inground pools and sump pumps

no1uknow said:

Just a question for you folks who have inground pools.

How common is it to have water. We live on some foothills, so there's no underground water. Our a
20yd x14' pool that sits in pure packed clay which doesn't drain. Beneath the pool floor is about
a 4-6" layer of crushed rock and a drain pipe leading to a sump pump to suck out anything that
seeps under it.

Since we're in the middle of 90-100F summer heat and there has been zero rainfall I don't expect
much to be down there.

Doesn't clay shift a lot when it dries out? Is it possible it shifted enough to crack the pool?

Quoted message said:

But there seems to be a small amount (several gallons as a min) of water that gets pumped out
every day or so. Not a whole lot, but it's enough to leave a trail of evidence down the street
curb where it's dumped. I assume this either comes out of a leak somewhere in the pool (hopefully
not), or it's whatever wicks through the gunite.

I'm not adding any significant amount of water since I keep it covered, although I just topped it
off in about an inch of water since the last rain in March to presumably replace whatever
evaporated or splashed out from swimming.

thoughts?

If you keep it covered, then there should be no evaporation. Keep it covered for a whole week and
compute the volume of water lost. If you can collect what the pump pumps out, do that and compare
the two volumes, but with the pool covered, there should be very little evaporation, I think.

Quoted message said:

Side question: any reason why I can't irrigate my surrounding trees, etc with the stuff? I guess I
should measure the alkalinity of it first so I don't kill anything...

Don't know. Ask at the garden shop.

martin

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Martin Smith email: [email hidden] Vollsveien 9 tel. : +47 6783 1188
P.O. Box 482 mob. : +47 932 48 303 1327 Lysaker, Norway

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Quoted message said:

Just a question for you folks who have inground pools.

How common is it to have water. We live on some foothills, so there's no underground water. Our a
20yd x14' pool that sits in pure packed clay which doesn't drain. Beneath the pool floor is about
a 4-6" layer of crushed rock and a drain pipe leading to a sump pump to suck out anything that
seeps under it.

Since we're in the middle of 90-100F summer heat and there has been zero rainfall I don't expect
much to be down there. But there seems to be a small amount (several gallons as a min) of water
that gets pumped out every day or so. Not a whole lot, but it's enough to leave a trail of
evidence down the street curb where it's dumped. I assume this either comes out of a leak
somewhere in the pool (hopefully not), or it's whatever wicks through the gunite.

I'm not adding any significant amount of water since I keep it covered, although I just topped it
off in about an inch of water since the last rain in March to presumably replace whatever
evaporated or splashed out from swimming.

thoughts?

Side question: any reason why I can't irrigate my surrounding trees, etc with the stuff? I guess I
should measure the alkalinity of it first so I don't kill anything...

thoughts? thanks aaron

If your sump pump has any cast iron do not use it or water from it for your pool and never use a
cast iron pump for pumping pool covers.