Tammy was kind enough to assist us in getting the winter cover off the pool this morning, which was extremely helpful. Unfortunately, the operation itself was pretty much a disaster - not Tammy's fault in the least - as the cover appeared to be letting a whole lot of water through in both directions. This meant that we couldn't get the last billion litres (or so it seemed) of water off the cover but were instead lowering the water level beneath it by trying. Eventually we had no choice but to cut some holes in it, letting the oily-black water flow into the pool before it was light enough to be lifted off. We we were pretty sure this 2009-edition winter cover was somewhat permeable after last year's adventure, but it seemed even worse this time around (I think some of the dirty water on top had flowed through it even before today, as the pool water was disgusting under there). When we had to resort to desperate measures to get the cover off without draining the entire pool, we'd already invested a couple hours into the effort (all for naught, as the dirt spread through the pool).
At that point we also discovered that the liner was pulling away from the coping in a significant way, meaning that we'd never be able to get away with opening it anyway. So now Vicki's been calling around to get quotes on a replacement liner, which is going to be a $3000 expense that wasn't planned for 2010. Good thing I've got a great job to cover such -- oh wait, scratch that. Good thing we save lots of money for things like this... but still. I'm not a happy man right now.
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3 comments:
What you needed was a small pump to get the water off the cover first, although that wouldn't have saved your liner.
Lee Valley has a cordless pump that would do the trick. They also have this drain-out pump that uses two hoses and the "venturi principle" to pump using water flowing through the hose. Once most of the water was off the cover, things would be much easier to handle.
Good suggestion, Chris, except that we were using a small submergable pump for this. The pump was suspended above the cover, within the water on top of the cover, but was still pulling some of the water from under the cover out. We know this because the water level under the cover dropped by several inches between when we started and when we finished.
Ahh - so there already was a hole in the cover to begin with. The first pump suggests that you could float it on top, more suitable for the draining task.
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