Sunday, 09 Oct 2022
Looks OK
Partially drained
Cracks
The pool looks OK until you look close. There are obvious cracks in the plaster of the bottom of the pool and plenty of discoloration. There are also places along the bottom where the plaster is not yet cracked, but bulges above the surrounding plaster. At least none of the bottom cracks seem to be leaking.
There are cracks around the hot tub that are leaking. As a result we stopped pumping water into the tub and lowered the water level to give things a chance to dry out.
Today I turned off the heater and removed the automatic sweep after disabling the sweep support pump. I removed and cleaned the hot tub cover and put it away. Tomorrow the pool people are scheduled to arrive to remodel/repair the pool. The pool will be drained. Cracks will be patched. Tile and plaster will be removed. New plaster and tile will be installed. I’ll document the progress of the project here.
Monday, 10 Oct 2022
About 9:30 this morning the doorbell rang. One guy spent 20-30 minutes getting things set up to drain the pool. He asked for the location of the nearest sewer clean out. A pump was lowered into the pool and 1 1/2” pool hose was run from the pool in the front yard to the clean out in the back yard. The pump is plugged in and left to do its thing.
Cleanout location
Pump in pool
Water goes here
Hot tub drained
When the pool level dropped a small amount I started up the filter pump for a few mintues with the valves set to move water from the hot tub to the pool. Once the hot tub was empty I shut the pump down.
Pool level early afternoon
Pool level at evening
Hot tub and pool
Maybe another hour or two
Steps are dry
I’m guessing the pool will be empty before 8 PM (it was closer to 9 PM). I’ll keep an eye on the level and unplug the pump when the pool is empty. The real work starts tomorrow.