To understand the difference between gunite pools and any other pool on the market, ll you have to do is take care of one. The amount of work involved with a gunite pool is almost triple that of any other type of pool. But don’t worry cause I’m here to help you understand a little more about the process of swimming pool maintenance. There are multiple things that go into the maintenance process such as vacuuming the pool, skimming the pool, washing the filters and correctly adjusting the chemicals.
Please do not attempt to do these things yourself unless you understand what you are doing. Call a pool professional to come in and do weekly maintenance.
The first thing that a pool company should do when they arrive is check the chemicals. This will tell the maintenance crew how much chemicals are needed at the end of the job. If there are two people on the job, one should have already started vacuuming the pool while the other was checking the chemicals. If not, vacuuming is still the next task (With one person on the job, it takes much more time to finish the job). The bottom of the pool has to be clean when you leave the job. This is very important because the bottom of the pool is what gives the water its color. When the pool floor is dirty, the whole pool is basically dirty. Next step is to skim the pool (this is usually done while the other is vacuuming). It takes much longer to vacuum the pool than it does to skim it. They both have to be done with patience and not rushed. If you rush either of these things, the dirt and leaves will just stay in the pool and float around. Going slow ensures that all the dirt is captured and not stirred up. Sometimes skimming can be the only thing one person does during the whole maintenance process. Because some pools are cover by trees, the amount of leaves can be overwhelming. Spending the whole hour on just skimming would be a better fit job in this situation. While this is happening the other person is doing the rest of the duties. After vacuuming, the filters must be cleaned. When you vacuum a pool, 90% of the time, you will hook up you vacuum to a skimmer pipe and suck all of the dirt into the filter. This is the proper way to do it because you don’t have to mess with any dirt or waste. But once you are finished the nice white filters will be dirty. What you would do is shut down the system, take out the filters, and proceed to clean them with a hose. The dirt will come right off with a powerful hose spray. This is an essential part to maintaining a clean pool. These filters are what clean the circulating water in your pool. They keep it clean until they get too dirty and can’t keep it clean anymore. After you have cleaned the filters and put the system back together, you can now add chemicals to the pool. We recommend that you don’t add these chemicals yourself. They are meant to be person friendly but if you add too much it can burn the skin and eyes. Leave this task to your local pool contractors. Also the system must be running when the chemicals are added. This ensures that the chemicals get circulated and are not sitting in one spot. Once the chemicals are added, you have to wait a little while before you can swim. Depending on the amount, we recommend a 12 to 24 hour break from swimming after chemicals are added. This helps keep kids safe and helps you, as the pool owner, to see if the chemicals are working properly. I hope this helps anyone that was curious about swimming pool maintenance.