When the Hendersons closed on their Gilbert house in late May, the inspection report had one line that made their realtor wince: “Pool: non-functional, heavy algae.” The previous owner had walked away eighteen months earlier. The pump had seized. The water, all 17,000 gallons of it, had gone fully feral.
They sent us three photos on a Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, Marcus was standing at the edge of the swamp with a test kit, and we’d quoted exactly what we’ll show you below: five days, one number, guaranteed.
What we walked into
Day-zero testing told the whole story. Chlorine: zero, obviously. But the bigger villains were invisible, stabilizer (CYA) at 180 ppm from years of trichlor tabs, meaning even shock-level chlorine would be handcuffed. And the seized pump meant nothing could circulate anyway.
So the plan had three moving parts: a pump replacement on day one, a partial drain to knock the CYA down to workable levels, then the standard kill-clear-polish sequence with the filter rebuilt mid-stream.
The chemistry log
These are the actual day-zero and day-five readings from the service reports, the same format every customer gets by text.
