Rain and Your Pool Service Business
With record rainfall in California this year I think moving forward we will probably have more of these atmospheric rivers. This means weeks of continuous rain which can lead to a number of issues with your pool and of course pool service interruptions.
The number one call I get during periods of intense rain is that the pool looks like it will overflow into the yard and house. In most cases the worry is unfounded as the drains around the pool should be able to handle the runoff. However, there are times when draining is needed and it is a good idea to have it set up with the customer beforehand.
Teach the customer how to drain their own pool down to save them a service trip. If there is a hose spigot on the equipment pad, usually above the pump, show them how to attach a garden hose to it and drain the pool. It is pretty easy. Just attach a garden hose, turn on the pool pump, and open up the hose spigot and the pool will drain while the pump is running.
Plan B would be to have the customer purchase a small sump pump (submersible pump) and use that to drain the pool down when needed. They can simply place it on the first step in the pool attach a garden hose to it and plug it in. Easy and no need for you to go out and drain pools all day if you set things up beforehand with your customers.
Another common problem you will run into is mud getting into the pool. It only takes a couple of pounds of dirt to really make a pool a murky mess. And in most cases when a planter is right next to a pool and there is a slope behind it, mud in the pool is unavoidable. It can take a few weeks to clear up a mud pool so the best thing is to prevent it from happening in the 1st place. Have the customer get their landscaper to fix any planter or dirt areas. A good incentive is to remind your customers that dirt has a lot of iron and other metals in it and this can lead to staining if a large amount of mud were to get into your pool.
When to go out in the rain to service your pools is another question I often get. How much rain is too much rain? That is for you to decide and I think a good rule is that if you can’t even see the pool bottom there is too much rain and it is useless to even go out. Typically 1-2” of constant rain is when I pull the plug. Rain of less than 1” is pretty easy to work in so make the call based on common sense.
If you are expecting rain multiple times on your service day in a two-week period you may want to shuffle the service day so that you are not going to have a 3-week service gap. For example, if it is raining on a Thursday and you can’t go out, but the next week's heavy rain is also predicted on that Thursday, it is perfectly fine to skip your Wednesday pools and move the Thursday pools to Wednesday that week. And if it doesn’t rain you can always do your Wednesday pools on that Thursday.
Rain is a common issue and there are ways to set up your pool route to deal with the effects of weeks and months of rain.
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