Pool Leak Problems - Need Help!

[jmd919]

I've been experiencing water loss in my pool for the past few weeks. I've been needing to add about 1" of water every other day. We have a concrete pool that is plaster coated and the top 6" is tile (2 rows of 3" tile).

I've checked the usual areas, the face of the skimmers and the light, and resealed those, but the problem persisted. I then noticed that a few of the top tiles were sarting to pop, so I let the pool "drain" by way of the leak, and repaired the top tiles. The pool continues to lose water. The water is now almost at the bottom of the bottom row of tile, as the grout of the tile that I repaired sets. In the mean time, I shut off the valve for the line from the skimmers to keep the pool running with water coming from the main drain only.

I then noticed that water is coming out from between the two rows of tile in a spot near one of the skimmers (that is closest to the pump house). When I shut the pump off, the water stops trickling out. So, it seems like I have a plumbin leak. ugh! The problem is that I don't know which plumbing line that it is coming from - the main drain or the return line. There is no air at all in the filter basket, and there is no air bubbles coming out of the returns at all.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[JVTrain]

If you're seeing no bubbles in the pump basket, it's more likely on the return side of your plumbing. It seems odd that any plumbing line would present itself as a leak in the above water area of the side of the pool. Return and skimmer lines should usually run at or lower than the height of the returns or bottom of the skimmer when underground. This would be lower than your tile line.

If you can upload some images of the leak area to a photo/file sharing site and link them here, that might help.