Hello all.
Quick back story:
Bought the house 3 years ago. Pool was closed it was Sept. Pool had been closed for two years. I knew there'd be some issues with it but I have some experience and knew I could patch it up. I don't care about the cosmetics, works works until the $$ allows for proper fixing. The issues were that the liner dried up and the water got too low while it was not attended to, before I bought it. So the liner at the corners are almost a foot away from the corners. The walls are all flush. Two corners are patched as the weight when opening it the first time pulled the liner out. The patches are holding solid. Other than the liner being out at the corners, I got it back in working order. I re-piped all the stuff in the pool shed and added solar pipes for heating on the roof of the deck and an optional waterfall at the front. It worked decently. I always knew we were losing slightly more water than should be due to evaporation but it was never enough to make it work fretting over. So slight.
Anyway, last year the skimmer plastic part started leaking water. And maybe always was but now it was a lot and I know it was there cuz once it got just under that square (highlighted in purple in pic), it would stop leaking. The seal behind the plastic square INSIDE the pool was pretty much disintegrated. I took the plastic off and of course it cracked as i was unscrewing it. I bought a new one but it didn't fit perfectly. I guess the concrete may have shifted. The pool itself is old, like 30 years. The jets are old school. Not much maintenance has been done. It was properly closed when I bought it, but it was left closed "covered" for 2 years. The cover ripped like paper when i first took it off due to being dried out by the sun. Anyway, I used this white hardening plaster-like seal to put around the square to seal it better where it wasn't flushed.
This appears to have worked since the leaking stopped when the pump was off. However when I ran the pump, leaking started again.. this time it would leak down to just below the jets (red circles in pic). And the jets in this pool are super low.
These are my jets:
This screws into the concrete through the liner. There's a plate that goes behind it that sits flush against the liner, like a frame for the jet which screws into the concrete through the liner with 5 metal screws. My previous pool at my previous house had more "innie" jets, not these external ones. So anyway, I took those off to see if anything was obvious and of course the seals theres broke apart into nothingness as well. So I bought some new ones, then I patched the entire jet with some liner patch, screw holes and all and then cut new holes in and put the jets back on. Somehow in doing this I've increased the water pressure substantially. Which brings me to the issue I have NOW.
If I have both jets in and the pump running, theres definitely a leak at the left side jet somewhere. The corner closest to it, I can hear water in there like a waterhose (since its not flush against the wall its loud.) Perhaps if it was flush against the wall the pressure would prevent water from getting in there. But if I remove one of the jets, the pressure isn't as strong and the leak is almost like normal evaporation rate. The dilemma is that the house is for sale, it's a small town, quite a nice house and great lot with guest house on the left behind the chain link, but everything in the town is not very expensive. No one buying it will care what i looks like in terms of patches, just that it works. The price I'm listing it for also reflects the fact that there's some overhauls that need to be done outside. Technically it works with one jet in and one out, but I'd rather have it work with both in and then honestly say the only thing needing replacement is the liner. The issue is that I dont know where the leak is exactly and I don't know how to find out. I know its at that one jet somewhere, but I don't know if water is getting behind the liner from the pressure separating the liner and the concrete whent he pump is on, or if there is a small crack in the jet line pipe somewhere and the pressure is forcing the water out there. It's definitely near the liner because if I run it at full strength for like 10 mins, I can see water bubbling up behind the liner which isn't nice.
My question now is what the heck do I do?! If there wasn't newly poured concrete (just before I bought the house) on top of the jet lines I'd just dig them up and replace them. But it wasn't leaking this bad when I got it, or fixing the pressure in other spots from re-piping just made an existing problem worse now. Either way, I've gone and built a covered patio out there and the posts are now fixed to the concrete for support. So I reallllllly don't wanna be tearing all this stuff up when I'm trying to sell.
You can see where the jets are in the pic and where the patio/concrete is. The pool shed is off the to right there. I don't even know if the jet lines run straight back to the house and then right.. or just a few inches from the pool and then right. From where of the other end is in the pool shed, I'm assuming they go back to the house and then over. Thats a lot of concrete and digging and messing with the patio supports. I don't want to go and pay 3K to put a new liner in thinking it being flush will solve the problem only to have it now and not have redone the jets at the same time. I also don't want to spend 5K ripping up and replacing concrete if theres a patch way of fixing this. I hate that they buried these under concrete "living" space. There's grass and wood on all the other three sides yet this is .. anyway. I saw some posts about running some smaller pipe through the line, but i'm pretty sure the jet line coming out of the concrete into the pool shed is a single pipe, meaning it must have been Y split underground somewhere... :/ I'll to confirm this when I'm at the house next, but im quite certain that goes straight from the filter to the concrete with no splits.
Any thought on this?
My last ditch option is just filling the thing in. But I hear thats costly too but I don't understand why. Can't you just drill a ton of drainage holes in the concrete, break the walls down and then fill it with dirt? I'd rather not have dark fresh dirt in the centre of the back yard while trying to sell anyway.
Quick back story:
Bought the house 3 years ago. Pool was closed it was Sept. Pool had been closed for two years. I knew there'd be some issues with it but I have some experience and knew I could patch it up. I don't care about the cosmetics, works works until the $$ allows for proper fixing. The issues were that the liner dried up and the water got too low while it was not attended to, before I bought it. So the liner at the corners are almost a foot away from the corners. The walls are all flush. Two corners are patched as the weight when opening it the first time pulled the liner out. The patches are holding solid. Other than the liner being out at the corners, I got it back in working order. I re-piped all the stuff in the pool shed and added solar pipes for heating on the roof of the deck and an optional waterfall at the front. It worked decently. I always knew we were losing slightly more water than should be due to evaporation but it was never enough to make it work fretting over. So slight.
Anyway, last year the skimmer plastic part started leaking water. And maybe always was but now it was a lot and I know it was there cuz once it got just under that square (highlighted in purple in pic), it would stop leaking. The seal behind the plastic square INSIDE the pool was pretty much disintegrated. I took the plastic off and of course it cracked as i was unscrewing it. I bought a new one but it didn't fit perfectly. I guess the concrete may have shifted. The pool itself is old, like 30 years. The jets are old school. Not much maintenance has been done. It was properly closed when I bought it, but it was left closed "covered" for 2 years. The cover ripped like paper when i first took it off due to being dried out by the sun. Anyway, I used this white hardening plaster-like seal to put around the square to seal it better where it wasn't flushed.
This appears to have worked since the leaking stopped when the pump was off. However when I ran the pump, leaking started again.. this time it would leak down to just below the jets (red circles in pic). And the jets in this pool are super low.
These are my jets:
This screws into the concrete through the liner. There's a plate that goes behind it that sits flush against the liner, like a frame for the jet which screws into the concrete through the liner with 5 metal screws. My previous pool at my previous house had more "innie" jets, not these external ones. So anyway, I took those off to see if anything was obvious and of course the seals theres broke apart into nothingness as well. So I bought some new ones, then I patched the entire jet with some liner patch, screw holes and all and then cut new holes in and put the jets back on. Somehow in doing this I've increased the water pressure substantially. Which brings me to the issue I have NOW.
If I have both jets in and the pump running, theres definitely a leak at the left side jet somewhere. The corner closest to it, I can hear water in there like a waterhose (since its not flush against the wall its loud.) Perhaps if it was flush against the wall the pressure would prevent water from getting in there. But if I remove one of the jets, the pressure isn't as strong and the leak is almost like normal evaporation rate. The dilemma is that the house is for sale, it's a small town, quite a nice house and great lot with guest house on the left behind the chain link, but everything in the town is not very expensive. No one buying it will care what i looks like in terms of patches, just that it works. The price I'm listing it for also reflects the fact that there's some overhauls that need to be done outside. Technically it works with one jet in and one out, but I'd rather have it work with both in and then honestly say the only thing needing replacement is the liner. The issue is that I dont know where the leak is exactly and I don't know how to find out. I know its at that one jet somewhere, but I don't know if water is getting behind the liner from the pressure separating the liner and the concrete whent he pump is on, or if there is a small crack in the jet line pipe somewhere and the pressure is forcing the water out there. It's definitely near the liner because if I run it at full strength for like 10 mins, I can see water bubbling up behind the liner which isn't nice.
My question now is what the heck do I do?! If there wasn't newly poured concrete (just before I bought the house) on top of the jet lines I'd just dig them up and replace them. But it wasn't leaking this bad when I got it, or fixing the pressure in other spots from re-piping just made an existing problem worse now. Either way, I've gone and built a covered patio out there and the posts are now fixed to the concrete for support. So I reallllllly don't wanna be tearing all this stuff up when I'm trying to sell.
You can see where the jets are in the pic and where the patio/concrete is. The pool shed is off the to right there. I don't even know if the jet lines run straight back to the house and then right.. or just a few inches from the pool and then right. From where of the other end is in the pool shed, I'm assuming they go back to the house and then over. Thats a lot of concrete and digging and messing with the patio supports. I don't want to go and pay 3K to put a new liner in thinking it being flush will solve the problem only to have it now and not have redone the jets at the same time. I also don't want to spend 5K ripping up and replacing concrete if theres a patch way of fixing this. I hate that they buried these under concrete "living" space. There's grass and wood on all the other three sides yet this is .. anyway. I saw some posts about running some smaller pipe through the line, but i'm pretty sure the jet line coming out of the concrete into the pool shed is a single pipe, meaning it must have been Y split underground somewhere... :/ I'll to confirm this when I'm at the house next, but im quite certain that goes straight from the filter to the concrete with no splits.
Any thought on this?
My last ditch option is just filling the thing in. But I hear thats costly too but I don't understand why. Can't you just drill a ton of drainage holes in the concrete, break the walls down and then fill it with dirt? I'd rather not have dark fresh dirt in the centre of the back yard while trying to sell anyway.
in hopes another member might see it better. We haven't forgotten about you, just want to get you the best replies.
