[POOLorNOT]

Hello out there,

Does anyone know what needs to be done to an inground pool and spa in order not to have to take care of them of a couple of years that I will be out of town?

Thanks

[BobKovacs]

At a minimum you need to drain them and have the lines blown out so there's no water left. Clean the filter cartridges and store them in the garage, not inside the filter, or empty out and wash out the filter if you have a DE system.

When you do return, plan on an acid-wash of the plaster at a minimum, since the plaster will get trashed from the dirt/pollution in the air. Depending on the condition of the plaster, you may even end up having to chip out and replaster due to shrinkage cracks.

Any decent pool maintenance company should be able to set you up.

Bob

[garth]

Except, if there's any ground water level in the area that is near the pool, an empty IGG pool can get pushed out of the ground. It can float like a boat and you'll be left with a pool that's cockeyed with broken pump lines.

If the pool is a vinyl-lined pool, the vinyl will shrink and the pools walls can develop problems. That's really one type of pool that you don't want to leave without water for a long time.

Finally, if it's one of those fiberglass econo pools, I don't really know what will happen to them. However, I can't imagine that they'd be much different than an IGG.

My suggestion is to just hire a weekly pool maintenance company and be done with it. It's all part of owning a swimming pool.

[BobKovacs]

Originally Posted by garth

Except, if there's any ground water level in the area that is near the pool, an empty IGG pool can get pushed out of the ground. It can float like a boat and you'll be left with a pool that's cockeyed with broken pump lines.

The chances of that happening in Vegas are very slim. The only area that ever had water table issues and required hydrostatic valves was the Whitney Ranch area near Henderson. For some reason (maybe because of the drastic elevation changes), that place had water around 4'-5' deep.

Bob