Thanks for the video,it’s storming now and I was freaking out I went out to buy a sump pump and was getting ready to pump water out but I came across this video and now I can relax, thanks
I have lived in Central Florida all my life. I have lived in 8 different pool homes and nearly every single house down here has an inground gunite swimming pool. I ran my own lawn and pool service as a teenager, caring for more than a dozen pool homes. Over the past 50+ years, I have "survived" dozens of tropical storms/hurricanes and countless thunderstorms (Fort Myers has about 90 per year...do the math). Some of these storms will dump over 6" of rain in an hour and have winds over 50 MPH. That is worse than many of the hurricanes that come through. I have NEVER drained a concrete pool prior to a storm and never had a problem. I always shock the pool in case I lose power for a couple days. I will occasionally throw the PVC furniture in the pool to keep it from becoming a projectile. But draining a pool for heavy rain is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard of!!! I literally laughed at a new neighbor "from out of state" when he told me what he was doing. I cautioned him because I have witnessed pool resurfacers (contractor transplants from hill country) literally "pop" customer's pools out of the ground due to our high water table. Having a beer in my kitchen, I explained it like this... I stopped up the sink and put 1" of water in it....this is Florida where if you dig down 3 feet during the rainy season you hit water...Then I put 1" of water in a cereal bowl in the sink under the faucet...this is your Florida concrete pool. I turned on the faucet to a slow dribble, this is a Florida downpour...it overflowed in to the sink and nothing happened. Then I put 1/2" of water in the bowl, set it in the sink and turned the faucet on... we drank beer and watched as the bowl floated in a circle around the sink. aahhhhhh!!! I get it he said.😁
Not a whole lot of heavy rain here in SoCal. One night I accidentally overflowed my pool. Turned on the valve to refill some of the water that I had lost to normal evaporation. Forgot to turn it off at night and water was left on all night. The pool overflowed all the way to top and water coming out of skimmer grill. Found a new pool in the front of the house in the AM. Never doing that mistake again.😲 Nothing happened to my pool or equipment. Apart from having to balance chemicals again. 😎
Ha ha, yep, makes sense, I always recommend people set an inside timer or one on your phone or that's easy to forget. But just a little rebalancing is all it takes. Thanks for the comment and please share the videos to help me get more subscribers. Later.
Its not hurting the pool. Its extra stress to the foundation.... a load is defined as weight over time. Pool was not designed to be 100% full and load bearing structures last less than a non load bearing structure.
The reason being - is if mastic is cracked or has been separated from coping/patio, water will seep behind pool wall & can cause hydrostatic lift on pool. Never seen it happen, but it could.
I hear you, but the dirt is already touching the pool wall/bottom below the deck, which is where part of the lift would come in from shallow surface water in the ground after heavy rains. The mastic/caulking between the pool and coping is there to help as the deck flexes separately from the pool body. It is helpful to keep that caulking intact. But experiencing a section of the pool shifting and lifting out of the ground comes when the pool is empty due to the lack of weight in the pool from having it drained. Then after heavy rains it could lift a section and break the pool. While the pool is filled, there is too much weight in the pool and it won't do it.
But during a heavy rain, water has gotten behind my pool liner and caused bulge and sag in liner. How do you prevent that short of going out n a storm to backwash
If you have an in-ground liner pool, this is difficult to prevent sometimes, but heavy rains could cause this bulge anyway due to so much water soaking into the ground.
Hello Rich, I live in the BCS area and just had an underground fiberglass pool installed a couple of months ago. I was told to not let it overflow past the top of the skimmer but never really knew or remembered why. I assume this theory is for all underground pools? It's been killing me to see it overflow this past month from all the rain we have got lately. TIA for your response and this explanation. You might just also gained another customer if you have availability.
Just drain the pool. If the pool over flows it can collect mud dirt and anything around it will float into your pool. And or flood into your house.. everyone situation is different. Hopefully everyone has drainage surrounding the pool. But if you don’t, It can create a problem.
It's just adding water to the decking area. If you have so much rain that the pool overflows, you will have everything wet and saturated anyway. If you have good drainage away from the pool and deck, you should be good to go, just like heavy rains that didn't overflow the pool.
Yesterday with heavy rains here in Jersey, the street drain back up into my pool. It filled to the very top with dirty water. I put it on waste and drain water for 40 minutes straight. Everything is working fine except the liner lift up a bit.
Hello hope you are well. Thank you , please I have a question: If I always allow the pool water to over flow skimmer level will that cause damage to the pump or pool equipment or will it simply not clean and filter the pool properly without harming the pump and pool equipment? Thank you so much
This video is about letting the pool overflow in heavy rainfall conditions. You really have no choice but to let it overflow in that situation. If you have flooding where the water will go so high into your pump, your motor will probably be shot, and again you probably have no choice with that as well.
expansive soils can do damage to a pool tank -- #4 rebar is the standard for an exposed deck -- #3 rebar if the deck is covered by concrete 10' out from edge of coping -- expansive soils - ie clay soils - will expand considerably during major water events and could compromise the integrity of your tank
I'm not sure your point. If you have enough rain that the pool overflows and all of your yard is flooded anyway, all of the clay soil you speak of is going to absorb water anyway and expand some. All of the ground around the pool will be wet and saturated and there is nothing you can do about it. People depend on the pool shell having plenty of rebar in it to hold together when soils may push on it.
Been real bad here in NJ with the rains the past few weeks. My pool just overflowed, but before that the liner was bubbling up at the stairs. With the overflow, the bubbling went away. After the rains tomorrow, I hope everything goes back into place. I'm worried that the liner will stretch and the pool will have issues. Thoughts?
Is this an inground liner pool, if so, heavy rains are bad for these. If above ground I hope things go back also. Inground pools with heavy rains, you can't really do anything about it and they are the most secure in this situation. I wish you the best.
@@truelightpoolsllc4441 - thank you. Yes, it is an inground pool. All things considered, we were able to get it back to normal in about 2-3 days. A lot of shock, fixing the pool chemistry, adding salt, vacuum and debris removal in the pool; and bam...back to normal. Thanks again and be well.
My pool almost overflowed but my quick thinking saved the day, got myself a submersible pump and took the hose I normally use to put water into the pool to drain water out of it straight into the basement sink. I have a lawn around my pool and was worried about chlorinated water destroying the grass, also worried about all the dirt that will float right into my pool should it flood. I sent a message to my pool guy but he turns off his phone on weekends so he won't get it until Monday. When he gets the texts on Monday he'll probably laugh his ass off b/c there's probably a valve i could've turned somewhere, but my general principle of not messing with shit i don't understand in the middle of an emergency has served me well thus far in life.
@TheMrmoc7, a properly designed in ground pool will have a shell and coping that is above grade with a deck that slopes away from the pool at approximately 1/4" per foot. As it rains uniformly over the pool and surrounding area, the yard will absorb water and the pool will not. Therefore the pool will overflow towards the yard. However, if you drain the pool you have created a "low spot" in your yard and standing water with debris will flow into the pool vs. away. My grandfather always said, "water seeks its own level" @@truelightpoolsllc4441
This video was talking about in-ground pools. But for ABG pools, it will usually flow out of skimmer first if you have a skimmer keeping the water level high but ok. For pools that don't have a skimmer I recommend to be siphoning water out of the pool while it's raining to not allow it to reach the top of the pool and overflow. Some ABG pools may not be able to handle the extra weight of the water due to poor structural support.
I see you said vinyl in-ground pools. These are so rare nowadays, there is no one why actually builds these anymore around my area. But for these I would recommend the same, siphon water from pool while it's raining to maintain the proper water level and not let it overflow. With in-ground vinyl liner pools, the worry if getting the water behind the liner.
I have a above ground pool and we had a heavy flood flashing Storm my pool overflowed and the frame on one side buckled and 3,000 gallons of water (just a guess) came out. Trying to figure out my next step.
Yes, this video is addressing in-ground pools. During heavy rains a siphon hose could be running to remove water from an above ground pool. But once an above ground pool frame buckles, you probably have to rebuild that section of the frame with new pieces if you can or have to get a whole new frame to support the liner and water appropriately. Hope you get it figured out.
Do some pools have a J-Channel between the top of the tile and the bottom of the concrete decking with the purpose being to allow water from an overfilled pool to escape rather than create a "new" pool on the side of the pool?
Thanks for the question. I have never seen a pool built the way you describe. So at least the builders in this area do not build them that way. I think if there was so much rain that it filled over the tiles and started to fill over the coping, the water wouldn't be able to drain away to anywhere where it wasn't already saturated anyway due to the heavy rains.
@@truelightpoolsllc4441 Thank you for your response. I spoke with Don Nolett at All Seasons Pool, 877.410.7665, which is the pool company that installed my pool 16 years ago. Don is 100% sure that as my hose brought water in for those 11 days, the excess water “weeped” over the top of the tile and worked its way down under the pool. Don said the top of the tile and the bottom of the pool deck do NOT have a waterproof connection. It was not waterproof with the J-Channel or beauty strip as some call it and even now after resurfacing, the connection will not be waterproof! Don also indicated you could test his explanation by employing a leak detection company or by doing it yourself. Turn off the pool pump, put a running water hose in the pool and add food color along the edge of the water. Then wait for the colored water to go over the top of the tile showing you where the weeping is occurring.
Good info, thanks for the explanation. I agree that the line/crack/separation above the tile but below the coping is not waterproof. It may allow water under the pool. The point of this video was to help calm fears that during heavy rains it's ok for the pool to overflow over the coping, it won't hurt the pool or break anything. Later.
No, usually the plumbers install a faucet valve to the discharge of the pump so you can attach a hose to it and drain the pool back down to a normal level. That may not be done in all areas, but it is done down here on all cartridge filter new pool installations. If you don't have that or don't want to install that, yes you can take separate sump pump and drain the pool down. But not during a storm anyway, it would be after.
Thank you so much. We are first time pool owners & yes we were told the same thing. We left our water on over night cause it was low & then it started raining. We freaked out cause now we have Kermit living in the pool. 🤦🏾♀️
I accidentally left the hose in my pool overnight and it overfilled it now the guy that owns the house says I burned something and I will have to fix it
The only thing you could burn up would be the main pump. But you would have to have an area where the equipment area flooded more than about 6-8 inches and didn't run off. If you have good drainage away from the pool and equipment area I don't see how anything would burn up, he is probably just making something up unfortunately.
@@catenystrom6506 Usually no but you can. If you have a skimmer, the water will rise and then pour out of the back of the skimmer. If you don't have a skimmer, get a hose and siphon water out through the hose over the top of the pool to brinig it back down to the normal pool level.
Thanks for the question. Some builders install a pool overflow drain when they build pools and others do not. This helps with rains that increase the water level towards the top of the skimmer to reduce the water level back down to about half-way up the skimmer opening. What it doesn't help with is in heavy rains or multiple days of rain. There is just too much water too fast for it to drain out of the overflow drain and so the water will overflow the top of the pool, which doesn't hurt anything anyway. If I built pools, I would not install an overflow drain. Please help me get more subscribers. Thanks.
I appreciate this info too, as I was wondering about this during our big rain today in So Cal.
Glad I could help.
Me too!
Thanks for the video,it’s storming now and I was freaking out I went out to buy a sump pump and was getting ready to pump water out but I came across this video and now I can relax, thanks
Sure thing!!!
Thank you for posting this valuable information. We are in Florida with our first pool and our "pool guy" doesn't really provide much support.
Glad it was helpful!
Yes! Us, too! I almost went out there during our current storm!
@@TheNutritionProfessor Don't do it! :)
I have lived in Central Florida all my life. I have lived in 8 different pool homes and nearly every single house down here has an inground gunite swimming pool. I ran my own lawn and pool service as a teenager, caring for more than a dozen pool homes. Over the past 50+ years, I have "survived" dozens of tropical storms/hurricanes and countless thunderstorms (Fort Myers has about 90 per year...do the math). Some of these storms will dump over 6" of rain in an hour and have winds over 50 MPH. That is worse than many of the hurricanes that come through. I have NEVER drained a concrete pool prior to a storm and never had a problem. I always shock the pool in case I lose power for a couple days. I will occasionally throw the PVC furniture in the pool to keep it from becoming a projectile. But draining a pool for heavy rain is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard of!!! I literally laughed at a new neighbor "from out of state" when he told me what he was doing. I cautioned him because I have witnessed pool resurfacers (contractor transplants from hill country) literally "pop" customer's pools out of the ground due to our high water table. Having a beer in my kitchen, I explained it like this... I stopped up the sink and put 1" of water in it....this is Florida where if you dig down 3 feet during the rainy season you hit water...Then I put 1" of water in a cereal bowl in the sink under the faucet...this is your Florida concrete pool. I turned on the faucet to a slow dribble, this is a Florida downpour...it overflowed in to the sink and nothing happened. Then I put 1/2" of water in the bowl, set it in the sink and turned the faucet on... we drank beer and watched as the bowl floated in a circle around the sink. aahhhhhh!!! I get it he said.😁
Well said and thank you for the back story of your experience with all the rainy seasons in Florida.
Not a whole lot of heavy rain here in SoCal. One night I accidentally overflowed my pool. Turned on the valve to refill some of the water that I had lost to normal evaporation. Forgot to turn it off at night and water was left on all night. The pool overflowed all the way to top and water coming out of skimmer grill. Found a new pool in the front of the house in the AM. Never doing that mistake again.😲 Nothing happened to my pool or equipment. Apart from having to balance chemicals again. 😎
Ha ha, yep, makes sense, I always recommend people set an inside timer or one on your phone or that's easy to forget. But just a little rebalancing is all it takes. Thanks for the comment and please share the videos to help me get more subscribers. Later.
Its not hurting the pool. Its extra stress to the foundation.... a load is defined as weight over time. Pool was not designed to be 100% full and load bearing structures last less than a non load bearing structure.
I understand and heavy rains are a very temporary situation and will not be there very long, as you pointed out "weight over time".
The reason being - is if mastic is cracked or has been separated from coping/patio, water will seep behind pool wall & can cause hydrostatic lift on pool. Never seen it happen, but it could.
I hear you, but the dirt is already touching the pool wall/bottom below the deck, which is where part of the lift would come in from shallow surface water in the ground after heavy rains. The mastic/caulking between the pool and coping is there to help as the deck flexes separately from the pool body. It is helpful to keep that caulking intact. But experiencing a section of the pool shifting and lifting out of the ground comes when the pool is empty due to the lack of weight in the pool from having it drained. Then after heavy rains it could lift a section and break the pool. While the pool is filled, there is too much weight in the pool and it won't do it.
Nope
But during a heavy rain, water has gotten behind my pool liner and caused bulge and sag in liner. How do you prevent that short of going out n a storm to backwash
If you have an in-ground liner pool, this is difficult to prevent sometimes, but heavy rains could cause this bulge anyway due to so much water soaking into the ground.
This video was about in-ground gunite pools.
Hello Rich, I live in the BCS area and just had an underground fiberglass pool installed a couple of months ago. I was told to not let it overflow past the top of the skimmer but never really knew or remembered why. I assume this theory is for all underground pools? It's been killing me to see it overflow this past month from all the rain we have got lately. TIA for your response and this explanation. You might just also gained another customer if you have availability.
Glad to hear and we do have availability. Just give me a call. Thanks.
Just drain the pool. If the pool over flows it can collect mud dirt and anything around it will float into your pool. And or flood into your house.. everyone situation is different. Hopefully everyone has drainage surrounding the pool. But if you don’t, It can create a problem.
@@poke777890i figured it Just made it easier to get dirt into the pool...
Would it harm the wooden decking?
It's just adding water to the decking area. If you have so much rain that the pool overflows, you will have everything wet and saturated anyway. If you have good drainage away from the pool and deck, you should be good to go, just like heavy rains that didn't overflow the pool.
Thanks :)@@truelightpoolsllc4441
Yesterday with heavy rains here in Jersey, the street drain back up into my pool. It filled to the very top with dirty water. I put it on waste and drain water for 40 minutes straight. Everything is working fine except the liner lift up a bit.
Glad to hear.
Hello hope you are well. Thank you , please I have a question: If I always allow the pool water to over flow skimmer level will that cause damage to the pump or pool equipment or will it simply not clean and filter the pool properly without harming the pump and pool equipment? Thank you so much
This video is about letting the pool overflow in heavy rainfall conditions. You really have no choice but to let it overflow in that situation. If you have flooding where the water will go so high into your pump, your motor will probably be shot, and again you probably have no choice with that as well.
expansive soils can do damage to a pool tank -- #4 rebar is the standard for an exposed deck -- #3 rebar if the deck is covered by concrete 10' out from edge of coping -- expansive soils - ie clay soils - will expand considerably during major water events and could compromise the integrity of your tank
I'm not sure your point. If you have enough rain that the pool overflows and all of your yard is flooded anyway, all of the clay soil you speak of is going to absorb water anyway and expand some. All of the ground around the pool will be wet and saturated and there is nothing you can do about it. People depend on the pool shell having plenty of rebar in it to hold together when soils may push on it.
Great info!
Glad it was helpful!
What happens if i left it after it over flowed and never emptied it does that effect the filter pump? Its an inground pool tiels
Evaporation will usually bring the level back down or you can with a pump if you are worried about it.
Good guidline
I appreciate it.
Been real bad here in NJ with the rains the past few weeks. My pool just overflowed, but before that the liner was bubbling up at the stairs. With the overflow, the bubbling went away. After the rains tomorrow, I hope everything goes back into place.
I'm worried that the liner will stretch and the pool will have issues. Thoughts?
Is this an inground liner pool, if so, heavy rains are bad for these. If above ground I hope things go back also. Inground pools with heavy rains, you can't really do anything about it and they are the most secure in this situation. I wish you the best.
@@truelightpoolsllc4441 - thank you. Yes, it is an inground pool. All things considered, we were able to get it back to normal in about 2-3 days. A lot of shock, fixing the pool chemistry, adding salt, vacuum and debris removal in the pool; and bam...back to normal. Thanks again and be well.
@@carlobrien4016 Yep, it's a lot of work, but good job on getting it normal again!
My pool almost overflowed but my quick thinking saved the day, got myself a submersible pump and took the hose I normally use to put water into the pool to drain water out of it straight into the basement sink. I have a lawn around my pool and was worried about chlorinated water destroying the grass, also worried about all the dirt that will float right into my pool should it flood. I sent a message to my pool guy but he turns off his phone on weekends so he won't get it until Monday. When he gets the texts on Monday he'll probably laugh his ass off b/c there's probably a valve i could've turned somewhere, but my general principle of not messing with shit i don't understand in the middle of an emergency has served me well thus far in life.
Sounds good.
@TheMrmoc7, a properly designed in ground pool will have a shell and coping that is above grade with a deck that slopes away from the pool at approximately 1/4" per foot. As it rains uniformly over the pool and surrounding area, the yard will absorb water and the pool will not. Therefore the pool will overflow towards the yard. However, if you drain the pool you have created a "low spot" in your yard and standing water with debris will flow into the pool vs. away. My grandfather always said, "water seeks its own level" @@truelightpoolsllc4441
What if the foam on the wrinkled after it rained
Not sure what you are asking.
What about vinyl inground pools
This video was talking about in-ground pools. But for ABG pools, it will usually flow out of skimmer first if you have a skimmer keeping the water level high but ok. For pools that don't have a skimmer I recommend to be siphoning water out of the pool while it's raining to not allow it to reach the top of the pool and overflow. Some ABG pools may not be able to handle the extra weight of the water due to poor structural support.
I see you said vinyl in-ground pools. These are so rare nowadays, there is no one why actually builds these anymore around my area. But for these I would recommend the same, siphon water from pool while it's raining to maintain the proper water level and not let it overflow. With in-ground vinyl liner pools, the worry if getting the water behind the liner.
I have a above ground pool and we had a heavy flood flashing Storm my pool overflowed and the frame on one side buckled and 3,000 gallons of water (just a guess) came out. Trying to figure out my next step.
Yes, this video is addressing in-ground pools. During heavy rains a siphon hose could be running to remove water from an above ground pool. But once an above ground pool frame buckles, you probably have to rebuild that section of the frame with new pieces if you can or have to get a whole new frame to support the liner and water appropriately. Hope you get it figured out.
@@truelightpoolsllc4441 thanks for the reply
@@49erlewis Sure thing.
Do some pools have a J-Channel between the top of the tile and the bottom of the concrete decking with the purpose being to allow water from an overfilled pool to escape rather than create a "new" pool on the side of the pool?
Thanks for the question. I have never seen a pool built the way you describe. So at least the builders in this area do not build them that way. I think if there was so much rain that it filled over the tiles and started to fill over the coping, the water wouldn't be able to drain away to anywhere where it wasn't already saturated anyway due to the heavy rains.
@@truelightpoolsllc4441 Thank you for your response. I spoke with Don Nolett at All Seasons Pool, 877.410.7665, which is the pool company that installed my pool 16 years ago. Don is 100% sure that as my hose brought water in for those 11 days, the excess water “weeped” over the top of the tile and worked its way down under the pool. Don said the top of the tile and the bottom of the pool deck do NOT have a waterproof connection. It was not waterproof with the J-Channel or beauty strip as some call it and even now after resurfacing, the connection will not be waterproof!
Don also indicated you could test his explanation by employing a leak detection company or by doing it yourself. Turn off the pool pump, put a running water hose in the pool and add food color along the edge of the water. Then wait for the colored water to go over the top of the tile showing you where the weeping is occurring.
Good info, thanks for the explanation. I agree that the line/crack/separation above the tile but below the coping is not waterproof. It may allow water under the pool. The point of this video was to help calm fears that during heavy rains it's ok for the pool to overflow over the coping, it won't hurt the pool or break anything. Later.
You didn’t mention: what if you use cartridge filter? Than you gotta go outside and bring pump, hose and cord.
No, usually the plumbers install a faucet valve to the discharge of the pump so you can attach a hose to it and drain the pool back down to a normal level. That may not be done in all areas, but it is done down here on all cartridge filter new pool installations. If you don't have that or don't want to install that, yes you can take separate sump pump and drain the pool down. But not during a storm anyway, it would be after.
Thank you so much. We are first time pool owners & yes we were told the same thing. We left our water on over night cause it was low & then it started raining. We freaked out cause now we have Kermit living in the pool. 🤦🏾♀️
Ha Ha, thanks for sharing. Glad it was helpful.
Hahaha Thank you I was just to go out and drain my pool in the storm lmaof
glad to help
I accidentally left the hose in my pool overnight and it overfilled it now the guy that owns the house says I burned something and I will have to fix it
The only thing you could burn up would be the main pump. But you would have to have an area where the equipment area flooded more than about 6-8 inches and didn't run off. If you have good drainage away from the pool and equipment area I don't see how anything would burn up, he is probably just making something up unfortunately.
make sure your telling people this is for a inground not a above ground!
Good point, yes I'm talking about in-ground pools. I will update the description. Thanks.
@@truelightpoolsllc4441 Ok, well, do you drain from above ground pools, then??
@@catenystrom6506 Usually no but you can. If you have a skimmer, the water will rise and then pour out of the back of the skimmer. If you don't have a skimmer, get a hose and siphon water out through the hose over the top of the pool to brinig it back down to the normal pool level.
JUST READ THE TITLE OF THE VIDEO !!!
Couldn’t hear some of the video! Didn’t help me
Sorry
I think its more dangerous for a pool to be under filled then over filled
Yep
What's the purpose of a pool drain. Someone told me you just let it over flow and god will take care of the rest.
Thanks for the question. Some builders install a pool overflow drain when they build pools and others do not. This helps with rains that increase the water level towards the top of the skimmer to reduce the water level back down to about half-way up the skimmer opening. What it doesn't help with is in heavy rains or multiple days of rain. There is just too much water too fast for it to drain out of the overflow drain and so the water will overflow the top of the pool, which doesn't hurt anything anyway. If I built pools, I would not install an overflow drain. Please help me get more subscribers. Thanks.