I’ve drained mine twice. I just take the plugs out of the bottom. My water tables are HIGH. It was installed in the 70s but ive owned it for the last 20.
The 1968 kidney-shaped 9 foot deep end pool we have had mostly drained for many years =25-it has a very rounded bottom and is up on a hill. We are in northern Wisco where ground is frozen 6 months a year and nothing has heaved up yet
Hi Ms. Adams, that sounds like a backyard pool skateboarders dream! I would love to see pictures of that beautiful Kidney. Would you mind sending me pictures?
I have drained my concrete pool a few times, but was aware of the potential problem and drained it just before the rainy season. Its old enough that it doesn't have a static valve.
If you don't have underground water or leakage problem that cause water build-up and force the pool upward, it should be fine, but I don't recommend doing it in Spring. Late Summer/early Autumn is best where the ground is mostly dry because the sun bakes the pool wall and dries/evaporates the water outside the pool into the hole.
It’s videos like these that compel me to remind everyone - you were born with the same knowledge as that pool guy, electrician, mechanical engineer and brain surgeon. Yes, brain surgery will be out of scope for most people to learn, but you can learn anything you are motivated to learn. Being talked down to by someone with no more propensity for learning is irritating. Experience helps, but you are capable of most of these things if you aren’t a moron. Obviously those exist but you get the point.
Ok I only just found this video and I already drained my pool I live in Puerto Rico, and everything is concrete here. It’s completely empty, I was about to start painting and refilling…. Now I’m nervous. Should I just continue on this path and see what happens?
Makes sense. If you drain a pool, essentially it's a huge bubble! If the pressure/density outside is greater, it's gonna float! Many boats are made of concrete!
I have an indoor spa 8 ft by 12 ft that is 4 ft deep That is poured concrete and then tiled. i am curious if it will pop out in my pool room. It is drained with a a floor built over it a it was never used.
Hot and Dry in Los Angeles.I want to drain concrete pool wo ground water near by, and I don't care if pool has some damage and not working for the future.. My only concern will it cause house structure issue or land slide..???
What about hybrid pool with the thick concrete bottom and fiberglass walls? (I saw you did a video on these).. hoping to resurface it, been studying the process and the actual work doesn't scare me, but the idea of draining it - for exactly the reason you describe - does. The main drain in my pool also seems to have been sealed up in the past. (it seems there are no professionals out there willing to even talk to me when they hear "hybrid pool")
I have one of those. I have a very high water table & have drained & painted it twice. Take the plug out of the bottom. Caulk & seal all your seams. I can’t get anyone to look at mine either. Ready to backfill it & go above ground.
I live out in the desert near las vegas where we get 6 days per year rain so the ground surrounding my in ground pool is pretty dry and is just 2 years old. Do you still advise me to get a professional pool company to come out here and do the job...it was a waste of $40K...thanks
Problem! My main drains at the deep end are piped into my skimmer and from there the pipe goes to my pump. When letting water out for winterization I run the pump till the water gets below the skimmer. Now, my plastic diverter starts to draw the water from the main drains. But after the pool water level drops two feet the pump (which is very good) can't seem to draw anymore more water from the main drains??? Why is that? Please help!!!
I m just about to drain my old concrete pool in Niagara Ontario and I have done this several times over the. last 30 years and before I finish draining I have our local long term pool store come to house and install a stand pipe to provide the relief the pool is looking for and my understanding is that once the relief stand pipe is in place I m on safe ground. Is my understnding correct?
You are referring to a situation where rain has caused the pool to be ABOVE NORMAL levels - it is perfectly fine and routine to then drain it BACK TO NORMAL LEVELS. In this video he is referring to starting it an a normal level and draining most or all of the water. Two totally different situations
@@drdrew3 I was asking what the best way to drain the pool is. Using the pool pump, using a submersible pump, or some other option l. I’m well aware of what he was talking about in the video
Good day Can you please assist me I made that mistake to drain my pool to repaint it,but now the ground water is flowing none stop ,if I refill it will the ground water stop Please assist me Thanks
I live in the High Desert of Southern California, on a rolling knoll, with about 10-20 feet of fill over decomposing granite. I want to drain my pool 1/2 to get the hardness of the water reduced, and I want to do it while the cost of water is lower in winter. It has not rained too much this season...about 2 inches over the last 3 months. What do folks think....pretty safe to do now? Will overnight temps in the 20s damage any micro-pebble finish if I do this overnight?
The previous owners turned the concrete pool into a pond. Complete with lily pads frogs, etc. it is falling apart and I am certain will cost us a fortune to repair. Do you think partially draining it is possible so we can get in there and start removing the established plants?
Holy smokes!!! That second comment was very important!!! You should figure approximately far down you could drain to be level with the marsh. That is approximately your water table. Do NOT drain below that!!! I would call a professional.
I drained my pool and had it empty of water for 2 months before a random video popped up on my RUclips with a pool popping out! I was horrified and went to the comments where a few said, "you didn't take out the hydrostatic valve!"!!! Then I started searching and I was furthered horrified! I'm in Miami and I drained it in February which is our driest season so I guess the water table was below my pool! It's now June 23 and the pool is halfway up filled with rain water because I haven't fixed my pool pump/filter plumbing! Just now I got in the pool (water is rather clear since I add chlorine every week) and saw that the hydrostatic valve is old! I want to remove it and install a new one as I plan to drain again to clean and fill up again! There's a chance the "valve" is not a valve but a plug; can't see that clearly! Thanks for your vids, Steve, you're all that and a bag of chips!
Sir, I am having my pool in the 2 nd floor already planned before construction 15 years before and at present that's is no problem . now I have to change the tiles 20mm size multi color since it has started commingout when vacoume please advice the precaution I have to take for romoving the old tiles and fix new tiles
I do not understand your use of English language. If I understand correctly, your pool is not in the ground if it is accessed from the second floor of your home. In this case, you do not have to worry about it popping out of the ground. Drain it, chip off the old tile, and set new tile!
Am empty pool of full of air and completely below the ground. It’s essentially an empty bowl that will float on the water table. A house has the weight of the floors and walls and contents to weigh it down. That’s why if you have a basement and it rains heavy the water will come right through the walls
Ok, heavy water table, leak at drain box, heavy rains all spring, ground still soaked even after cutting grass. Would that be considered heavy water table? Lol, glad I saw this today. Told wife wanted to drain it so we could get estimate to fix. It's older than methusala and i can't keep green and black off walls. And i can't keep water clean without $$$ every week. I just want to fill it in or turn into koi pond, but wife says not an option.
There are many areas where you do not drain concrete pools in the spring. Only during the long, hot and dry days of late summer. Many concrete pools owners just start draining at any ol' time but I wouldn't. Pick your times to drain unless ypu have a measure to control the local ground water table like a permanent French drain system or a sump well adjacent to the pool.
You don’t need to drain it to get estimate to fix. A pool pro can estimate whatever problem you have with water in the pool. In fact, our company overfills a leaky pool to find ALL the leaks. (How do you know where the leaks are, if there isn’t any water to go out of the leaks?)
Fear mongering. I’ve done it lots of times. As long as you follow a few basic but important points in relation to ground conditions and the all important breather valves you’ll be fine. This dude is trying to protect his job.
Trying to protect uninformed pool owners feom making a huge and costly mistake, ehich we see happen every year in the pool industry. Your anecdotal experience with one pool is not a reflection of how safe or not safe it is to drain a concrete pool.
@@Swimmingpoolsteve Hi Steve, did they use those plugs under the main drains 25 or 30 years ago? Do you need a special tool to take them out or will a pair of channel locks work?
@@goblin103187 if they are very old they can be a problem. You can crack the main drain pot and then you have a new problem. But yes, they just thread into place. Get a new one in your hand and it will help you to figure out what you are removing. There are plumber wrench tools which can grab and twist with a 90 degree end on the tool. In a bad case you might need something like this, but channel locks in careful hands should work.
@@goblin103187 Google SP1056 from Hayward. Note, if you are asking this question I must warn you that it's risky to drain a pool. Consulting a local pool professional is surely worthwhile. Cheers.
Hello! I live in Arizona west Phoenix area. It is literally bone dry with the summer is coming here. I just want to drain perhaps 1/2 of my concrete pool to decrease the stabilizer. Do you think that would be safe to do so?
Yes, but get the end of your hose as far away from the pool as possible. A storm drain by your curb is a good place to put the water. You just don’t want to put the water back under your pool! 1/2 way…you should be fine!
Then I must be the luckiest owner ever . I’ve drained my pool completely like 4 times is the past 2 or 3 years . I’ve never had a problem. Never even thought to look at ground water or anything. I’m in florida a 10,000 gal, I’ve never even heard of a hydrostatic relief valve or any of that but I know it was empty when they built it for weeks waiting on inspection but that’s me
Probably because his video is a long winded way of says "make sure you relieve the hydrostatic pressure". Which is easy to do. Normally ... you do nothing because the the valve will open on its own as the water level decreases and less weight is on it. If you drain and open it water shoots out like a jet, obviously let it will in.
It has nothing to do with installation. It has to do with how much ground water is under the pool. They even install a valve to allow the water to drain up into the pool to prevent it from happening.
@@chrisbuckley1785 more important than the groundwater level even is the humidity. Pools in Colorado for example never pop out of the ground regardless of when we drain them. In Florida it doesn’t even have to be done in the spring for it to pop out
Angelo, you can install them correctly every day, but if someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, tries to drain their own pool incorrectly, they will not have a pool anymore…they will have a boat!
@@davidsimmons9763 sorry but no. Been building and installing concrete pools for more than 20 years and never once. I haven't even installed drains for like the last 8 to 10 years anyway.
@@jackofallgames3097 Sorry, but yes. I am not saying that YOU are doing anything wrong. You are a professional and know what you are doing! I’m saying that someone who DOES NOT know what they are doing, CAN pop their pool. Look at other videos of popped pools. Every one popped by someone who didn’t know how to properly drain their pool.
No. He’s saying that people who aren’t pool professionals should not drain pools (of any kind). I work for a company that drains ONLY concrete pools. We drain 2-3 concrete pools a week. We drain them with water tables that are sometimes only 3-4 feet below deck level. There are tricks and every situation is different.
I've done it twice. Drained it cleaned it once and then 2 years ago drained it and cleaned it and gave it a new coat of epoxy paint, no problems.
Some have done it on their own, and weren't as lucky.
It depends on your situation. If you live in a coastal Florida area, you are extremely lucky!!! You probably don’t. We don’t paint pools here…
Same, I've done it twice no issues at all
I have drained my 16x32 concrete (1960 installed) pool every single year since i have lived in my home. I moved in in 1991.
I’ve drained mine twice. I just take the plugs out of the bottom. My water tables are HIGH. It was installed in the 70s but ive owned it for the last 20.
What a waste of water.
The 1968 kidney-shaped 9 foot deep end pool we have had mostly drained for many years =25-it has a very rounded bottom and is up on a hill. We are in northern Wisco where ground is frozen 6 months a year and nothing has heaved up yet
Hi Ms. Adams, that sounds like a backyard pool skateboarders dream! I would love to see pictures of that beautiful Kidney. Would you mind sending me pictures?
I have drained my concrete pool a few times, but was aware of the potential problem and drained it just before the rainy season. Its old enough that it doesn't have a static valve.
You must live somewhere where the water table is lower than your deep end. Or you’re very lucky…
If you don't have underground water or leakage problem that cause water build-up and force the pool upward, it should be fine, but I don't recommend doing it in Spring. Late Summer/early Autumn is best where the ground is mostly dry because the sun bakes the pool wall and dries/evaporates the water outside the pool into the hole.
It’s videos like these that compel me to remind everyone - you were born with the same knowledge as that pool guy, electrician, mechanical engineer and brain surgeon.
Yes, brain surgery will be out of scope for most people to learn, but you can learn anything you are motivated to learn. Being talked down to by someone with no more propensity for learning is irritating.
Experience helps, but you are capable of most of these things if you aren’t a moron. Obviously those exist but you get the point.
Ok I only just found this video and I already drained my pool I live in Puerto Rico, and everything is concrete here. It’s completely empty, I was about to start painting and refilling…. Now I’m nervous. Should I just continue on this path and see what happens?
Do you have a drain in the bottom? If so unplug it & pump the water out as it comes up into your pool
Makes sense. If you drain a pool, essentially it's a huge bubble! If the pressure/density outside is greater, it's gonna float!
Many boats are made of concrete!
Can you lower the water level a few inches?
I have an indoor spa 8 ft by 12 ft that is 4 ft deep That is poured concrete and then tiled. i am curious if it will pop out in my pool room. It is drained with a a floor built over it a it was never used.
Hot and Dry in Los Angeles.I want to drain concrete pool wo ground water near by, and I don't care if pool has some damage and not working for the future..
My only concern will it cause house structure issue or land slide..???
I did it . My pool is just fine .Drained it with my submersible pump , power washed it. Cleaned it and no issues
You are extremely lucky or you don’t live with a high water table. People who live here in Coastal Florida who do that, wind up popping their pools.
Same here and I live i. Thailand helps very dry here
Did you unplug the drain plug where the main drain is to release the pressure?
@@wwfera00that’s what i do to mine. Ground water comes up into the pool
@@CandyQuackenbush911 When do you unplug it? When it's full of water or when it's empty?
my pool has a pop-up valve in it
the water table is low in this area, so that's good
What about hybrid pool with the thick concrete bottom and fiberglass walls? (I saw you did a video on these).. hoping to resurface it, been studying the process and the actual work doesn't scare me, but the idea of draining it - for exactly the reason you describe - does. The main drain in my pool also seems to have been sealed up in the past. (it seems there are no professionals out there willing to even talk to me when they hear "hybrid pool")
I have one of those. I have a very high water table & have drained & painted it twice. Take the plug out of the bottom. Caulk & seal all your seams. I can’t get anyone to look at mine either. Ready to backfill it & go above ground.
I live out in the desert near las vegas where we get 6 days per year rain so the ground surrounding my in ground pool is pretty dry and is just 2 years old. Do you still advise me to get a professional pool company to come out here and do the job...it was a waste of $40K...thanks
I have one BUT im told i had a weeper line , and need to find it or its 6k to run a new one....
Problem! My main drains at the deep end are piped into my skimmer and from there the pipe goes to my pump. When letting water out for winterization I run the pump till the water gets below the skimmer. Now, my plastic diverter starts to draw the water from the main drains. But after the pool water level drops two feet the pump (which is very good) can't seem to draw anymore more water from the main drains??? Why is that? Please help!!!
Sounds like an air leak
I m just about to drain my old concrete pool in Niagara Ontario and I have done this several times over the. last 30 years and before I finish draining I have our local long term pool store come to house and install a stand pipe to provide the relief the pool is looking for and my understanding is that once the relief stand pipe is in place I m on safe ground. Is my understnding correct?
I’m in Arizona, what happens if a monsoon starts to over flow the pool? How should I move the water out of the pool?
You are referring to a situation where rain has caused the pool to be ABOVE NORMAL levels - it is perfectly fine and routine to then drain it BACK TO NORMAL LEVELS. In this video he is referring to starting it an a normal level and draining most or all of the water. Two totally different situations
@@drdrew3 I was asking what the best way to drain the pool is. Using the pool pump, using a submersible pump, or some other option l. I’m well aware of what he was talking about in the video
@@celticsfaninthedesert4778 get a submersible
Good day Can you please assist me I made that mistake to drain my pool to repaint it,but now the ground water is flowing none stop ,if I refill it will the ground water stop
Please assist me
Thanks
I live in the High Desert of Southern California, on a rolling knoll, with about 10-20 feet of fill over decomposing granite. I want to drain my pool 1/2 to get the hardness of the water reduced, and I want to do it while the cost of water is lower in winter. It has not rained too much this season...about 2 inches over the last 3 months. What do folks think....pretty safe to do now? Will overnight temps in the 20s damage any micro-pebble finish if I do this overnight?
The previous owners turned the concrete pool into a pond. Complete with lily pads frogs, etc. it is falling apart and I am certain will cost us a fortune to repair. Do you think partially draining it is possible so we can get in there and start removing the established plants?
Forgot to say that I know we have a water table here. Spring fed pond about 100 yards away from the pool pond and marshy area surrounding that
Holy smokes!!! That second comment was very important!!!
You should figure approximately far down you could drain to be level with the marsh. That is approximately your water table. Do NOT drain below that!!! I would call a professional.
It is safe as long as you equalized the pressure with the ground water.
the water helps keep the side walls up to
I drained my pool and had it empty of water for 2 months before a random video popped up on my RUclips with a pool popping out! I was horrified and went to the comments where a few said, "you didn't take out the hydrostatic valve!"!!! Then I started searching and I was furthered horrified! I'm in Miami and I drained it in February which is our driest season so I guess the water table was below my pool! It's now June 23 and the pool is halfway up filled with rain water because I haven't fixed my pool pump/filter plumbing! Just now I got in the pool (water is rather clear since I add chlorine every week) and saw that the hydrostatic valve is old! I want to remove it and install a new one as I plan to drain again to clean and fill up again! There's a chance the "valve" is not a valve but a plug; can't see that clearly! Thanks for your vids, Steve, you're all that and a bag of chips!
Sir, I am having my pool in the 2 nd floor already planned before construction 15 years before and at present that's is no problem . now I have to change the tiles 20mm size multi color since it has started commingout when vacoume please advice the precaution I have to take for romoving the old tiles and fix new tiles
I do not understand your use of English language. If I understand correctly, your pool is not in the ground if it is accessed from the second floor of your home. In this case, you do not have to worry about it popping out of the ground. Drain it, chip off the old tile, and set new tile!
Very informative and straight to the point. This is the best kind of content on youtube. Thanks for your professional expertise.
Noob question…. If hydrostatic pressure pops up a concrete pool which is super heavy. Why dont it pops up entire house made of concrete?
Am empty pool of full of air and completely below the ground. It’s essentially an empty bowl that will float on the water table. A house has the weight of the floors and walls and contents to weigh it down. That’s why if you have a basement and it rains heavy the water will come right through the walls
Ok, heavy water table, leak at drain box, heavy rains all spring, ground still soaked even after cutting grass. Would that be considered heavy water table? Lol, glad I saw this today. Told wife wanted to drain it so we could get estimate to fix. It's older than methusala and i can't keep green and black off walls. And i can't keep water clean without $$$ every week. I just want to fill it in or turn into koi pond, but wife says not an option.
There are many areas where you do not drain concrete pools in the spring. Only during the long, hot and dry days of late summer. Many concrete pools owners just start draining at any ol' time but I wouldn't. Pick your times to drain unless ypu have a measure to control the local ground water table like a permanent French drain system or a sump well adjacent to the pool.
You don’t need to drain it to get estimate to fix. A pool pro can estimate whatever problem you have with water in the pool. In fact, our company overfills a leaky pool to find ALL the leaks. (How do you know where the leaks are, if there isn’t any water to go out of the leaks?)
Thanks for the info. What you said is very interesting.
Fear mongering. I’ve done it lots of times. As long as you follow a few basic but important points in relation to ground conditions and the all important breather valves you’ll be fine. This dude is trying to protect his job.
Trying to protect uninformed pool owners feom making a huge and costly mistake, ehich we see happen every year in the pool industry. Your anecdotal experience with one pool is not a reflection of how safe or not safe it is to drain a concrete pool.
@@Swimmingpoolsteve Hi Steve, did they use those plugs under the main drains 25 or 30 years ago? Do you need a special tool to take them out or will a pair of channel locks work?
@@goblin103187 if they are very old they can be a problem. You can crack the main drain pot and then you have a new problem. But yes, they just thread into place. Get a new one in your hand and it will help you to figure out what you are removing. There are plumber wrench tools which can grab and twist with a 90 degree end on the tool. In a bad case you might need something like this, but channel locks in careful hands should work.
@@Swimmingpoolsteve So they're just your standard plumbing clean out plug? Thank you for your response. Its greatly appreciated.
@@goblin103187 Google SP1056 from Hayward. Note, if you are asking this question I must warn you that it's risky to drain a pool. Consulting a local pool professional is surely worthwhile. Cheers.
I sorta wish he actually put the pools popping out of the ground in the video lol.
Si es seguro mientras cuando sepas lo que estás asiendo 👍🏼
Hello! I live in Arizona west Phoenix area. It is literally bone dry with the summer is coming here. I just want to drain perhaps 1/2 of my concrete pool to decrease the stabilizer. Do you think that would be safe to do so?
Yes, but get the end of your hose as far away from the pool as possible. A storm drain by your curb is a good place to put the water. You just don’t want to put the water back under your pool! 1/2 way…you should be fine!
Draining a pool in the storm drain is highly illegal you are killing wildlife
Very wise words.
Then I must be the luckiest owner ever . I’ve drained my pool completely like 4 times is the past 2 or 3 years . I’ve never had a problem. Never even thought to look at ground water or anything. I’m in florida a 10,000 gal, I’ve never even heard of a hydrostatic relief valve or any of that but I know it was empty when they built it for weeks waiting on inspection but that’s me
If you can't drain it then how the hell can you resurface it. Maybe you should rethink your response in future because you CAN drain your pool 100%.
Probably because his video is a long winded way of says "make sure you relieve the hydrostatic pressure". Which is easy to do. Normally ... you do nothing because the the valve will open on its own as the water level decreases and less weight is on it. If you drain and open it water shoots out like a jet, obviously let it will in.
Of course you CAN drain your pool. My company does 2-3 a week. You must know what you are doing though or it WILL POP. RIGHT OUT OF THE GROUND!!!
wow you need to be a NASA guy to do this
Yeah right
This is ridiculous. Only an incorrect install can cause what he's talking about. Been installing longer than this kid has been alive.
It has nothing to do with installation.
It has to do with how much ground water is under the pool.
They even install a valve to allow the water to drain up into the pool to prevent it from happening.
@@chrisbuckley1785 more important than the groundwater level even is the humidity. Pools in Colorado for example never pop out of the ground regardless of when we drain them. In Florida it doesn’t even have to be done in the spring for it to pop out
Angelo, you can install them correctly every day, but if someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, tries to drain their own pool incorrectly, they will not have a pool anymore…they will have a boat!
@@davidsimmons9763 sorry but no. Been building and installing concrete pools for more than 20 years and never once. I haven't even installed drains for like the last 8 to 10 years anyway.
@@jackofallgames3097 Sorry, but yes. I am not saying that YOU are doing anything wrong. You are a professional and know what you are doing! I’m saying that someone who DOES NOT know what they are doing, CAN pop their pool. Look at other videos of popped pools. Every one popped by someone who didn’t know how to properly drain their pool.
I never knew this. Glad I don't have a pool.
Yeh because these pool guys want $500 to drain a pool
So you're saying don't drain a concrete pool?
No. He’s saying that people who aren’t pool professionals should not drain pools (of any kind). I work for a company that drains ONLY concrete pools. We drain 2-3 concrete pools a week. We drain them with water tables that are sometimes only 3-4 feet below deck level. There are tricks and every situation is different.
J