#190 - A major pool fix! - July 9, 2013

Cool thing from the last 24: Had to make a pool repair.  Did it, it works, and I solved another problem at the same time.  Every time I'm successful as a handyman, I feel better about myself.

We slept, I think, this morning.  I'm writing this a week later, so the details are a little fuzzy.  I got up earlier because I had gone to bed about 9pm, and woke up ready for the day just after dawn.  I blogged a little, played some video games, and asked the boys about their experience camping.

Christian provided a little extra detail to the trouble they had with their camp site.  You see, the site they had reserved (and paid for) was under water in a once-a-decade flood.  The campground called, as they were driving, to tell them that their reservation was cancelled.  He begged for another side, they said ok.  So they got to the campground, got their alternate site, and when they got there, the neighbor told them they couldn't camp there.  The details aren't worth writing.  In the end, the neighbors weren't happy, but they set up camp anyway.

My brother did not have a sleeping bag.  My kids did not have raincoats or any rain gear.  No one had packed lighters or a way to start a fire.  The storm that hit us at 2am Sunday morning hit them at 6am Sunday morning.  They had taken a swim at the beach.  The sand was under water, the drinking faucets were a foot above the water.  And there was water pressure.  So Jake is swimming to the water faucet, turns it on and remarks, "Look!  I'm filling the lake!"

In any case, the van needed unpacked, etc, so I took care of most of that, ran a bit, and then I went out to take care of the pool, and when I turned on the filter, the valve for the water slide supply popped off.  All I could do was turn off the filter and go looking for supplies.  So that's what I did.  I went to Williams Lumber first, and they didn't have what I needed.  So I went to the pool supply store.  They did not have everything I needed, and wanted WAY too much for what they did have that I needed.  And their customer service for some reason was terrible today.  So I left what I was going to buy on the counter and left the store.

Home Depot to the rescue!  I ended up making what I needed with irrigation supply parts, and went home.  Over the next 2 hours, I built the unit and let it cure.  The chunk I removed had 2 broken valves and a leaky and deteriorating pipe section.  After I installed the new pipes and ran them for a leak check (no leaks!) I used my new and spiffy working valves to try to get the pool slide water supply going.  I turned the entire pool supply (the jets) to go to the slide instead, and the slide had no flow.  So I walked over there and heard a lot of noise underground on the other side of the pool fence.  I turned off the pump, walked around, and there was a barbed pipe section that was undone.  I check the connection at the base of the slide ladder, and it was also disconnected.  Once they were hooked up, I ran the pump, and the slide has pressure! Complete success.

This was a big deal for several reasons.  The first is that I used that PVC glue myself for the first time.  I had been around my dad a lot when he used it, but I had never used it myself.  I read the directions 3 times, and found it was pretty darned easy.  So that was really cool.  I had also noticed that when filtering the pool (or even running it on recirculate) that I lost a lot of water.  So we've probably filled the pool from our well completely a time or two this summer.  Turns out that the slide water supply was where the water was going.  It's near the edge of our property, the ground slopes down, and it's under a huge pile of leaves, so I had never noticed it being wet.  I also modified the piping configuration so I can winterize more easily this year.

Fixed a whole bunch of problems, didn't spend too much money, and now I only have 1 more pool problem to fix: a hole in the skimmer return.  In the meantime, the skimmer is turned off.  But I need to start digging to fix the problem, because it is annoying and I think the repair will be cheap.