Green Pool: The Hidden Problems You Need to Spot

A green pool can be the fastest way to add new customers or the easiest way to get burned. We walk through the decision making that separates a profitable green pool cleanup from a job that eats your time, chemicals, and patience, starting with the first question to ask on the phone: why did the pool turn green? That answer often reveals whether you are dealing with normal homeowner overwhelm, a recent home purchase, or a potential non payer situation.

Once you arrive to bid, we talk about reading the entire property and deciding whether you even want this client on your pool route long term. Heavy debris, oversized pools, awkward access, and aging equipment can turn a weekly stop into a constant struggle. We also cover two clean ways to walk away without drama: explaining you are overbooked for a multi visit cleanup, or bidding high so you are protected either way. Because you cannot see the plaster under green water, we explain why a green pool cleanup waiver matters for liability, stains, and pre existing damage that only shows up after the water clears.

On the technical side, we break down how filters impact your pool service pricing, including DE filters, cartridge replacements, and sand filter considerations, plus why getting money up front (or billing day one as its own invoice) can save you from a bad outcome. We compare the shock and awe method versus using flocculant like aluminum sulfate, and we close with the pricing mindset that prevents underbids.

• asking why the pool turned green as the first filter for client quality
• spotting property neglect that predicts payment and expectation problems
• treating green pool cleanups as a pool route growth strategy
• deciding if the pool is a good long term service fit based on debris, size, and equipment age
• using two clean exits: being overbooked or bidding high
• protecting yourself with a green pool cleanup waiver when you cannot see the surface
• inspecting filters and pricing for cartridges, grids, or repeated cleanings
• structuring upfront payments while staying c

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Transcript

Welcome And The Big Rule

SPEAKER_00 1:02

And welcome to the Pool Guy Podcast Show. In this episode, I'm gonna tell you when to walk away from a green pool bid, some things to look at when you're doing green pool cleanups, and the number one reason why you want to do green pool cleanups, and this should be a hard and fast rule that you stick to in your pool service business to make it grow. Are you a pool service pro looking to take your business to the next level? Join the Pool Guy Coaching Program. Get expert advice, business tips, exclusive content, and get direct support from me. I'm a 35-year veteran in the industry. Whether you're starting out or scaling up, I've got the tools to help you succeed. Learn more at swimmingpoollearning.com. This probably will be applicable to everything you're doing out there in the field as you're maybe starting out or if you're trying to expand your services. Maybe you want to do new things, do new things and bring new services on for your service. One of the things that you have to be aware of is you have to really analyze everything, not in detail, of course, but you have to kind of have your thinking cap on when you're approaching things and situations so that you don't get burned and you don't do something that you're gonna regret later as far as taking on a job that you shouldn't have taken on. All this starts at the very beginning, when you first arrive at the at the site, at the bid. And I'm focused on the green pool cleaners because this is something that you're gonna run into a lot, and it's a great way to expand your business if done correctly. The first thing I do when I get a phone call or a message about a green pool is I'll ask this question, and it's a question that they should answer pretty easily and simply. I'll just say something like, So what happens at the pool? Why did it turn green? And sometimes you're gonna get these answers like, I don't know, I've been struggling with it, I don't know what exactly happened. It's just it's just green. Okay, that's so that's okay, that's a fair response because people do try to return their blue, their green pool to blue all the time and fail at it because there is you know a little bit of skill involved. Someone may say, I bought this house and this is how it was when I bought it. Good. Another good one. You know, if someone says something like, Well, the pool is green ever since you know the pool guy stopped showing up three weeks ago and now the pool turned green, that may be a little bit of a red flag there. You know, why did the pool service provider stop? Were they paying the bill? Were they not paying? Was he not, you know, was he a flake? So you have to go in first off of why the pool is green, and that's your first indicator of if you want to, you can go out there and look at the pool. Like that last one, I may not even go out and look at that pool at that point. I may ask some more further questions to clarify what happened to the pool service provider. But the first two obviously, you know, someone struggled to try to turn it back to keep it blue and it turned green, or someone bought a house and they're trying to turn the pool back from green to blue, then that's perfectly acceptable. The next thing you want to do is, of course, visit the pool and see what's going on there. Now, this is something that I talk about all the time is when you pull up to the house, you'll get an idea if it's just maybe owner neglect, or if the whole property is being neglected, and that may be a red, a big red flag there. You get to the house, and there's you know, you're driving down the street, everyone's lawns look perfect, and you get to this house, and the whole front yard is weeds, you know, a foot high, and the paint's peeling off the trim, the gate's broken going to the backyard, you know, the grass back there is knee-high, and you get to the pool and it's green. That may be an indicator that this person is not someone you want to work with. And I'm going to kind of go a little forward here in this podcast, and I mention that there's only one reason why you're really doing these green pool cleanups, or there should be one primary reason, and you're doing these green pool cleanups to land new clients. If you're just doing them for the money, I suppose that's okay, but really the green pool cleanups take a lot of time and effort. There are they are something that's really involved, and it it is something that you're expounding a lot of energy and time that you could be putting elsewhere. And so the end result shouldn't just be a paycheck and you know, see later. It should be I can clean up this green pool. Are you willing to come on for service so that this doesn't happen again? And I can definitely guarantee that I can maintain it, keep it blue. Here's my service rates. If they say yes, they want service going forward because they can't handle the pool, even if they go for something like a you know, tiered service, like chemical skimming and brushing, that's perfectly fine if they can't afford a full service. I wouldn't do chemical only on a customer like this because there's a little bit of neglect going on here when the pool's back green for whatever reason. But primarily you are taking on these green pools because you're trying to get that service account and build up your pool route to the point where you have you know 90 pools and you don't need to do green pool cleanups anymore. You're pretty set. Eventually, you're gonna stop doing these cleanups and acid washes if if you get big enough with service and you don't want to do these extra extra work to get accounts because all this extra work should be leading to accounts for yourself. And if you're pretty established, then you can of course not do these anymore. But while you're doing them, you have to be aware or situationally aware of a lot of factors. You also have to be aware of okay, if they're going to come on to service and I'm gonna take care of this pool, what do I not like about this pool at this point? Yes, it's green, I don't like that. But what else about this pool would be a problem for them being a future client? If there's trees all around the pool and you know that's gonna be a heavy debris pool, that may be an indicator that you don't want to even do this job because bringing this client on wouldn't be that great because the pool isn't that great to begin with. It may be also that you know the pool is too big for your service. You may just do smaller pools and the pool's 25,000 gallons. So you have to also consider if you really want this account to begin with, because once you get it back to blue, you're bringing on service, you have to deal with this pool. It may be that the equipment is really old and kind of functioning, but you're thinking that they definitely need new equipment. Sometimes customers are willing to upgrade equipment, sometimes not. And you also have to think about the future issues with the green pool cleanup. They may have black algae problems, it may have continuous algae problems, they may have some issues that maybe a drain and an acid wash will eventually cure in the future. But at this point, all these variables and all this future, all these future aspects of this pool should be considered before you even start cleaning up the pool. And so, how do you get out of it if you get to the job site and you you're you see the pool and you're like, I just don't really want this account, even if I clean this pool up, I don't want it. I'll tell you a funny story real quick is that you know, my area is an area where we have too many pools and not enough pool pros to do them. And I had this pool from a friend, it wasn't in my service area. I can't remember where it was, I think it was either I think it's West Covina or something out of my area, and they sent me a picture of this pool, and it was kind of green, and I sent it to a bunch of people that I know in that area, and I'm like, here's a pool if you want it, you know, they just need it wasn't that green, and if you can you know they want service, and and I can tell you, like, two of the people were like, Well, I don't like that side of the pool right there because it's right up against the wall, and I'm gonna have trouble cleaning in the future. Another guy was like, I don't really have time to to mess with something. I mean, it's one of those things like your service area depending, like in my area, you may even want to give away something like this for free, and no one's willing to take it. And but that that pickiness is relevant here because they're thinking the same thing that you should be thinking. You know, that far part of the pool's right up against the wall, which by the way it was, and I don't know how they got the permit for that, so that's another story. And I think it's one of those things where you have to think about it and how do you get out of it? There are two ways that are fairly easy to use to get out of it. One of them would be letting the customer know that you looked at the pool and you realize you don't really have time right now in your schedule to do this. And it'll take you know four visits, and currently you're just a little overbooked, but you you know, thank them for allowing you to look at it and maybe refer them to somebody. You should have some people you can refer to and they can take on that green pool if they want it, or you can just bid really high and the customer will get someone else. So if you normally look at the pool, it looks like you know, a$700 green pool cleanup job. Just go ahead and bid$1,200 and then call it a day because they're probably not going to hire you for$1,200. And if they do, then maybe it's worth doing the green pool cleanup, but don't take them on as a client. But basically, just bid really high. And I've gotten these bids before when I call vendors that don't want to do work for me on my rentals. They'll give me this bid that's like really high, and I'll be like, okay, I know exactly I know why you're giving me that bid. They don't want to do the work. So that's something that you can do, and that gets you out of it without really any kind of negative review or any kind of negative connotation despite you being kind of an expensive pool company. And speaking of liability, I do have a green pool waiver, cleanup waiver. If you email me at david at swimmingpoollearning.com, david at swimming poollearning.com, I'll send you this green pool waiver over to you, and you can of course utilize it. You can it's in word format, you can change it and add things, take things out. But it's just a template basically, so that you have some protection. Because one of the things you don't know about the pool is what the surface looks like underneath the green water. You don't know if there's stains in there or cracks in the plaster, could be anything in there. I had a pool one time, it wasn't a green to clean, but it was a pool that had a the kids are swimming with batteries, they had the batteries, they were like throwing them in the pool and diving for them, which is fine, you know, it's fine. You're diving for batteries, but of course, one thing you should know about batteries is that if they're underwater and you leave them in the pool after diving for them, you're they're six or seven feet down, the water pressure starts to build, and those batteries are gonna explode. And of course, there's acid in there, and it left this really like a one-foot black and rusty stain that was just impossible to get rid of, by the way. So if you're doing a green pool cleanup and there's a stain like that at the bottom, you don't know it's there. You do the cleanup, the customer's like, hey, that stain wasn't there prior to the cleanup. Well, with the waiver, you have a way of getting out of that, and as a way to protect yourself from not being able to see anything on the bottom of the pool. So it's really important that you realize that since you can't see the bottom, you don't know the condition, and you don't know if the customer is going to hold you to anything that isn't your fault when you do the cleanup. Now that we got that out of the way, there's a few things if you're gonna go forward with this cleanup that you should be really aware of, and that is how is the equipment for this pool? How is the filter? Is it newer? Is it something that I can deal with? Will they replace the cartridges or the grids in there? If it's a sand filter, how's the sand in the filter? These are all factors as well. You can't necessarily just bid the pool, you know,$700 without that in mind, also, because if it's a DE filter, you may have to clean that filter three times. If it's a cartridge filter, you'll have to add on for the cartridge replacements, especially if it's a a quad type cartridge filter. So when you're doing the bid, you can say that$700 plus whatever the filter needs, and I'll inspect it the first day after I start treating the pool. I'll be able to let you know the state of the filter, and you may need new grids or cartridges. And here's the pricing for that. Let them know ahead of time all of this. I also mentioned in other podcasts that you should get a deposit. There are some laws in California that prevent you from getting like a 30% deposit, unfortunately. But other states you can definitely get you know 30-40% down, but get some money up front, you know, see if the customer is willing to pay you after the first day at least. That way it's not really a deposit, but it's like a payment for the first day. So send them. You can break it up into portions for the billing. You can say, you know, the the first part of the green pool cleanup will be$250, pay you that. That way you get out of that kind of deposit thing, give them a separate invoice for the first day, and now you haven't broken any California weird laws. Bill them for the rest of the green pool cleanup afterwards. But you want to get some money up front. But typically, if you've picked the right green pool client, they moved into the house, it's it turned green because no one was maintaining the pool, or it got away from them, they're probably gonna pay you versus the person that didn't pay their last pool guy and he left the pools green or the grass is knee-high in the backyard. I would suspect that they may not be the best paying type of clients. If you do go ahead and take that on, definitely get some money, either charge them for the first day of the green pool cleanup and call that the first invoice, or get a deposit if you're in a different state besides California. You can do that as well. But get some kind of money to cover the green pool cleanup process itself. And then once you check the equipment out, you know, make sure that it's going to be something suitable for you moving forward as a client, then being a client of yours, and then pick the method of green pool cleanup that best suits your area or your expertise. I like the shock and awe method. This is basically bombing the pool out with so much chlorine that if an elephant fell in there, it would probably get a pretty severe rash. And if you would do this method, the filter cleaning is really important, and or starting with new filter cartridges or grids is important. But the shock and awe method, bringing the chlorine level to like 60 or 70 parts per million, highly effective, in my opinion. Or you can do the flock method using aluminum sulfate. And the flock method basically is you put the pool on recirculate if you have a multi-port valve. If not, just turn on the pool for 20 minutes, put the flock you lint in, you know, 10, 12, 14 pounds of it, whatever, and then turn the pool off for two days. And so the flock will actually cause all the algae to clump up together and fall to the bottom of the pool. So you're gonna have a cloudy pool with all the dead algae on the bottom. The reason why most people don't use that method in my area, we don't have filters with waste mode. You can, of course, get the Vac Daddy with the vacuum the waste adapter or a portavac or portable filtration system and vacuum it out the waste, but you're gonna vacuum up 14 pounds of the aluminum sulfate plus maybe 10 more pounds of the dead algae in the pool. So you have to have the right setup for the flock method to work. You can't flock the pool and then vacuum into a cartridge filter that's at the equipment pad or a D filter. That wouldn't work effectively. There's just way too much stuff on the bottom, and that's why I like the shock and awe method because you don't have to worry about the extra 14 pounds of flock in the pool. You just shock the pool and then vacuum the dead allergy out to waste. So it's pretty effective in my area, but the flock method is also very effective. So pick your method and make sure that you're getting enough in the initial bid. This is where a lot of people make mistakes in green pool cleanups, they'll bid the pool too low, you bid 700, but then you're cleaning the filter two extra times. So you have two filter cleanings plus two more. You've essentially lost money on this job. So make sure you kind of know your levels of green pools. I have a green pool video, it's called the ultimate green pool or something like that, where I talk about the different levels of green pool. Level one, you could probably see the bottom pretty good. Level two, you can maybe see the first step. Level three, it's really green and you can't see anything. Level four, there's like an inch of junk on the bottom already, and it's got mosquitoes in there. And level five is like a full swamp level, and based on the level and how much time it takes, and how many how much chemicals, how much effort should be your price point. So if it's a level five, seven hundred dollars may not cover it, you may have to charge 900. If it's a level one, you can get away with charging a lot less. So kind of use your judgment on, and you'll know this by doing green pool cleanups and knowing you know how much effort it takes and what you're actually bidding, and you'll get really good at doing this, and you probably won't make any mistakes if you've been doing this a long time, but you just have to make sure you bid correctly at the start because going back to the customer and asking for more money is not good business practice, and they may balk at it, and you may lose that potential service account that you wanted to bring onto your pool route. So bid correctly at the beginning to avoid asking for more money later or eating that and losing all your profit. If you're looking for other podcasts, you can find those on my website, swingingprolearning.com. Click on the podcast icon on the banner, and there'll be a drop down menu at over 1900 podcasts there for you. And if you're interested in the coaching program, you can learn more at poolguidecoaching.com. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Have a rest of your week and God bless.