Not opened in 2 years??

[Guest]

I recently moved into a house that my grandmother owned which has an approx. 14x32 in ground pool with a vinyl liner. This pool hasn't been opened since the spring of 2004. When it was closed in the winter or 2004 I'm sure not much was done in terms of winterizing.

Well the pool is obviously in terrible shape now. The cover has sagged in 2 spots which allowed the dirty surface water to seep under the cover and into the pool. There is approximately 3 or 4 feet of water on top of the cover in the deep end, and at least 2 feet of water in the shallow end. There is a ton of debris on the cover and a good bit of debris has gotten under the cover as well. I peeked under the cover today and the water is obviously black as night.

I am renting a large pump to clear the water off the cover this weekend. The pump I'm renting is a submersible one that is supposed to pump 70 gallons/ minute. My main question is should I just drain the pool and start over, or spend weeks shocking and cleaning over an over??? I know in some areas you can give the local fire dept. a donation and they will come fill your pool in no time. The local pool cleaning companies said it would cost at least $400 to get the pool ready to swim bc they'd have to come out so many times. Let me know what the best course of action is. I'm a pool newbie so feel free to explain all the little details.

[Poolz]

In some areas where the ground water level is high, emptying the pool may cause the pool to "float" out of the ground. Of course concrete or plaster pools are less prone to this, but is a factor which needs to be considered.

Ideally, draining the pool, cleaning and refilling is the quickest, most thorough and probably the most economical considering the time the pool has been unused.

Draining will allow you to make any repairs that will only become apparent after cleaning, spot clean any stains, ...

While you are about it, I recommend checking the filter and replacing or cleaning the filter medium, without which the pool water will never look good. And the pump may need servicing too.