Pool Water to Clean Roofs

I have a condo community where they are asking me if I can clean their roofs using their pool water because they are draining the pool and trying not to waste water. Does anyone think there is any way that this can work?

Not even close enough strength to do anything. You could rinse with it….

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Well, I guess you’d have to have one heck of a supply line and pump to fill your buffer tank.

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if you did use the pool water it’d be hard to make a dent. I have no clue but just guessing this pool is at least 20K gallons. It would take a very long time with one or two 8gpm’s to make a difference in the amount of water. Plus you’d have to hook up a pond pump to your buffer tank, then consider the extra wear and tear on your pressure pump. Some bad well water is enough to take hours off a pump’s life but pool water could be a different story. If you can make it worth your while then go for it. Might could convince them to clean their flatwork with it

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Not sure what you pay for water there but we pay about a penny a gallon. So even if it’s 20k gallons of water, that’s $200.

For the hassle involved, extra time, etc. I’d be charging them more than $200 extra so they wouldn’t end up coming out ahead.

On top of that, it’s water with chlorine in it.

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Man that must be the cheapest Hoa I’ve ever seen .

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Yeah I am sure they are trying to save money but also we have serious water restrictions here since we have been in a drought for several years. All of the cities around here are cracking down on water use.

How many square feet of roof is the project? Is the pool kind of centrally located? Can buy a cheap water pump that pumps a lot of gallons/min for less than a few hundred dollars. If you batch mix would be fine, may hay to run you a lot of hose and you would have to shut off pump when you weren’t filling your tank. Kind of interesting question, if it got you the job, I’d say yes but you’re not going to need all the water unless a huge complex.

Community Manager, I certainly understand your desire to reuse the water from your pool, especially since we have been under drought conditions for a few years now. I applaud your forward thinking and ingenuity and would be happy to do this for you!

Using the pool water will require a more complex process, additional equipment, and take some additional time that the existing statement of work does not cover. I can draft an addendum to include this expansion of the statement of work which will increase the price by 15%.

Please confirm if you accept the new project scope and costs or if you would prefer to proceed under the existing contract.

In the unlikely event that they accept, buy a sump pump to get water to your buffer tank and press on. I see problems getting the water to the building more than the chemicals in the water itself based on the below reference research I did. You might need hoses all over the parking lot to get from pool to building, repeated trips to fill up at the pool and drive back to the building, or possibly multiple or larger pumps to get the distance/lift. Could you do it? Sure. Would you want to do it? Probably not. Should you charge a premium for the hassle? Absolutely!

For reference purposes, pool water is typically 1-5 ppm chlorine according to several sources. Municipal drinking water can be up to 4 ppm chlorine by EPA regulations. The CDC recommends about 1200 ppm chlorine (5 tablespoons 5.25-6.5% bleach per gallon water) for disinfection of solid surfaces and also states that each 1% bleach contains 10,000 ppm chlorine.

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i wouldn’t sweat running pool water in my pump for 1 day. maybe use a rental pump. but yes getting it to buffer needs figuring out.

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I called the community and left them a message to tell them what I was thinking but I have not heard back yet. Thank you guys for all the feedback.

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