Help!! Dog dug pipe out of ground and pool leaking.

[jmiller81]

I have a lab who loves water and has dug a pipe out of the ground and was playing in the mess it made. I have no clue where it connects and didn’t see any surrounding pipes. It is as if she has uncapped it and water is going everywhere. I turned my pump off which has been running non stop due to SLAM and now I’m freaking out. It is a pool line as it smells heavily of chlorine.

How ow do I fix this? Do I go to Lowe’s and buy a cap and put it on? This is my second season as a pool owner and I’m lost. Please help me!!

 

[sktn77a]

Unfortunately, can't tell what you're referring to. All I see it the pool light junction box. Maybe remove all the branches/roots and get a picture of the specific point that is leaking?

 

[Dirk]

Is the pool holding water, or draining?

Take several pictures of your pool pad, to capture the positions of all the valves.

Dig. You have to dig up the pipe and get good clearance around it, to both see what is going on, and to later fix it. I've used a shop vac (rated to vacuum water) to clear a mud hole like that of water. Or siphon water out (if you can run a hose to a lower spot). Or scoop it out with a cup.

After the leak is exposed, do what you have to do to stop the water from running out of the leak. The pump should still be off. Turn off the breakers so no timers or automation turns the pump back on in some number of hours. Start turning valves and or plugging returns, skimmer ports, drains, etc and try to stop the water flow.

Take a picture of the leaking pipe and return here for advice, or take the picture to Lowes'/HD's plumbing department and get help on how to fix the pipe. They'll need to know the type and diameter of the pipe.

Or you could call a plumbing or pool contractor and have them fix the leak, but you could be looking at a few days or more before they could respond. You could have it fixed by then...


After you have it fixed, reverse what you did to stop the water flow. Remove any plugs. Restore valves to their previous position (refer to your pictures). Double-check everything is as it was, then start your pump...

You can discourage animals from "rooting" by laying down hardware cloth (chicken wire). Use irrigation staples to hold it in place.

 

[jmiller81]

After digging the surrounding ground out and turning off all power to the pool area, the water continued to pour out of the pipe. I went to Lowe’s got some cement glue stuff and a 2” cap. Once it was applied and dried the pipe is no longer a source of leaks. There was no other piping near it and it appears that the dog may have eaten/chewed the original cap off??.. Thanks for the help you guys.

 

[Dirk]

Huh. So the dog didn't chew through the middle of a pipe, but just chewed the end off of one? Well, that worked out! All's well that ends well. (Until his next attack!! )

 

[JamesW]

Well, that's odd. Just a pipe going nowhere?

 

[Dirk]

Well, that's odd. Just a pipe going nowhere?

Maybe a drain line, return line or vac line abandoned from a previous incarnation of the pool?

Hopefully the OP dug out enough around the pipe to confirm the dog was not more industrious than they think...

 

[JamesW]

I think that I would want to know what the pipe goes to.

 

[Dirk]

Yah, I would, too...

 

[jmiller81]

The house we live in is very old and the pool is old too. We have no clue when the pool was built due to the previous owners living in France. The realtor said he didn't know when it was constructed either. The pipe that was dug out by the dog literally goes nowhere, I'm thinking it may have been connected to the overflow from the pool. I had a hose in the pool the night before adding water due to the heat and trying to SLAM it. Once the water was lower than the overflow vent thing in the pool the water stopped coming out of it. Once I capped the pipe and started the pump up again all was well. To be honest there is so much with this pool that is odd with the way it is set up there is no telling what the pipe was for. I even asked a pool guy last year to explain to me how to operate the pool and its equipment and he said that he couldn't tell what was what.

 

[Dirk]

I think it important to figure out "what is what." Get yourself some labels, and start the process of figuring out the pipes and valves and the direction of water flow. You don't want to wait until an emergency to do so. These are available for that:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HEAUV26/ref=sxts_k2p-hero-vn-pb_bs_tr_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=6419350522255532679&pd_rd_wg=xdimA&pf_rd_r=9FBDCGBWM2S7WKYCPCPW&pf_rd_s=desktop-sx-top-slot&pf_rd_t=301&pd_rd_i=B00HEAUV26&pd_rd_w=fbOIK&pf_rd_i=pool+plumbing+labels&pd_rd_r=b1265d58-15d4-4a6b-b9d0-796d08955697&ie=UTF8&qid=1528559275&sr=1

The experts here are, well, experts at helping with that. Post a handful of pictures of your pool pad, from various angles, and the TFP guys will have you sorted out in no time.

Then... if you think you've figured out the overflow pipe, cut that cap off and put a hose to the overflow outlet to confirm. Then, if it were my pool, I'd restore the overflow function by running that pipe somewhere other than nowhere. Directing overflow properly is much better than letting a pool fill too high, over the coping and into your garden or wherever. Run the overflow pipe to a proper drainage ditch, or a french drain, or to the street, or to the sewer line (with a proper trap) if your local codes allow that.

Just because the pool's plumbing is odd, and a mystery, doesn't mean you have to leave it that way...