Thread: 60's Pool Renovation - Time for a Change

I have never had more than a kiddie pool so I haven't had the experience but here [Minnesota] we got many areas of 10+ inches of rain last night. Can you run your rain gutter from your house into the pool?

Nice set up on the controls! Nice Hayward 250000 btu heater as well I'm guessing.

So you have a two way selector for the return jets, as well as the two way for the inlets to the filter? Do you have two side skimmers or just the one? Just curious about the plumbing, it's the installer in me,

Remember to keep your salt at the lower range to protect your heater plumbing. The heat reacts aggressively with the salt in the pool water and can rot out your heater core in under three years my sister found out the hard way.

Another tip is angle your deep end return jet downward on like a 7 o'clock angle into the pool (when looking straight at it) to improve circulation and reduce temp variances as you go down to the bottom. Shallow end return set to 9 o'clock. Gets all the water moving counterclockwise and steers the debris at the top to the side baskets.
Preparing to close ours this weekend sadly, so I do hope the weather lets you enjoy yours the rest of the month.

Very nice pool and perfect spot you have it at. I've never seen a plastc liner like that. I make custom pools out of gunite and mainly pebble finishes. Cool shape of the pool too, most people make them to plain imo. You done good!

Originally Posted by Phrank

That is certainly a fine job and a stunning looking pool, what a great renovation / restoration for the backyard...turned out spectacularly, and that uniquely shaped pool is fantastic.

So you went salt water as well, excellent, never knew how involved that pump and filtration system is...learn something new every day.

So guess around Friday / Saturday, with the weather scheduled to be, once again, simply awesome, you'll be having a fine day of swimming followed up by some tasty grilling.

Thanks Phrank. We are very happy with the way it all turned out. Got lots of landscaping to do yet but that will wait until next spring. Had the grill on today and the wife an I took our inaugural dip. Already scheduled to be closed on Oct 17th but will try to use it as much as possible until then.

Originally Posted by Cangooner

"Fixing up the pool" sounds like such a simple thing to do!

Thanks for showing the process. It looks like they did a fantastic job, and it was cool to see how it was done.

I hope you and yours have many years of use from it.

Cheers! Glad you enjoyed following along. They did a great job in what I would consider a short time.

Originally Posted by 32t

I have never had more than a kiddie pool so I haven't had the experience but here [Minnesota] we got many areas of 10+ inches of rain last night. Can you run your rain gutter from your house into the pool?

You could but it would really mess with your water balance.

Originally Posted by MikeB52

Nice set up on the controls! Nice Hayward 250000 btu heater as well I'm guessing.

So you have a two way selector for the return jets, as well as the two way for the inlets to the filter? Do you have two side skimmers or just the one? Just curious about the plumbing, it's the installer in me,

Remember to keep your salt at the lower range to protect your heater plumbing. The heat reacts aggressively with the salt in the pool water and can rot out your heater core in under three years my sister found out the hard way.

Another tip is angle your deep end return jet downward on like a 7 o'clock angle into the pool (when looking straight at it) to improve circulation and reduce temp variances as you go down to the bottom. Shallow end return set to 9 o'clock. Gets all the water moving counterclockwise and steers the debris at the top to the side baskets.
Preparing to close ours this weekend sadly, so I do hope the weather lets you enjoy yours the rest of the month.

Thanks. I think the controls worked out well. Only one skimmer but they added a side port that sits below the water line. You hook up your auto vac to it instead of bringing the hose in thru the skimmer. Thanks for the tip on the heater corrosion. It's our first salt system so lots to learn on this. The contractor set up the return jets exactly the way you mentioned above. Nice to have a thinking contractor. We have an Oct 17th close date book but hoping to get in as much use as possible. The heater is about to get a workout.

Originally Posted by Toroblanco

Very nice pool and perfect spot you have it at. I've never seen a plastc liner like that. I make custom pools out of gunite and mainly pebble finishes. Cool shape of the pool too, most people make them to plain imo. You done good!

Thanks. We really liked the shape. Very retro so it was the one thing we wanted to keep. Gunite is also used around here but because of the cold weather and more aggressive frost levels they need to add a lot more material and structure to a gunite pool. Cost is about 3x more than a vinyl lined pool like this one.

Hours of planning, 32 different workers, multiple shovels, countless wheel barrel trips, worn path on lawn, landscaping yet to happen, lost sleep & bloated water bill. Worth every penny. Hope all who followed enjoyed it.

Thanks to SRP members for your encouragement and great questions.

My wife and I needed the support you offered.

Thought I would close this thread with a quick before and after.

Time for a dip ........

It has been a wonderful thread. There are not very many threads that I share with my wife, but this has been one of them. We both enjoyed your progress reports all along the way. We have never been pool owners and have not really had much to add, until now. Thank you for a great thread.

Thanks for sharing the pool renovations.
All the trials & tribulations you've been through have been well worth it!

Originally Posted by Brenngun

Gunite is also used around here but because of the cold weather and more aggressive frost levels they need to add a lot more material and structure to a gunite pool. Cost is about 3x more than a vinyl lined pool like this one.

Here in the desert it's the opposite. Vinyl liners or fiberglass pools don't do well here. It's mostly only concrete with either plaster, aggregated finishes or pebble stone which are the most popular choices. I went with an aggregate finish myself (blue colored Quartz) and I'm super happy with it and cool deck for my pool deck due to our extreme hot temps. Good job on your pool. Love it. Enjoy.

I've followed this fantastic thread from start to finish.
You certainly ended up with a great, well deserved pool.
Thanks for sharing!
Congratulations and enjoy!!!

Pete <:-}