A leak?

[bradyb]

We are new pool owners. We moved into our place in September. The gunite pool is about 18 years old. We had a pool guy come and clean the filter. We were told that our filter is too small for our pool and it would take 800-1000 to replace. After he cleaned out the filter the dirt area near the pool equipment was messed up. It was very wet and there was a gap between the soil and concrete. It did not dry up. The soil in that corner stayed moist. I tested another area with similar soil and it dried up within a day. I dug up part of the area and found the portion under the concrete pad to be moist. We called our home warranty and a guy came out and said there was nothing he could do because it was below ground. I see moisture on the concrete pad near the spigot that turns on the automatic water refill. I am going to do a bucket test. We have so many knobs and levers with this set up. I am wondering how to tell if there was a leak or if we did something wrong. It is a pool with a water feature, a solar heater, and an automatic filler. When I left for work this morning, I took a picture of the moisture. There is not usually this much moisture under the pool equipment. I don’t think it has rained overnight. The pool equipment has been off for about 10 days.

 

[Texas Splash]

Brady, is it just my eyes wishful thinking, or do I see a small bit of moisture around the top portion of the autofill line? Perhaps water is dripping down from there? Unless you have a slow drip from that 3-way valve behind/above it, I'm not sure how else it would come from.

 

[Newdude]

No idea what it does (auto fill connection ??) but it’s clearly wet. There is dampness under the faucet valve and what appears to be a small puddle formed on the spigot/attachment side.

 

[bradyb]

Yes, that part seems to be the source. We have it turned off though. Wouldn’t that make a difference?

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

The valve will still be pressurized. There are a lot of parts that can wear in those anti-siphon sprinkler valves (diaphragms, plungers, o-rings etc).

 

[Newdude]

I’ve had the nut under the handle be a problem several times over the years. Try tightening it just a skootch and see if the drip stops. Can’t see from the pic but guessing the wetness goes right to the nut on the backside of the pic

 

[ajw22]

If the automatic water fill line or valve is leaking it will not show up on a bucket test because the leak is water that has not yet made it into your pool.

Unfortunately your equipment pad is an example of why we recommend no to bring pipes up through a concrete pad or bury them under the concrete. The pipes should have been in gravel on the side of the concrete pad.

I would first get a plumber in to disassemble and then repair or replace the round valve and the anti-siphon valve and see if that fixes the leak. If that area is still wet then you may need to break up the concrete and see what is going on underneath. It looks like that concrete can be broken up real quickly. If you do break up the concrete then consider replacing it with gravel.

 

[bradyb]

Would a leak like that (it is usually much less of a wet spot) cause the ground to be moist and not dry up? It was a significant area of wet damp ground.

 

[Texas Splash]

Would a leak like that (it is usually much less of a wet spot) cause the ground to be moist and not dry up? It was a significant area of wet damp ground.

Brady, which area of the ground are you referring to? The side where the electric is comping up? And just to confirm ... did you say this only happened after the pool tech visit? Or was that wet ground always there?

 

[Newdude]

Would a leak like that (it is usually much less of a wet spot) cause the ground to be moist and not dry up? It was a significant area of wet damp ground.

It may have been going on for a while but only started accumulating once the weather cooled. The weakened sun may not be able to burn off what accumlates overnight.

Or the service guy was the straw that broke the camel's back for that old valve. The guts of those eventually rot, rust or break. Of the 6 or so times i've had a similar problem with one of those valves, tightening the nut fixed it 3 times.

 

[bradyb]

Brady, which area of the ground are you referring to? The side where the electric is comping up? And just to confirm ... did you say this only happened after the pool tech visit? Or was that wet ground always there?

Yes, where the electric is. It only started after the pool tech cleaned the filter. After the filter was cleaned, the pool water feature was much stronger and there was movement of water toward the skimmer. Prior to that the water was pretty still.

 

[Texas Splash]

Or the service guy was the straw that broke the camel's back for that old valve.

I wondered about that as well. It makes sense that with a dirty filter, overall water circulation was diminished. Whatever the leak was, I suspect it was always there or only became worse once aggravated by the maintenance. Even though all you can see is a small wet spot on the concrete now, there could be much more trapped underneath, accumulated and shelter from the sun/heat that finally made its way over to the side. Of course this is all a bit of "what-ifs" at this point. As noted above, you may not know for sure until you finally get to the point where you take a sledge to that pad. But keep an eye on things. Let us know if you see anything else odd that may be part of the overall problem.

By the way, when you get a chance, don't forget to update your signature for us. Listing all your pool and equipment info helps us as we review your posts.

Create Your Signature - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[bradyb]

Would it be wise to break up the pad before I call a plumber to get more information about the leak?

 

[ajw22]

Would it be wise to break up the pad before I call a plumber to get more information about the leak?

I would look to find a sophisticated plumber who does leak detection and talk with him. This is not aa small scale plumber who just replaces faucets and toilets. A plumber can have a camera on a snake that can be put through your pipes to try and see what shape they are in. Most of your pipes can get gotten into though the diverter valves.

There are also other tools like you can see at ...

Anderson Manufacturing Company, Inc.

: Helping The Pool Professional Solve Leak Problems

www.leaktools.com

that a well equipped plumber can have.

 

[SinCityCJ]

New here, but not to these...I work for a GC, we see these regularly.

It appears the vac breaker/pool fill is bad. You can see the corrosion and water accumulation. Happens here all the time as the hard water eats them up. If you have another shut off in line, try that and see if your moisture problem abates.

If you are good with plumbing , you could possibly rebuild that one or just replace it yourself. Otherwise, get a plumber as mentioned above. With the cracks in that slab and the constant pressure, that VB is probably leaking steadily into the ground area around the pad.