Reworking the Pool
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The pool. As near as we can tell |
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so it all had to be replaced. |
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For around $2K, here's what we got-
We also simplified the whole system quite a bit so it has 2 modes- pool circulation and running the spa. This will make building the control system much simpler.
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Once the water was circulating, we had to condition it. The age of the water was unknown- probably 20+ years- and there's no reason to believe anyone did anything except dump chlorine floaters in the pool that whole time... So George got a test kit to figure out where we were... The chlorine was fine but the pH was off the chart. As near as we could tell, we needed to add 4-5 gallons of muriatic acid to get to a neutral pH again (and since you only add 1 pint every 2 hours, this would have taken at least a week!) So we decided to drain it and start over...
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Fortunately, we had a nearby backwash drain and we were able to plumb the
pump output directly into it. This was excellent- it only took 5 hours to drain the pool (not bad- 3000 gallons an hour which is 50 gallons a minute!) HERE's the pool- drained. It didn't look too bad, but the walls and floors were very rough from scaling. |
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George went and got a grinder and wire wheel to clean up the tile- that worked great! Then he started cleaning the pool walls with it- that also worked great and it cleaned up real good, but.... it took forever- it took 12 hours to do 1/4 of the pool! So we brought in the pros- here's our sandblasting guys getting ready. |
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...And here's what it looked like 2 hours (and $450) later! The plaster seems very tight and intact; but, since it's empty and dry now, we really should resurface it.
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BUT, before resurfacing, we had to paint the ENTIRE room. The walls were a lovely army-green color; and the ceiling had never been painted and had spots of termite damage everywhere... So the scaffolding got set up in the pool (and it was there for several months...) |
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Next we had to pick a pool color. The existing tile was green and black, which didn't go with our desired color (blue). We weren't planning on redoing the tile, but one day, MJ said the tile had to go- so the next day it was gone... |
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As Tull says, "Nothing is Easy". HERE's George re-tiling the pool. The new tile was 1/4" bigger than the old tile, so we had to cut a bigger slot around the pool to fit it in...PITA |
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And tiling the spa was a challenge- the tiles wanted to slide down the wall. For the grout, we used this terrific product- SpectraLock. This is an epoxy-based grout- it's not cheap BUT it doesn't shrink, it doesn't stain and it's waterproof- perfect! Fortunately, JasonT came over to give us a hand because it sets up quick (70 minutes) and it took 2 of us to get thru each mix- thanks Jason! |
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After more prep-
we're finally ready to paint. We decided to use an epoxy-based paint- advertised life expectancy is 8 years. We used Zeron from Olympic. This stuff is not cheap, so we decided to do a test first- 1 gallon each of Gunzite primer and Zeron. HERE's what the primer looked like... |
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Back to the pool color- Since water is naturally blue, if you paint your pool white, it winds up looking light blue. 90% of the pools are painted white. But, since our pool is indoors, we weren't convinced that white was the right color- we wanted something more vibrant... HERE's our first try- what were we thinking??? |
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We had to sand off most of this test coat and re-prep. Then we were finally able to paint- here's what the primer coat looked like- 5 gallons of epoxy paint. |
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HERE's George applying the finish coat. It should have taken 6 gals but only took 3... |
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... so we put on another coat the next day- why not? HERE's the (almost) finished product. |
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WE were going to fill the pool from the tap, but that water was only 67 degrees... so MJ suggesting throwing the solar panels up on the roof; then we could run the incoming water thru them first. |
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That worked like a champ! We got almost a 15 degree rise in the water temp on the way in. HERE's the spa being filled for the first time... |
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Of course we had to check it out ASAP. HERE's our first dip in the pool. |
| The pool, filled- looks great! |  |
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We also popped for an Aqua Logic AQL-PS-8 controller. This device-
What's to hate? |
| Then we had to cover it. George had a roller and a big (20 x 40) cover that he picked up on CraigsList- task was to trim it, wash it and wrap it on the roller without dumping a pile of crap into the pool. |  |
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...This process took all afternoon- George
attached the cover to the roller, then blocked the roller up on a
couple of stools (so he had 18" to the ground). So the process was-
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| It was well worth it when we got done. We figure we cut down on 98 percent of the evaporation (and humidity) and we keep in at least 5 degrees more heat. Now that the solar is hooked up again, we reached 90 degrees in mid-May- not too shabby! |  |
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Summer, 2009 Drained the pool to repair rusting lane marker posts. Ended up refinishing it again- and now it looks awesome! |
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