They did in fact, I watched him do it, and was going to ask him if he could do it if I didn’t already see him doing it.
bperry’s pool renovation
- Thread starter Bperry
- Start date
So I’m losing at least 1” per day.
Skimmers plugged = still 1”
Pump off = still 1”
Returns plugged = testing now.
I just realized my pool sweep port was plumbed as a return as well and I forgot to plug that so we’ll see how it does today. That’s a lot of water so I’m going to have to poke around the yard and see if I can find anything wet and then call the leak detection company back for another inspection.
Skimmers plugged = still 1”
Pump off = still 1”
Returns plugged = testing now.
I just realized my pool sweep port was plumbed as a return as well and I forgot to plug that so we’ll see how it does today. That’s a lot of water so I’m going to have to poke around the yard and see if I can find anything wet and then call the leak detection company back for another inspection.
@Bperry You have worked through many challenges already by being methodical in your analysis and measured in your actions. I am sure you will get the leak addressed and corrected. Good luck!
MAPR-Austin
In The Industry
Anything weird with the main drain? New hydrostat?
I've had jobs before where a piece of debris gets stuck in the hydrostat and holds it open.
Here's hoping for an easy fix.
I've had jobs before where a piece of debris gets stuck in the hydrostat and holds it open.
Here's hoping for an easy fix.
Went back home for lunch to check on it. Lost about 1/2” in 4 hours. So I’ve plugged the pool sweeper port as well. It’s looking like maybe the main drain line.
If the plaster guys left out the hydrostatic valve by mistake, how fast would water be escaping? Anyone want to get a pool going on the cause? (Pun intended)
If the plaster guys left out the hydrostatic valve by mistake, how fast would water be escaping? Anyone want to get a pool going on the cause? (Pun intended)
MAPR-Austin
In The Industry
I think it would be going faster, but it sounds like a dive to the main drain is in order. Do you have a dye needle or anything?
Hadn’t thought about debris in the valve. I have a leak detector coming next week to diagnose. It’s leaking much more than I’ve ever seen. No signs of water around the area yet.
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I do, but I’m more buoyant than most people for some reason
so it takes a lot of effort to stay under water and my ears can’t handle much more than 6ft of pressure. Maybe I can get one of my kids to swim down there and snap a picture to at least check if the valve is there.
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A bit of a science experiment and a future reference of how much water can be lost with whatever is causing the leak.
First a fun shot of the water with the new lighting.
And I’ve been tweaking my fill hose to keep the water at a steady level 24x7. This amount of water is going somewhere under my pool every second. It’s amazing to actually “see” the leak in a way where you can understand just how much water is leaving.
First a fun shot of the water with the new lighting.
And I’ve been tweaking my fill hose to keep the water at a steady level 24x7. This amount of water is going somewhere under my pool every second. It’s amazing to actually “see” the leak in a way where you can understand just how much water is leaving.
Received a fun tool today. Leak is pretty steady at 0.3gallons per minute which comes out to 18gallons per hour or 432 gallons per day over the past week.
And I decided to tackle my overly tight return fittings which the plaster guys put on too tight and I couldn’t remove the inner 1.5” NPT fitting. So I bought one of the plastic Taylor tools to remove them and it promptly broke.
So I figured I needed to make a more durable tool.
And that got it out no problem. Then I found a 1.5” pipe tap to chase all the old threads in the fitting so I could install plugs to winterize the pool when the time comes and to make opening it up in the spring much easier. Surprisingly this was only $20
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Leak detection guy came today and here are the results…
1. Large leak in the light niche cover ring. I’m not sure exactly how that could leak but he said when he put his acoustic “dome” over it…”it was screamin’ at me” which is a technical term for it leaking a lot.
2. No other leaks found, even in my deep end skimmer. He did say he noticed the weir door was a little sticky and that might be preventing enough water from getting in and causing my suction leak.
After doing a test for #2, it seemed he was right. Once I opened that valve, the skimmer slowly emptied of water until air was getting in. So I removed the weir door and did a little sanding on one edge that was hanging up on the side of the skimmer body. And it’s now working. I’m going to watch it for a couple days just to confirm the leak is fixed.
Here’s my pump basket with all three suction lines open. Only a few small bubbles!
And now for the damage report, cause you can’t have 3465+ gallons of water leak underground and not have any damage. Crack in the deck near a joint at the back of the deck slab near my pool light.
And since the back sunk a bit, it lifted up the coping side a bit. You can see the horizontal crack that split at the majority of the slab lifted but left a small portion glued down to the tile. I’m convinced that the expansion joint they cut above the tile was obviously not deep enough and so the new cement that was added, bonded to the pool shell better than the deck slab. This is evidently why expansion joints are so important! Oh well, if that’s the worst of it, I can deal with it later once the ground dries out and I’m convinced it’s not going to move anymore.
1. Large leak in the light niche cover ring. I’m not sure exactly how that could leak but he said when he put his acoustic “dome” over it…”it was screamin’ at me” which is a technical term for it leaking a lot.
2. No other leaks found, even in my deep end skimmer. He did say he noticed the weir door was a little sticky and that might be preventing enough water from getting in and causing my suction leak.
After doing a test for #2, it seemed he was right. Once I opened that valve, the skimmer slowly emptied of water until air was getting in. So I removed the weir door and did a little sanding on one edge that was hanging up on the side of the skimmer body. And it’s now working. I’m going to watch it for a couple days just to confirm the leak is fixed.
Here’s my pump basket with all three suction lines open. Only a few small bubbles!
And now for the damage report, cause you can’t have 3465+ gallons of water leak underground and not have any damage. Crack in the deck near a joint at the back of the deck slab near my pool light.
And since the back sunk a bit, it lifted up the coping side a bit. You can see the horizontal crack that split at the majority of the slab lifted but left a small portion glued down to the tile. I’m convinced that the expansion joint they cut above the tile was obviously not deep enough and so the new cement that was added, bonded to the pool shell better than the deck slab. This is evidently why expansion joints are so important! Oh well, if that’s the worst of it, I can deal with it later once the ground dries out and I’m convinced it’s not going to move anymore.
The fix to add epoxy to the light fixture is included in the leak detection bill. If for some reason it doesn’t last very long, I’ll drain the water down enough to apply some kind of flexible underwater sealant or hydraulic cement depending on what exactly the leak is/was. I still don’t quite understand how that was leaking because they packed it with hydraulic cement. But there’s a kind of mounting ring that’s attached to the main fixture housing that gets plastered in place. I suspect it was at that joint, but it’s a total guess right now. I’m just happy the water level has stayed the same for 4 hours straight!
Turbo1Ton
Gold Supporter
- Dec 26, 2019
- 1,844
- Pool Size
- 14500
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Man, I know there isn't anything you could have done about this, but I applaud your attitude about this whole thing. I'd be REALLY upset about this happening to my newly refurbished pool/deck. Glad you are able to keep the positivity, and SOOOOO glad that it appears to be fixed!
--Jeff
Fun update today: I went to the pool store and got my first water test ever!
All in all, the only noticeable variation between my kit and theirs was the CA, which is actually the hardest test for me to do. For some reason the end result is always very light colored blue and so I can’t really see the end point, even when doing the metals interference step. I had added 50lb on initial fill and read of 375ppm and I’m down to 280ppm now, I assume because it’s been leaking for the past week and belong replaced by city water. Their test says it’s at 215ppm, which is a decent difference.
The other difference was in metals testing. Iron came back at zero but copper came in at 0.4 (I assume ppm?) since this is a fresh fill, and I have no heater hooked up, the only possible cause of this could be testing error or my copper house plumbing contributed to it. I almost want to head over to Leslie’s with the same sample and see if they get the same result.
The other really weird thing was the conversation I had. I asked if they had any “dichlor” and he pointed to a section of bags but all I could find was cal-hypo and MPS. So I mentioned that all I could find was the cal-hypo and he insists it’s the same thing as dichlor.
. So after some back and forth I tried to break it down into “I want stabilized chlorine in powdered form”. Then the response changed to “it’s better to buy stabilizer separately and then add chlorine via the cal hypo or liquid shock”. (Which is typically true BTW)
Since I had already got stabilizer from Home Depot at $10/lb! I didn’t need any so I left with my printout, 3lbs of cal hypo and 4 gallons of 12.5% liquid chlorine.
So I do need some more calcium so a trip to Leslie’s is in order for later today.
All in all, the only noticeable variation between my kit and theirs was the CA, which is actually the hardest test for me to do. For some reason the end result is always very light colored blue and so I can’t really see the end point, even when doing the metals interference step. I had added 50lb on initial fill and read of 375ppm and I’m down to 280ppm now, I assume because it’s been leaking for the past week and belong replaced by city water. Their test says it’s at 215ppm, which is a decent difference.
The other difference was in metals testing. Iron came back at zero but copper came in at 0.4 (I assume ppm?) since this is a fresh fill, and I have no heater hooked up, the only possible cause of this could be testing error or my copper house plumbing contributed to it. I almost want to head over to Leslie’s with the same sample and see if they get the same result.
The other really weird thing was the conversation I had. I asked if they had any “dichlor” and he pointed to a section of bags but all I could find was cal-hypo and MPS. So I mentioned that all I could find was the cal-hypo and he insists it’s the same thing as dichlor.
. So after some back and forth I tried to break it down into “I want stabilized chlorine in powdered form”. Then the response changed to “it’s better to buy stabilizer separately and then add chlorine via the cal hypo or liquid shock”. (Which is typically true BTW)Since I had already got stabilizer from Home Depot at $10/lb! I didn’t need any so I left with my printout, 3lbs of cal hypo and 4 gallons of 12.5% liquid chlorine.
So I do need some more calcium so a trip to Leslie’s is in order for later today.
- Jun 22, 2014
- 48,333
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
Ok, here’s the Leslie’s test and the local store comparison with exact same water sample. True to form, the CYA test is the wild card. Leslie’s has it at half of the other store. I personally added 5lbs (or 22ppm per pool math) but lost some over a couple days due to a water leak. Both my CYA and copper went down by 50% just by visiting another store. Who knew you could get rid of those so easily?!
- Jun 22, 2014
- 48,333
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
