Leak

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Well, repairs made, pool filled, and so far so good. Going to wait 24hrs before turning pump on though.

Hey Bama, in your opinion, should I leave main drain plugged? or unplug and use a diverter?

Whats the advantage or disadvantage?

PS ROLL TIDE;)
 
I'm not a Nick Saben or Crimson Tide fan, But I am a fan of Bama Rambler.....:D

of course if Saben came to San Diego to coach Aztecs? I pretty sure I would become an instant Saben supporter.

Nick Saben head coach at SDSU?.....:laughblue:
 
Well, I guess the pool Gods don't feel I'm worthy yet? Because just when I thought all was right in wonderful world of Blue Haven? The skies turned black, and the nightmare continues.

The leak damage runs deeper than I hoped.

I checked pool when I woke up this morn and everything was hunky dory. But upon returning from the rat race, I found the hole full of water once again.

My repairs held up fine, but it looks like theres another leak closer to skimmer, buried in gunite.:mad:

I worked on it for a while tonight, but still have some work left before i have entire skimmer and plumbing exposed enough to do repair?

My nephew brought up an interesting point. He asked me, if removing all that gunite around skimmer would effect the integrity of the pool?

I thought for a moment and replied, Not any worse than what the leak is?

Am I right? I mean obviously the leak has to be fixed? and the only way to do it is to remove gunite? Is there any real danger here?
 
I must admit, this leak has began to consume me and effect those close to me. I just could not understand how fittings encased in concrete could be broken almost in half?

The desire to know "why" and "how" is in my DNA so.....After some serious investigation last night and this morning, I found something out about the history of my 15 yr old pool.

Apparently at one time previous owners had an issue with the deep end of pool sinking approx. 1 1/2". So instead of finding out what caused the pool to fail? They decided to adjust tile, coping and deck to compensate for the "tilt" of the pool. So when you look at pool it appears to be level.

Frankly, who ever did this work should be put in some sort of construction hall of fame because, I still cannot see where any work/repairs have been done? Absolutely seamless!

I know this sounds crazy but, I am relieved....I can stop hitting my head against the wall over why and how this leak occurred?

Now the question is.....What am I going to do about it?

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It's the old question, what came first the chicken or the egg?

Did the sinking of pool cause the leak? or did the leak cause the sinking of pool?
 

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Pool leak update

What a nightmare!

I have now proceeded to chase this leak from skimmer, around half the deep end radius, all the way to light fixture. It appears to be concentrated around the shell.

I drained pool inch below light, exposed entire shell and skimmer approx. 3'wx7'd i was getting a minimal amount of water at bottom of hole, thought it was just residual leftover from leak when pool level was closer to full, and leak was much more prominent. So I reconnected plumbing, filled pool to skimmer, all the while looking for any measurable increase of water in said hole. To which there wasn't.

Until this morning!,

I couldn't see any difference in pool level from night before? but the hole had a good 1'-1 1/2' of water in it. So I pumped it out and began chasing leak around shell, At one point I was convinced the leak was high up, like tile level,

I was finding water just a few inches below deck. but the deeper I dug, the deeper the leak would seem to be?
i would dig right against shell it was if somebody turned a spigot on? And I was like, ok the leak is right here close. but could not find source?
The process slowed because as I got close to niche, I ran in to a gunite "footing", similar to that of the skimmer? A "beefed up" section if you will?

Q: Is this typical? in "pool construction"? To beef up area around center of deep end(8') or around niche?

Also I have a return and a water feature line(2") that run near by, so I thought one of these might be source of leak but, I looked closely at leak, and i saw no difference in volume with pump on or pump off?

Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Parris
 
Re: Pool leak update

When you start a completely new thread, do no expect others to know the background story or where it is on the forum.

You should put this post back with your (apparent) other post(s) so we can see your history and perhaps help.
 
Re: Pool leak update

Sorry, thing is, I would have posted in original thread except for some reason my original thread was missing pages(incomplete). I checked several times, as well as making sure I was logged in, yet thread went from 2pgs to 1, Not sure what was going on but?

Anyway, It's possible that I'm being slightly paranoid? but, I have a feeling that my NOT being a "lifetime" member, might have something to do with the missing pgs? As well as the lack of follow up responses to my questions from senior members? (cold shoulder)

And for what its worth? NO BS!, I recently had issues forcing me to cancel cards & change banks, rendering me "cardless" for 5-7 days.
I'm expecting replacements any day now, at which time I plan on buying the $30 basic "lifetime" subscription.

It's the Least I could do:D
 
I see 2 pages ... and there is no special treatment if you are a member or not ... honestly I do not even notice who is or is not and in Tapatalk it does not say anyway. Hopefully Dave (Bama) is not offended as not being a "senior member", even though he has the 2nd most posts of anyone on the forum I think ;)

You are just asking a very specific question about a subject that most of us do not deal with. We are mostly just pool owners that are trying to help other people maintain their pool ... and have little experience with structural issues / leaks.
 
Fair enough, It took me a while but, unlike you, I finally DID NOTICE, the "lifetime member" badge that appears under posters name, And thought, "why am I not a subscriber"?
Which prompted me to check out JasonLions thread on the matter of TFP support.

That said, I realize you or other members may or may not be a certified structural engineer. It just seems you guys know so much, about so much? when it comes to pools that.....you know?

Hey it's all good:)

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Forgive me, I'm just super frustrated right now:brickwall:

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I'm sure that you are frustrated. I know I would be.
As for the number of pages in the thread, how many do you think there should be? Number of pages really don't mean anything, as you can set the number of posts per page you want to see. My number of posts per page could be different than yours so we see a different number of pages for the thread.

Back to the leak. As much as I'd like to help, I'm several thousand miles away and can't see what you're seeing. So I can't tell you that what you're seeing is normal.

It seems that you've determined that the leak is in the shell somewhere so about all you can do is keep hunting until you find the source. I would closely inspect the light niche to make sure it's not the culprit.
 
A leak Will drive a sane person stark raving mad. My recommendation would be to dig down next to your pool place a sump pump in said hole and keep any water that shows up in said hole pumped away. Depending on how long your pool was leaking and how much ground water is around your pool how can you be sure it is still leaking?
 
Bama Rambler said:
I'm sure that you are frustrated. I know I would be.
As for the number of pages in the thread, how many do you think there should be? Number of pages really don't mean anything, as you can set the number of posts per page you want to see. My number of posts per page could be different than yours so we see a different number of pages for the thread.

Back to the leak. As much as I'd like to help, I'm several thousand miles away and can't see what you're seeing. So I can't tell you that what you're seeing is normal.

It seems that you've determined that the leak is in the shell somewhere so about all you can do is keep hunting until you find the source. I would closely inspect the light niche to make sure it's not the culprit.
Click to expand...
Yeah I'm not sure what happened to thread? But something definitely did happen!


Back to leak, I totally understand, I had trouble posting pics in prior attempts, I think I'll give it another go, Yeah I went in and epoxy puttied niche and where cable goes in to fixture, when water level was down, and today I dye tested niche and found it to be leak free.

Hears another head scratcher, I dye tested deep end return, and it was definitely showing signs of leak, as i could watch dye suck right in to return at a pretty good clip. A real "AHHA" moment, So I removed deck next to return, dug it up, and just like everywhere i've dug so far? found a bunch of water, but couldnt find pipe? So I figured ok, I'll just plug return and that should slow or stop leak right? NOPE! Hole continued to fill up at same rate.

But now that I've read swimcmp reply, I am going to take his advise, Keep sump pumpin hole, and just wait it out, as to make sure what i'm seeing isn't just residual water?

Thanks Bama
Thanks swimcmp
 
Well I found what I hope & think is the only other leak(*does river dance*), Just like the skimmer leak, This leak was also a broken 90 just outside the shell.
I came up with an idea.
I put blue dye(food coloring) in to the return, then waited and watched as the blue dye starting running in to the pot hole I dug. No more guessing! I knew 100% I had a broken return. Unfortunately it was under the thickest part of deck, Had to rent jack hammer, remove a little more deck and part of the steps, A little more digging.... and there it was!

In conclusion, all the water I was encountering around shell? was NOT residual, or trapped water from the initial leak, as soon as I stopped leak? the water around shell stopped.

I'm confident tomorrow morning when I step out and look in hole? It will be dry.
 

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