Leak after the great freeze of 2022

[heffnejp]

Hey everyone, unfortunately I have a leak after losing power the morning of Christmas Eve for 4 hours. Fortunately, the pool stops leaking about a 1/2” under the tile, prior to that is ~1” in 24 hours, 20,000 gal pool. I wanted to get opinions on my plan of attack. The only place where the plumbing would be at the level where the water is, after it stops leaking, is where it ramps up towards the pool equipment. I was going to use a string and a level to find this spot and start digging to see if that is where the leak is. I’m assuming it is somewhere in the plumbing. This is this pool’s first winter, equipment was running fine until I lost power and had to do an emergency drain, after about 2 hours of no power, water temp before power outage was high 30’s, air temp was 9. Thanks in advance and my skin is thick, so don’t hold back!

 

[HermanTX]

is your pool equipment above the pool water level?
If it stops leaking 1/2" below the tile, that could also imply the skimmer is cracked.
Did you have ice in the pool and in the skimmer?

 

[heffnejp]

Hey there Herman, my pool equipment is above the level of the pool. I did have ice in the pool, in fact it was at least 2” thick. I put 1 liter plastic bottles half full of RV antifreeze in the skimmers and they never did freeze solid, that’s why I’m kinda ruling them out, plus the water drops below the skimmers as it leaks. My plumbing in the area level with the current level of the pool is relatively shallow and there are plenty of elbows in this area, that’s why I’m suspicious that this is where it is, but not positive. The pipe is covered in dirt with river rock on top, so it will be a bit of labor for me to investigate. I’m thinking the leak is 200-400 gallons per day.

 

[newdude]

The pipe is covered in dirt with river rock on top, so it will be a bit of labor for me to investigate.

Be grateful it's not covered with patio that you'd never patch to match. Think about that each time the shovel bounces off more stones, being a PITA. At least you'll never know you tore it up.

lemonade and whatnot.

 

[heffnejp]

Trust me I’m grateful, I’m just checking in with all you studs and studettes when it comes to pools before I start digging, I’m not as young as I once was…

 

[newdude]

Trust me I’m grateful,

Stones over dirt will still test you. You can remove them all and there's still twice as many down there. They are only found by the shovel bouncing. How they multiply, I'll never know, but they do.

But yeah. It seems like the leak is below where it froze, so the ice in the pool didn't cause it. Plumbing is the logical step 2. How well does your soil drain ? I imagine it would be easy to tell when you get close.

 

[heffnejp]

It’s all on quite a slope unfortunately, I’ve checked for soft ground, no luck as I believe it all leaves the area without leaving much of a trace

 

[Bperry]

Got any pictures? Seems odd to have stuff freeze underground out this way. Have you checked the tile line for cracks in the shell?

 

[heffnejp]

Berry, thanks for the reply, I got distracted and started chasing some things. It stopped leaking even with the bottom of the skimmer, not a 1/2” underneath, I should have looked closer. So to rule out the plumbing, I plugged the skimmer at the bottom with a 2” threaded plug, put some water in the pool to see if would leak and it did. I have let it continue to leak and it still stops even with the skimmer, today I was examining where the tile meets the skimmer door and low and behold I was able to remove loose pieces of grout or some sort of cementious material. I’ve attached a photo, do you think this could be the culprit and more importantly, does anyone have recommendations on how to fix?

 

[heffnejp]

Not sure if I’m doing this correctly, but I posted the other day I had a leak in my pool after the freeze. It stops even with the bottom of the skimmer, I plugged the skimmer pipe, added water and it still leaked. After nosing around in there tonight, I was able to remove loose grout/cementious material between the tile and the skimmer where the door is. I’ve read several threads about how to repair, but none have any results of how the repair ended. I’ve seen wet weld, e-z patch, hydraulic cement, I’m curious does anyone have any experience with how to remedy this? Photo is not easy to see, but I pulled out a relatively large chunk at the left side of this photo, thanks in advance

 

[HermanTX]

If you raise the water again, I would use some dye in a syringe and try to pinpoint the area of the leak. I would also look inside the skimmer around the perimeter to ensure there is no crack that may be hard to see. Use dye there also.

To confirm, this all happened only after the freeze and loss power. Did ice form in the skimmer?

 

[HermanTX]

It is best to keep your thread all in one place. Maybe the admin will delete this as you have same information in your other post.

 

[heffnejp]

Thanks for the advice on how to keep the thread consistent HermanTX. I have the dye and will put more water in the pool tomorrow if I don’t see any more indication of leaking, then see if I see anything in the area I suspect. This all started after the freeze, ice formed slightly in the skimmer, however I had a one liter water bottle in there with RV antifreeze in it, so it never froze all the way across. I’m hopeful this is the issue as it should be a relatively easy fix, in relative I mean not having to use a shovel…

 

[Bperry]

Thanks for the advice on how to keep the thread consistent HermanTX. I have the dye and will put more water in the pool tomorrow if I don’t see any more indication of leaking, then see if I see anything in the area I suspect. This all started after the freeze, ice formed slightly in the skimmer, however I had a one liter water bottle in there with RV antifreeze in it, so it never froze all the way across. I’m hopeful this is the issue as it should be a relatively easy fix, in relative I mean not having to use a shovel…

I had the same type of leaks in my skimmers so not out of the ordinary. Epoxy can fix it temporarily but I had to use plaster patch and hydraulic cement on mine since the epoxy failed a year after it was installed.

 

[wireform]

prior to that is ~1” in 24 hours

I wonder if this was a leak too and perhaps the freezing temperatures exasperated it because one inch is pretty significant.

 

[heffnejp]

I had a much slower leak prior to the freeze wireform, but it always stopped roughly 3/4" above the bottom of the tile line, I believe I found it during all of this searching. I had a union to the inlet of my heater that needed to be tightened and the level of the pool where it stopped leaking coincides with the level of the union that I tightened. We'll see...