It Might Be Better To Shock The Pool!

We were called out to close an above ground swimming pool and when we get there we notice that this swimming pool is not blue. In fact the swimming pool is full of green algae that covered the pool walls and the floor. Have a look at the pool steps in the picture below and you can see not only how badly algae can take over your swimming pool but also cover your pool steps and accessories as well. Using a garden hose, some soap and a rag we started to clean the pool steps. You can see them starting to already wash clean with some fresh water. The reason this pool and the pool steps became so green and full of algae is because they did not add enough chlorine and pool shock to the pool during the season and some algae started growing in the pool and then, well now you can see how badly covered the pool has become with this slimy algae. If you look at the center of the pool you can see that there is a small area that is not covered with algae. But if you look everywhere else on the pool you will see that green and yellow algae have simply just taken this pool over. Cleaning the pool and the liner will not be easy. So before we started to close the pool the homeowner wanted us to power vacuum the pool to get most of the algae from the pool pool and walls. Richie started getting read by priming the pool vacuum hose as you can see below. It was starting to get cold this time of year and the algae in this pool was still growing rapidly so you could just imagine how bad this pool could have been if it was warmer. After we vacuumed all of the algae out of the swimming pool it was time to shock and brush the pool. We added a few pounds of super strength pool shock and then brushed the pool walls and the floor. After the pool was vacuumed and brushed it was time that we had to finish cleaning the pool steps that were all covered in green algae as you saw above. Here is a look at the steps after we cleaned all the algae off of them. They are now nice and white once again. What a difference a few minutes with a garden hose and some good old soap can make. It took around 30 minutes to get the pool steps that clean and some hard work, but in the end you can see that the pool steps look brand new again. After they dried off we stored them in the garage for the winter. Now it was time to disconnect the pump and the filter and also store that in the garage as well. You can see in the above photo that this above ground swimming pool just had a basic pump with a sand filter. To winterize this type of filter system you just need to remove the drain plugs from the swimming pool filter and the pump. You will also want to bring the pool pump inside for the winter if you have room to store it. So after about three hours on this swimming pool closing and a lot of hard work, you can see that it would have been a better idea to make sure that the swimming pool had been shocked and kept clean during the pool season. So always be sure to check your pool chlorine levels and if you need to add chlorine tablets or pool shock make sure you do, otherwise your swimming pool could become all green and filled with algae like the one you just read about above.