My Dream House's Giant Pool Turned Into A SWAMP...Can I Fix It Myself? | Project Dream House Part 2

I think your main priority at the moment is to focus on cleaning up the landscaping. You need to rake and bag all the dead foliage to help keep it from blowing into the pool. I would then recommend look at putting pea gravel along the concrete as a natural buffer as well. We ended up doing that around ours and it cut down on cleaning a ton.

As a pool pro and a pool owner here are my tips. #1 - Get rid of the DE Filters, they are a pain and cost a lot to maintain. Switch to Cartridge filter. #2 - You have a Salt Pool so you shouldn’t have to shock the pool, just turn your salt cells to Super Chlorinate for a few days. Once a week add some Oxidizing Shock (for your pool a few pounds a week). #3 - Your water level is too low so your probably sucking air into your pump through the skimmer. #4 - Get rid of those As Seen on TV skimmers. #5 - your pump is too small for your pool, it’s max GPM is 120 I think, you have around 75,000 gallons so 10-12 hours a day at full speed will turn the pool over once and during 90* weather you wanted to turn it over a couple times. #6 - You will Need Muriatic Acid, Sodium Bicarbonate mainly for your pool since it’s Salt. For FYI - every 40lb bag of salt will raise your salt content around 60 PPM, with Hayward Salt Cells you need to be around 3200ppm, when you open the control box the I stand reading will be the first thing you see. Good Luck - pools aren’t that bad once you understand them.

i want more episodes! i love the car projects but this is more of my thing honestly. really love seeing house restoration stuff

I'd recommend you to overfill the pool before you do a cleaning and flushing water down to waste. Then when you do, the pool will end up with the correct amount of water in it after. Salt pools do need a lot of salt to fill them when starting from empty. Even though it sounds like a lot it is nowhere near the amount of salt in the sea and you cant taste it. You wont need much each week to keep it at the correct level. Biggest expense on salt systems is replacing the "salt cell" which converts the salt to chlorine. The metal plates inside can get clogged with hard water deposits and stop working. You can keep them in good working order by removing them once in a while, plugging one end up and filling them with acid till it dissolves the build up. (Only on plastic case salt cells) I'd say, excluding replacing the chlorine generator equipment, a salt system has the least day to day running cost of any other solution. Avoid liquid chlorine or peroxide dosing systems on a pool this size you'll get through so much chemical. Your pump is most likely sucking air through the skimmers. The best baskets to use in the skimmers have a floating ring which will adjust themselves to the water level in your pool which will reduce turbulence and air getting sucked in. The pumps bearings and water seals are water cooled/ lubricated. If the pump is running with a lot of air in, these seals can burn out in literally only hours. Also on your vid there is a non return valve just before your pump, It looks like its seals have failed if it is hard to prime the pump. Try setting the filter valves to closed (with the pump off) before opening the pump lid. It'll stop water being syphoned into the pool out of the pump while the lid is off. Please get rid of the DE filters entirely, go for a sand filter. The media inside literally wont need changing for years and super easy for the home DIYer wanting fast easy results with minimal work. I'd avoid cartridge filters for the main pool but may be possible with the small water volume on the hot tub. (I'd just go sand filters all round) Get a cover for the pool it will really cut down on that algae growth caused by the sun and you can brush all the leaves into a corner and removing before pulling a cover off the pool. Sunlight breaks down chlorine too so you want to keep it out as much as possible. Hardest thing to do as a DIY pool owner is learn pool chemistry, get a book on it and a decent digital/ photometer pool test kit. It is well worth knowing exactly what your pool water is doing and helps diagnose water quality issues (This is a big part of what you pay a pool service guy to do). Biggest thing to take away from this, is that pools are way more complicated and expensive to run than most people ever realise. Every single one is very different in terms of water chemistry. If you don't have the time to keep a constant eye on it day in day out then get someone to keep on it for you. Pools can go from clear to green in literally 24 hours. Test your pools water daily!!!! Good luck with the project, I'm interested to see what happens with it. BTW: I'm an Ex swimming pool service engineer in the UK.

I spent 6 years of my life as a certified pool technician. The most important thing I learned is to never own a pool !

I'm expecting to like Tavarish's home repairs more than the car repairs!! BIG HOUSE.... BIG REPAIRS!!! 😁

You may want to consider building a cover over the pool. I have family friends in Florida who basically built a sunroom around thier pool. I imagine it will be expensive, but may be better for the long run.

Keep these coming! Whether it’s a car or a house, you always make it a good watch.

I'm legitimately surprised at how well the rusty machete worked.

2 things that are great in life when your friends own them. Boats and Pools.

The best pool maintenance my neighbor did was filling it with dirt. He's old and has small grandchildren that he didn't want near the pool for fear of drowning. Now he has a beautiful back yard that he enjoys taking care of and the kids can run amok back there. It was a nie pool but upkeep was killing him faster than father time.

Thanks so much for the on-point entertainment. A lot of us car guys just bought houses in the great COVID housing /moving boom. You're just as entertaining around the new place as in car trek and other vids. Thanks tho, for reminding me why I went for the house with land instead of the house with the pool!!

Tavarish, you might see what other similar size pool owners in your area are doing regarding maintinence and yearly expense. After your pool shock is done you might consider a pool cover to keep leaves, bugs, and critters from dirtying up your pool. Cleaning the pump/filter area of all the trash should be done as soon as you can. It would make it easier to spot a problem/leak with a cleaned pump area. As for your spa you might consider screening-in the spa with retractable screens/curtains to keep critters, bugs, and birds away from it when it is not in use. With those kind of expenses for a pool, it might be wiser/cheaper to turn the area into a tennis court :)

Fellow Florida pool owner here. $5000 to "clean this up" is highway robbery and so is $1200 a month to clean it. This is a salt pool (which is still a chlorine pool) so once you get the salt, and settings dialed in, they are very low maintenance, especially with that drop in robot. I'd be happy to walk you through the steps to cleaning this up correctly.

Enjoying this new direction of house restoration. The content is so much better when you have someone filming for you

Can not wait for more. I love home restorations!!

as a former pool owner, the amount of work is fun especially when you can use it for 3 months out of the year in Michigan. Basically get it ready, swim in it 5 times, spend 2 grand in 3 months and then prep it for winter.

I’ve been maintaining my pool for many years. Once it’s clean and balanced, a salt water pool really isn’t that much work. The robot will do most of the work for you so you just need to keep the skimmers cleaned. DO NOT let your pool motors cavitate or lose prime, they need water flow to keep cool and you will burn them up. Check the o-rings on the lids and be sure all the skimmers are clear and the water level is at least 2” above the skimmer entrance. The Hayward equipment is good and while DE filters do require periodic cleaning or backwashing, nothing will clean the water as good as a DE filter. The monthly quote seems very high to me. Around my area in SoCal, $120.00. - $200.00 a month for a “normal” sized residential pool once a week. $1200.00 seems excessive. I would check with some of your neighbors and get some referrals. Looking forward to more house videos. 👍🏻

Great start! We look forward to seeing everything you learn from the house project. Welcome to home ownership 🤑

Bro, your fortitude in solving insurmountable task is not only admirable but also inspirational.. Nuff respect Bless up 🙏🙏❤️