Paul's Infrequently Updated Blog

As I am sure you all know, I am managing the swimming pool at the complex where I live. This should be an easy task, but, so far, it has caused me some real problems. Last year was not too bad, but this year, the years of neglect seem to be finally catching up with the swimming pool.

While I was in Ireland, the pool had to be shut down for a few days because of a problem with the filters and pump. Today, one of the pipes broke in the pump house, so, of course, I got hit by a big plume of water.  I managed to fix it, but the reality is that the swimming pool needs a complete overhaul. All of the piping in the pump house needs to be replaced. There seems to be some kind of air leak between the pump house and pool that is causing the pump to “surge.” The pump should not be doing this since the water should be pumped in one continuous flow.

In addition, I have now found out that I need to backwash the filter almost every day to keep the water pressure down in the pool filter. I have done a little reading up on this and discovered that this appears to be an issue of the filter bed needing to be replaced.

Overall, it seems to me that the owners/townhouse association have not been maintaining the swimming pool in the way that they should. Maintenance of the pool equipment is not my responsibility and is not part of my contract. When I ask the grounds people for help (as I am supposed to in such matters) I feel I do not get the help and support that I need.

What I thought (and should be) an easy and fun job is turning out to be more trouble than it is worth.

Yesterday, I went to the Swimming Pool Operators class held at the Harms Technology Center here in Scottsbluff. The great news is that I did pass the class so, in a few weeks, I should get my license in the mail. They thing I did not like about the class is that it lasted from 6pm until almost 11pm and I got home very late. I am very much a homebody so I did not like spending Monday evening attending this class. At least now I have got it done and the license is good for two years.

As for the swimming pool itself, we finally managed to get most of it drained. When I first started work on the pump, it was a cold, wet day and I felt like that everyone in their townhouses was watching me trying to get the stupid thing to work. It took forever to get it working, but I did finally make it work. The one problem is that it spent all day Saturday pumping and got about a third of the way done when it ran out of gas (it is gas operated). We had to go to Menards to get a gas can and then fill it with gas and I had to go through all the problems of restarting the pump. I finally got it to work and got most of the water pumped out of the pool. Trouble was that the last foot or so of water would not pump out so the guy who I rented the pump from had to come out and sort the problem out.  After he came, it took less than an hour to finish the job. So the water is pumped out and now the pool is empty.

I have gone down to the bottom of the pool and removed the old drain cover. As I expected, the cover is not compliant with the new federal law, so we have ordered a new pool drain cover that meets the new federal regulations. I ordered the cover from the same store that rented me the water pump. I have to say that the pool supply store in question has been very helpful. It also helps that the people who own it are the parents of one of my 9th grade students.

Today we took the tarpaulin off the swimming pool in order to start getting it ready for the summer season. This year, I have a few reservations about working on the swimming pool.

The first (and big) issue is that there is a new federal law in place that says pool drains at the bottom of the pool must be fitted with a pool drain that meets a particular standard. So, before we can start getting the pool ready, I will have to drain the pool, remove the current filter cover, and then have one ordered that complies with the new law. I have to say that this is a lot of extra work for which I am not being compensated and which is not a part of my contract.

I have had to call around and found that a local company here in Scottsbluff will rent me a pump to drain the pool. I had thought that you could just use the swimming pool pump to drain the pool, but I have found out that pool pumps are not designed to drain the water out of the pool. Sometime next week, I am supposed to get this pump and get it working so I can take care of the issue.

The other thing I am not totally happy about is that I need to have a Nebraska Swimming Pool Operator’s License. This would not normally be a big deal since the town house association where I live will pay for the class to get the license, but the issue for me is that I have to go to this class on a Monday night and stay until at least 11pm. I think having to do something like this on a school night when I will be already tired is going to make me very unhappy. I suppose that if I have to do it I will do it, but it does not mean I am very happy about it.

We finally got the swimming pool opened yesterday. It was a week later than planned as it was supposed to be open by Memorial Day weekend. This did not happen because the weather was cold windy and wet, defiantly not swimming weather.

I was honestly wondering if we could get the pool open.  When we took the tarpaulin off at the start of the month the water was green. You do not drain the water away, instead you start the pump, get the water circulating and then “shock” the swimming pool. What this means is that you add a chemical to the pool to shock it and that clears the water to get it ready for opening. In addition, you also have to add chlorine to the water to maintain the proper chemical balance.

Right now, everything looks fine and the water is clear. The one thing I will have to keep an eye on is the dirt in the bottom of the pool. I have had to vacuum the bottom of the pool three times so far, but it looks pretty good now. If any dirt blows into the pool, I will have to vacuum the pool as needed.

Yesterday, we started work on getting the swimming pool opened. The agreement with Joe, who, until last year, ran the pool, is that he will show me how to start up the pool and get it running and then I will run it for the summer. He will take the opening fee and I will get the money for running the pool over the summer. When it comes time to close the pool, Joe will take the closing fee. So, over the summer, I should get paid about $900.

The main thing we did with the pool yesterday was to take the tarpaulin off the pool and clean the sides of the pool. We also had to take the railroad ties (which hold the tarpaulin down) to a piece of land a block or so away. That was the biggest job as the ties are heavy and difficult to handle.

Now that is all done, we have to wait for Kelly to come along in the next few days to get the pump running.  Then we can chemically treat the pool and start preparing it for opening before the end of the month.