Kinda freaking out!

[daddyslim6]

Hello TFP fam! Been reading and learning from you all for over a year now - we are first time pool owners and definitely newbies. Our gunite pool is almost wrapped up and ready to go but we do have some concerns. We had a pretty good leak for about 3 months or so where we were losing about 3-5" of water a week. Our pool is approximately 25k gallons and our PB dropped the ball on figuring out where the leak was coming from. We finally ended up paying a leak detection company to come out and find the leak. They came out on 2/23/21 and found the problem.

Turns out our PB or the plaster guys forgot to put the plugs on the two main drains at the bottom of the pool after plaster day (12/9/20). Very simple fix but obviously we lost a lot of water under/around the pool. We have about 2k sq ft of decking around our pool and are concerned that we may have some foundation issues under our pool, decking and even possibly our house. We have no way to know whether there are any erosion problems. Fingers crossed that we will never have any issues with settling but it is freaking my wife out to the point where she wants to sell the house before our pool or deck collapses.

Should we be concerned and if so how would you address the issue? Obviously our PB isn't too concerned about it....we haven't really even seen him in 2021 and still owe him some $$$. If there is ever an issue, I don't see him doing anything about it.

Thank you for your help and guidance!

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[Texas Splash]

You might be able to have a soil specialist or engineer take soil samples in various areas and depths around the pool and by the house to see if there is a concern for over-saturation. That's all I can think of.

Beautiful pool by the way.

 

[RHanna]

If you have a pipe next to the pool for sump pump I'd look in that and see if there is any water

 

[Auburn02]

Turns out our PB or the plaster guys forgot to put the plugs on the two main drains at the bottom of the pool after plaster day (12/9/20).

I'm not familiar with the plaster process, what does this mean exactly? Why would main drains need plugs in them? If anything, it would seem that they would plug them during plaster, then remove the plugs after so water can flow through them but I think I'm just missing something.

My theory is the soil underneath your pool should not have been terribly disrupted during the build and should be very well established and compacted having dealt with settling and rainwater long before your pool came along. (please note I am not an engineer or an expert of any sort on this subject)

 

[daddyslim6]

I'm not familiar with the plaster process, what does this mean exactly? Why would main drains need plugs in them? If anything, it would seem that they would plug them during plaster, then remove the plugs after so water can flow through them but I think I'm just missing something.

My theory is the soil underneath your pool should not have been terribly disrupted during the build and should be very well established and compacted having dealt with settling and rainwater long before your pool came along. (please note I am not an engineer or an expert of any sort on this subject)

I'm not 100% on how the two drains work at the bottom of the pool. I believe each drain has two holes in each similar to the skimmers. In ours, I "think" one pulls water to the pool equipment and the other one is just an hole that has no purpose and should just have a plug in it. There was no plug in it so it was just draining water under our pool straight to the earth! The leak detection guy said he took his long screwdriver and was poking in the hole and hitting dirt. Just hoping all the water lost didn't cause any wash away under the pool. I sure hope you're right!

 

[daddyslim6]

If you have a pipe next to the pool for sump pump I'd look in that and see if there is any water

We don't have any visible pipes near the pool. Just the skimmers and the drains at the bottom.

 

[daddyslim6]

You might be able to have a soil specialist or engineer take soil samples in various areas and depths around the pool and by the house to see if there is a concern for over-saturation. That's all I can think of.

Beautiful pool by the way.

That's a good idea - thank you and appreciate the compliment on the pool! We love it and can't wait to put it to use - just don't want it to sink! Haha!

 

[NCMike]

It sounds like the PB forgot to put the hydrostatic valve under a drain cover in the bottom of the pool. Hopefully your ground water level was high enough that it prevented any fast flowing water out of the pool which would wash anything away. And if the leak detection guy felt dirt at the end of that pipe I would think thats a good thing. I have the same setup, a hydrostatic valve under a drain cover that goes straight down into the ground.

 

[JJ_Tex]

+1 on what NCMike said. Its a hydrostatic valve that keeps your pool from popping out of the ground when it is empty.

 

[daddyslim6]

It sounds like the PB forgot to put the hydrostatic valve under a drain cover in the bottom of the pool. Hopefully your ground water level was high enough that it prevented any fast flowing water out of the pool which would wash anything away. And if the leak detection guy felt dirt at the end of that pipe I would think thats a good thing. I have the same setup, a hydrostatic valve under a drain cover that goes straight down into the ground.

Yes that sounds right. I do remember him mentioning something like that. Doesn't one of the holes in those also pull water from pool to the pool equipment as well? I thought it would pull water/dirt from the bottom of pool to the pool pump and filter. I always push dirt/dust to those drains when I am brushing.

Man, you guys are awesome. I'm trying to learn as fast as I can!

 

[Texas Splash]

The drains should be plumbed together per regulation so that if one drain gets covered by a swimmer, the swimmer will not get stuck, because the other drain will still pull water. The drain lines are probably joined together at some point underground and fed back to the equipment pad by one PVC line. You should see that line at your pad (labeled main drain), probably at a 3-way valve just before the pump.

 

[mknauss]

I thought it would pull water/dirt from the bottom of pool to the pool pump and filter. I always push dirt/dust to those drains when I am brushing.

With the VGBA anti entrapment design, the drains no longer pull much debris in. Best to use a robot to clean the pool.