On a Friday in June, our client drained a residential swimming pool to perform a routine acid wash. The home had been in foreclosure and the new purchaser wanted the pool to look great when she arrived with her four children the next day. Our service technician was not inexperienced with acid washing pools - he had performed many jobs like this in the past. As usual, he placed a submersible pump in the deep end and ran the discharge hose into the sewer clean-out in the back yard. What was different, however, was that this house was connected to a septic tank. The tank quickly filled and flooded the house with hundreds of gallons of "black water", a term used to describe waste water containing fecal matter and urine.
We soon received a telephone call from the purchaser who explained that she sold her prior home and had to move the next day. It would take at least a week to remove the bacteria laden water and disinfect the house but she had no place to live. This pool tech's error resulted in a claim of almost $20,000, which included living expenses for the family, who moved into a hotel during the restoration process.
It is common for water to back up into homes, even when pools are drained into sewer lines. We recommend that pools only be drained when the owner is home and can check for the first sign of an obstructed drain line. (We also advise against draining pools into septic tanks).
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