should be a patch you can see. Essentially we simply cut the line a short distance past where the T going across the road was and capped it. This seemed to work because when we turned the line on the leakage didn't continue so must have been underneath the main entry road.
Across the road there is the top of a 4x4 post to the left of that bucket. That is where the stub from the T comes out underneath the road... hence the T should be just less than a yard from where this cap is. We left the existing line going under the road but there must be a leak in it somewhere. We placed a block behind the cap and poured 2 bags of sacrete before burrying it, it wasn't any more than 2 feet deep.