Narrator: Thick green algae blankets,
frogs,
green-stained tiles,
and mosquito nests.
These are just a few things
that can be found inside a pool
that's been left to sit for a few years
or even a few days,
depending on its location.
Here's how UK pool engineer Miles Laflin,
better known as Thep00lguy,
salvages these pools by giving them a deep clean.
This indoor pool hasn't been used in six years.
Plants started growing inside of it,
which isn't typical for an indoor pool.
Miles starts by pumping out the water.
Miles: Nice and empty, but not nice and clean.
Time to get to work.
Narrator: He brushes all the debris into a corner
and disposes of it in a compost heap.
Miles: The main difference between cleaning
an indoor and an outdoor pool is, normally,
you don't get any sort of debris in a indoor pool.
Obviously, this one had plants growing in it.
Took about five or six years
for this pool to get like that.
But for an outdoor pool,
that would probably only take maybe a year,
year and a half for it to get like that state.
Narrator: He power washes the walls and the floor.
Miles: Quickly have a guess at what picture's
tiled in on the floor. I went for a dolphin.
Turns out it's a sea lion.
That's pretty cool though.
Narrator: Then he uses acid to remove
the remaining stains
and lets it sit before rinsing it away
and vacuuming up the last bits.
These are chlorine tablets.
They're inserted into a dispenser
that slowly feeds chlorine into the pool.
Miles adds chlorine granules
directly into the pool for an instant release.
This blue liquid is algaecide,
which prevents future algae growth.
Miles: Well, some people think it's me
adding color to the pool. [laughs]
"Is that what makes the pool look blue?"
is what some people message me.
Narrator: The jelly cubes remove phosphates
and small particles from the pool
and improve chemical efficiency.
This makes the water clearer.
Then he adds salt.
It takes a week for the salt to turn into chlorine
through a process called electrolysis.
Miles: This was all within maybe half a day's work.
Narrator: This pool has only gone a few days
without chlorine. It's in a greenhouse,
so it gets hot easily.
This allows the algae to attach to the tiles,
which are actually blue underneath.
Miles sprays diluted hydrochloric acid
over the tiles.
It's just aggressive enough to detach the algae.
When it starts bubbling up,
it's a good indication that it's working.
Then he brushes it in
to disturb the surface of the algae.
He hoses off all this and gives it a good rinse.
This only takes about 15 minutes.
This pool has a thick blanket of algae over it.
Miles starts pumping out the water
with a submersible pump.
Then he shovels the algae and debris
out into buckets.
Algae buildup like this happens
after a pool is left without chlorine.
Miles: When we had the pool empty,
we realized how many frogs there were.
I'd never seen so many frogs
in a pool before in my life.
Like, every scoop, every shovelful,
there was maybe one or two frogs on it.
So we had to get them out,
put them on the side of the pool,
and let them run off into the bushes.
Narrator: Miles applies diluted hydrochloric acid
to break down the remaining bits.
Miles: Get out the old Karcher K4.
Narrator: And it's all power washed away.
Miles: It's all coming up pretty well.
Narrator: He breaks up the hard debris in the drain
with a screwdriver and vacuums it out.
The dirtiest part of the pool is the filters,
which catch the debris and continuously circulate
the water to keep the pool clean.
These filters get the job done with sand,
so he adds five bags of sand to replenish them.
He also adds chlorine and salt
directly into the pool to balance the chemicals.
Miles: A few bags of salt needed.
Three 25-kilo bags.
Narrator: He uses a brush to help
dissolve them into the water.
Miles: And that's that job done.
Narrator: This pool has been sitting for one summer,
which is just enough time
for mosquitoes to colonize it.
Miles: Literally so bad I had to, like,
run away from the pool.
Narrator: The customer has requested
for the pool to be cleaned without emptying it.
Miles starts by adding chlorine granules.
He also shocks the pool,
which kills off the algae and contaminants.
The process causes all the small debris particles
to clump together and become heavy.
After a few days,
the debris sinks to the bottom of the pool,
and the water is crystal clear.
He vacuums out the debris from the bottom
and finishes by adding more chlorine.