Spring has sprung and that means it is time to start opening up those swimming pools. For the DIY’ers here are few easy to follow steps. The process is basically the same whether your pool is marcite (pebble tech, diamond brite), fiberglass or a vinyl liner.

1. Remove your winterizing cover, fold and store until fall. Remember to screw your brass anchors back into the deck, it will keep the dirt and debris out of the holes and you won’t have do hunt for them come closing time. If you have waterbags instead of anchors be sure to store them with your winterizing cover.
2. Remove the winterizing plugs from the skimmers, return lines and pool cleaner line. I strongly suggest you put these in a baggy and store them inside the folds of your cover where you will have them when you need them.
3. Net as much of the leaves and debris off the top now before the water gets stirred up. (if the pool is green, you can’t see the bottom flocking may be necessary, call for instructions)
4. Re-install the winterizing plugs into the pump and filter.
5. Reset your valves to normal filtration settings.
6. Prime the pump by opening lid, fill basket with water, replace lid and start up all of your equipment running.
7. Vacuum any debris from the bottom. If you have a lot of fine debris on the bottom vacuum to waste, moving slowly to avoid stirring up the water.
8. Test your water and balance the pool accordingly. If you are unsure what you need and you are in the North Georgia mountains, you can bring a water sample into Backyard Delights and we will be happy to test it for you. Retest your water daily until your chemicals are balanced.
9. Brush the sides and bottom to remove any clinging algae. Filtration is key to crisp, clear water so set your system to run 24 hours a day for the first week.

Optimum swimming pool chemical readings

CHLORINE 2.0 (you will need to super shock the pool upon opening, use DiChlor for vinyl liner pools, Cal Hypo for gunite or fiberglass pools)
PH 7.6 (use Soda Ash to raise PH, Muratic Acid to lower PH)
ALKALINITY 90 – 110 (use Bicarb to raise Alk)
CALCIUM 250 – 350 (pre mix in a bucket of water, this gets hot!)
STABILIZER 70 PPM (add slowly to the skimmer with system running)
SALT 3400 PPM (do not use water softener pellets)

Enjoy your swimming pool!

For those of you who are not DIY’ers and are in the Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee tri-state area, Backyard Delights, Inc can come open your swimming pool for you.