Heavy rainstorm and water is pouring into empty pool from drain pipe

[platon20]

Our pool is empty and waiting to be plastered. We've had 3 days of heavy rains in a row and it has put about 6 inches of rainwater in the pool.

Today I noticed that the drain pipe in the bottom of the pool has water flowing out of it into the pool; the pipe sits about 12 inches above the gunite.

Is this normal during construction?

 

[YippeeSkippy]

What you're seeing is ground water coming out of the pipe. The ground is saturated, and that pipe helps keep the high pressure of the ground water from pushing upwards against the empty pool shell. If that pipe weren't there you might very well see the entire pool shell pushed up out of the ground. We call that "floating" the pool.

WHen your pool is filled with water the weight of the water is pushing down at more pressure than any ground water is pushing upwards. That's why we often tell folks to *not* drain down pools thoughtlessly. It has to be done with awareness of the risks.

Your PB will just pump that water out of the gunnite shell and move on to plastering when ready. No worries there!

Maddie