[Goosh]

I am purchasing a home w/ a pool here in Vegas. This will be my first pool and I have a lot to learn. We had a house/pool inspection today. The pool has been drained for at least 5 months that i know of. We first saw this house back in April and it was empty.

The inspector pointed out some cracks at the bottom of the pool. The cracks are not splitting, very hairline but there are a lot of them. The inspector told me they should be fine and i would be okay to fill the pool. Something about this doesn't seem right. I don't know much but i can imagine if there are any cracks in a cement type pool, once you put hundreds of gallons of water in it, the stress will make those hairline cracks turn into huge cracks?

Does anybody know a reputable company that will come asses these cracks for a decent price? The house is in north las vegas, centenial hills area.

I talked to Leslie's pool supplies and they said there is things I can do myself. Put some type of apoxy over it? I am really worried about the structure at this point. If anybody has hany suggestions or knows much about pool cracks, please advise. Thanks.

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by Goosh

I am purchasing a home w/ a pool here in Vegas. This will be my first pool and I have a lot to learn. We had a house/pool inspection today. The pool has been drained for at least 5 months that i know of. We first saw this house back in April and it was empty.

The inspector pointed out some cracks at the bottom of the pool. The cracks are not splitting, very hairline but there are a lot of them. The inspector told me they should be fine and i would be okay to fill the pool. Something about this doesn't seem right. I don't know much but i can imagine if there are any cracks in a cement type pool, once you put hundreds of gallons of water in it, the stress will make those hairline cracks turn into huge cracks?

Does anybody know a reputable company that will come asses these cracks for a decent price? The house is in north las vegas, centenial hills area.

I talked to Leslie's pool supplies and they said there is things I can do myself. Put some type of apoxy over it? I am really worried about the structure at this point. If anybody has hany suggestions or knows much about pool cracks, please advise. Thanks.

The answer is that the cracks are in the plaster...which lines the pool and not in the cemment that actually makes up the structure.

My 20 year old pool is getting to the point of needing replastering and has lots of those.

You will find out that most people who do this work won't commit for feel of liablity. If you really want an honest opinion with weight behind it get hold of Criterium Mcwilliams Engineers. They will charge you someplace between $200 and $400 but they will give you an opinion that says they are surface cracks in the plaster and not to worry.

Then again you can fill the pool and see how fast it drops. That will also tell if if there is a problem and you don't have to spend $200.

[airics]

if you end up replastering, you can always go with pebbletec... i will get pics of our pool up soon.. it was finished in 4wks and was under budget for what we wanted..

[MediocreButArrogant]

A pool should never be left empty because of the risk of a high water table creating enough hydrostatic pressure to pop the shell out of the ground, destroying the pool.

Depending on where you live, this might not be a problem, or it could be a real possibility. When I drained my pool spring of last year, the guy at NPS asked where I lived (Lakes). He said I was not at risk, but if I was at a lower elevation, say farther south on Ft Apache (where all the rain drained today), he would have told me to wait until there was no possibility of rain before draining the pool.

Yeah, cracks in the plaster are usually no problem, other than the appearance. It's possible that years of unbalanced water caused the plaster to crack prematurely. I've got a few cracks on the "wedding cake" steps in my pool, but the shell itself is fine.

Get a pool "orientation" - just look in the yellow pages, there are plenty of places that will give you a new owner orientation for a hundred bucks or so. Also join troublefreepool.com so you understand why trichlor pucks are evil.

[MediocreButArrogant]

Originally Posted by olecapt

That will also tell if if there is a problem and you don't have to spend $200.

The water will likely cost around $200 to fill the pool. Also, if he finds a leak (use bucket test - place bucket with water in pool, if water level drops faster in pool than it evaporates out of bucket, you have a leak), there's no telling whether it is in the shell, or in the plumbing or elsewhere.

[Goosh]

Thank you all for your inputs. I am relieved to hear i will most likely be okay to just fill the pool. I think i might check out the bucket test,, sounds like a neat litle test.

Do you guys reccomend filling the pool through the auto-fill, hose? or spending the money to have someone come fill it?

[MediocreButArrogant]

Originally Posted by Goosh

Do you guys reccomend filling the pool through the auto-fill, hose? or spending the money to have someone come fill it?

I've never paid someone to bring water and fill my pool, so I'm not familiar with the benefits of that (lower cost?).

If your fill valve is at the level of the tile as mine is, you should use a hose to fill your pool. The main problem with shooting water from the deck level into an empty pool is outgassing of CO2. CO2 dissolved in water is carbonic acid, so removing the CO2 removes carbonic acid, raising the pH of the water. With Las Vegas water you'll always be adding varying amounts of muriatic acid to your pool each week to keep the pH down, so you really don't want to be doing anything to raise the pH if you can avoid it. Get a "fill filter" from the pool store to trap any sediment in the water and fill it with a garden hose. Make sure you know what to do after your pool once it's filled with water (you'll need to adjust pH, total alkalinity, stabilizer level and chlorine levels for a start). If you can afford it, look into converting to a salt water pool with a chlorine generator.

[BUGBULLY]

Originally Posted by Goosh

Do you guys reccomend filling the pool through the auto-fill, hose? or spending the money to have someone come fill it?

We drained ours about 3/4 of it and we live in North Las Vegas. It was about $75.00- $100.00 to fill back up. We just used the auto-fill and a hose to fill it back up.

[olecapt]

LVVWD rates peak under $5.00 per thousand gallons. So a 20,000 gallon pool would cost under $100.

[AA702]

Originally Posted by MediocreButArrogant

The water will likely cost around $200 to fill the pool. Also, if he finds a leak (use bucket test - place bucket with water in pool, if water level drops faster in pool than it evaporates out of bucket, you have a leak), there's no telling whether it is in the shell, or in the plumbing or elsewhere.

Water costs $2.40 per 1000 gallons. So a 10,000 gallon pool will cost $24.