Intake line leak

[justawildchild]

***** I just thought I should move this thread to this section as I now know it is a repair needed. Please see the next two replies. *****


Whenever my pool filter shuts off, I get massive air bubbles that return to the pool via the skimmer. The result is that everything that was skimmed gets blown back into pool. I have an issue where my pump has many bubbles in the pump skimmer basket, tiny bubbles return through jets, and you can hear lots of gurgling in the sand filter when the pump shuts down. I can even hear some gurgling noises deep down near the skimmer.

Do I have an air leak on the intake line. It is getting very frustrating because I can't even vacuum my pool without losing suction. We have so much rain lately and some good wind storms that I have the clearest dirty pool in the neighborhood. I can see all the dirt in the bottom of my pool so clearly.

Help, me. I'm about ready to call the dump trucks and fill the thing in.

Justawildchild

 

[justawildchild]

I just had a leak detection company come by the house today. They use sonar technology to detect leak locations. Cost me $300 to find out there is a leak at or very near the skimmer. Considering this is a concrete pool, they say that the connection where the leak is may be encased in concrete. They say the cost of repair is anywhere from $600 to $1500 depending on what they find.

My plan is to dig down and assess the situation before I commit to paying any more money. I fixed the last pipe leak on the jet 2 years ago when we moved into the house.

The pool is over 30 years old, so it is not surprising there is an issue.

Has anyone had experience with this type of repair? If the leak is encased in the concrete, they say they would have to chip away around the pipe to free up the area to repair. I am a pretty handy person when it comes to this stuff, so I want to make sure there is nothing major I could screw up if I decide to do any repairs myself.

Justawildchild

 

[waste]

If you use power tools to chip away the concrete, be VERY careful not to break the skimmer or the pipe!! 'Slow and steady wins this race' - remember that the crete is much harder than the plastic that the skimmer is made of or the pipe and the bit will try to go through the weakest point (the plastic). The same applies to using a cold chisel and hammer, but you have a better feel if using the hand tools.

Remove the crete slowly and a little at a time, don't try to go too far too fast! The other problem is that with the pipe encased in concrete, you have NO room to make the final glued connection - if you have trouble with that when you get the crete out, let me know and I can tell you a way to do it (you need about 1' of exposed pipe to do it) you use 4 90 degree elbows.

Good luck with your excavating and fix!!

 

[justawildchild]

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Hurray :-D

The plumbing leak is fixed. After the leak started getting worse (probably the pressure test made the leak worse) where I was actually starting to see a significant amount of water loss I decided to dig down to see what I could find. When I found the pipe, the leak was thankfully outside the concrete casing for the skimmer by about 3 inches. To prevent risk of making a story longer than it needs to be, I repaired the leaky pipe which I assume has been there since we moved to the house, for all of about $10 in parts. And that is being generous. I then rewarded myself by buying a pool cleaner. Even with that purchase I figure I'm still ahead over $300 from the lowest quote I got from the pool company.

Thanks for all your input everyone

 

[Tonedeaf]

Hurray :-D

The plumbing leak is fixed. After the leak started getting worse (probably the pressure test made the leak worse) where I was actually starting to see a significant amount of water loss I decided to dig down to see what I could find. When I found the pipe, the leak was thankfully outside the concrete casing for the skimmer by about 3 inches. To prevent risk of making a story longer than it needs to be, I repaired the leaky pipe which I assume has been there since we moved to the house, for all of about $10 in parts. And that is being generous. I then rewarded myself by buying a pool cleaner. Even with that purchase I figure I'm still ahead over $300 from the lowest quote I got from the pool company.

Thanks for all your input everyone

Congrats on the cheap fix

 

[waste]

GLAD TO HEAR IT'S FIXED!!