8 Steps To Get Your Pool Back After A Storm

After Storm Pool Care

Heavy rains, winds, or natural disasters like storms can destroy the most pristine and well-maintained pools. The rainwater may sweep dirt and other contaminants into your pool. When the storm has passed, it is essential to act quickly to get your pool back to 100% clean and healthy.

Here are our 8 tips to get your swimming back to pristine condition after heavy rain:

1) Excess Water

DO NOT drain your pool or remove too much water from your pool. Draining water from your pool can cause the pool shell to pop or move and be very expensive to fix if done too quickly. Pools should not be drained or water levels adjusted until the groundwater levels have subsided.

2) Safety Check

Ensure your pool area is safe and there are no hidden dangers from the storm. Ensure the pump and equipment are ok and that the power supply hasn’t been compromised. If you are concerned about anything, STOP and get it checked before proceeding further.

It is also an excellent time to ensure your pool fence is still intact and that nothing climbable has been washed or been swept near the fence.

3) Scoop Out Debris

To start, empty your pool and skimmer baskets. With your pool leaf rake or scoop, scoop all the surface debris out of your pool. If a large amount of debris has settled on your pool floor, scoop out as much as you can, as this will save time later when having to vacuum all the debris out of the pool. Especially if you cannot see the bottom entirely.

4) Scrub The Pool Down

It is also a good time to scrub your pools water line and any step-outs to help move any built-up deposits that may be present.

5) Get The Water Moving

If your pool equipment is ok and the power to the equipment is safe and functioning. It is time to get it all moving.

Cartridge filter systems:

Take out the filter element and clean the filter. At this stage, if you have had a lot of dirt and debris go into the pool, keep the filter element out and put your cartridge filter back together, set the pool to run on manual and start the shock process.

Sand Filter Systems:

Give the filter a good backwash and rinse. If dirt and debris have washed in, still give it a good backwash and rinse, then set the filter to bypass for the first 24hours and start the shock process.

6) Shock The Pool

At this point of the pool recovery, we will need to shock the pool with some non stabilised chlorine. We recommend using liquid chlorine for this process as it’s faster acting than non stabilised granular chlorine. Please get in touch with us for our pool shock guide if required.

If you have a chlorinator installed, turn it up to maximum output at this stage leave it at this level until the recovery is complete.

7) Add Flocc

If your pool water resembles a dam, you may need to add some floc to the pool. The Floc will bind itself to all the dirt particles on the bottom of the pool and make it easier to vacuum out.

8) Clean & Balance The Pool

The cleaning process may be easy, or you may need to repeat the Shocking and Flocing process a couple of times to get all dirt and debris out of the pool. Once cleaned, it is ready to balance and set the system back to auto to run on your standard settings.

Use this easy checklist to ensure that you have followed all the steps to get your pool back to 100% clean and healthy again:

To Do List

• DO NOT drain the pool. Ensure that no one drains or takes too much water from the pool.
• Complete a safety check to ensure no electrical or other dangers are present.
• Check the fence and ensure it is in good order.
• Ensure no items are in the climbable zone of the pool fence.
• Empty pump & skimmer baskets.
• Clean or backwash filters.
• Scoop surface debris and any larger debris off the bottom of the pool.
• If larger debris are present, get what you can out and leave the heavier debris until later.
• Scrub the waterline, steps and pool step-outs.
• Set your system to run on manual.
• Shock the pool (this process may need to be repeated).
• Clarify or Floc the pool.
• Vacuum and clean out the pool.Chemically balance the pool once recovery is complete.
• Set pool to run on auto again.

Before & After

If you’re located in Marion County Ocala region we can come to your premises and get your pool back to normal, just book a service in! We also sell our pool chemicals Marion County wide if you’re confident to do a DIY pool recovery.