Fixing a main drain leak -- or not

[cooltouch]

Good to know. I'll be sure to tell her about this. She was figuring that replacing the water would be cheaper.

Now, about emptying the pool, We used to have a not-so-good pool guy (mea culpa, I hired him instead of the guy we have now, who's been servicing this pool for over 12years, cuz he was a little cheaper) and he let things get out of control. The pool turned green and there was nothing we were gonna be able to do to turn things around. So, after letting that pool guy go, we hired the guy who'd been servicing the pool before we bought the place, and had him drain the pool. Completely. He had a big pump he used for this. This was a couple years ago. While he had it empty, he and one of his employees scrubbed down the whole pool before we refilled it. So apparently our plaster is in good shape -- or it was two years ago, at least. But I guess we shouldn't press our luck, eh?

 

[Dirk]

I don't think there's any way to know for sure how your plaster is going to react to being exposed. Having done it recently would certainly be a clue, but like I said, I wouldn't if I didn't have to. You can drain it yourself and plug it yourself, but then you won't get the leak test around the drain a pro could do with the pool full. So it's a gamble. Unless someone comes along here with a better idea (and there certainly could be one), then you have your options and just need to roll the dice.

Or find a local leak specialist, run this all by him, see how he'd handle this and what'd he'd charge and you'll have a little more data to decide with.

By the way, the guys that emptied the pool, did they brush it down, or power wash it, or acid wash it? If it was the latter, then your plaster is weaker than it was two years ago.

But, again, we got ahead of ourselves. You still haven't done the bucket test to determine if your pool is actually leaking...

 

[cooltouch]

No, they didn't power wash it or acid wash it. I don't know what sort of detergent they used, but it was pretty mild because it didn't get rid of all the stains -- or even most of them.

A leak specialist, eh? Hmm, well I guess an estimate wouldn't hurt.

I still haven't found a bucket. Guess I'll have to go down to the hardware store and buy one. We haven't kept up with filling the pool over the past couple weeks like we have previously -- I'd been hoping that all this rain would have helped. I'm sure it did, but the pool level has dropped about 2.5" over this time period. To me that obviously precludes a bucket test. But I suppose I could use a bucket around here anyway.