Hi Everyone! First time posting here. I bought a house built in the 1980s a few months ago which came with a pool (likely of the same age). I didn't have much information to go on, so it's been a learning process. I've read a bunch of pool school which is super helpful (thanks!). I'm writing today to ask about pool putty. There is a jet/return in this area, and 3 other jets/returns in the main pool. One skimmer, and one "main drain" at the bottom of the pool. There are tiles at the water level going all around the pool, and there is a wall of tiles on the surface the waterfall runs down.
About the pool: I have been taking water samples to a local store, and on their printout it says the pool is "Marcite/Gunnite" and 20000 gallons. When I showed a picture to the pool store people, they said it was likely less, and their guess was 15k gal. It's in the ground in Central Florida. There is a separate, raised area with a small pool (about 6-12 inches deep) with a waterfall into the main pool area.
TL;DR- can pool putty survive being regularly in and out of water (wide temperature range, regularly going from wet to dry and back again) in the Florida sun and heat?
I noted repeated drops in my water level, and I kept filling it. I did the bucket test with the filter running, and it was positive upon recheck at 24 hours. So I definitely have a leak. Initially I assumed it was at the skimmer, because it looked like the water level dropped relatively quickly to that level then slowly dropped more (which I attributed to evaporation). I bought the dye test kit, and I checked my jets/returns (negative), the place where you connect the vacuum (don't know the technical term for this port, but anyway it was also negative), the light (negative), and the skimmer (surprise- negative!).
My next step was going to be to purchase some plugs for the jets/returns, but before I did that I noticed that there was water literally streaming out between two of the tiles near the waterfall. I'm going to call this the "bottom hole". Now, given the water is flowing INTO the pool from between the tiles, I know that's not the leak. But it's likely nearby, and the water is going through the ground and pushing out between the tiles. I suspected the small raised area with the waterfall has a leak somewhere, and it's flowing under the raised area and pushed through the tiles back into the pool.
I went to the pump/filter complex, and there is a PVC pipe labeled "waterfall" which I closed the valve on. The jet/return to the waterfall stopped running, and the waterfall stopped dripping water into the main pool. I left the pump running overnight, and the water level in the pool seems stable, and the water level in the small pool also seems stable. The water is no longer cascading through the tiles into the main pool. I have not yet leak tested the raised/small pool. What I did note, however, is that where the water normally flows from the small pool into the large pool, there are 4 tiles that the water runs over as it moves from the small pool to drop into the large pool. In the middle of the four tiles where the grout should be there is a hole ("top hole") which I plan to patch after leak testing the jet/return in the small pool. These four tiles are facing UP- they are not vertically oriented like all the rest in the pool. They are also normally subjected to severe conditions- they are immersed in pool water when the pump is running, and then they dry off and bake in the Florida sun when the pump is off. Can I close the top hole with pool putty, or do I need something else, or is there something more suitable for this spot?
Thank you for your help in advance, and thank you to all the forum folks for making learning about my pool so much easier!
About the pool: I have been taking water samples to a local store, and on their printout it says the pool is "Marcite/Gunnite" and 20000 gallons. When I showed a picture to the pool store people, they said it was likely less, and their guess was 15k gal. It's in the ground in Central Florida. There is a separate, raised area with a small pool (about 6-12 inches deep) with a waterfall into the main pool area.
TL;DR- can pool putty survive being regularly in and out of water (wide temperature range, regularly going from wet to dry and back again) in the Florida sun and heat?
I noted repeated drops in my water level, and I kept filling it. I did the bucket test with the filter running, and it was positive upon recheck at 24 hours. So I definitely have a leak. Initially I assumed it was at the skimmer, because it looked like the water level dropped relatively quickly to that level then slowly dropped more (which I attributed to evaporation). I bought the dye test kit, and I checked my jets/returns (negative), the place where you connect the vacuum (don't know the technical term for this port, but anyway it was also negative), the light (negative), and the skimmer (surprise- negative!).
My next step was going to be to purchase some plugs for the jets/returns, but before I did that I noticed that there was water literally streaming out between two of the tiles near the waterfall. I'm going to call this the "bottom hole". Now, given the water is flowing INTO the pool from between the tiles, I know that's not the leak. But it's likely nearby, and the water is going through the ground and pushing out between the tiles. I suspected the small raised area with the waterfall has a leak somewhere, and it's flowing under the raised area and pushed through the tiles back into the pool.
I went to the pump/filter complex, and there is a PVC pipe labeled "waterfall" which I closed the valve on. The jet/return to the waterfall stopped running, and the waterfall stopped dripping water into the main pool. I left the pump running overnight, and the water level in the pool seems stable, and the water level in the small pool also seems stable. The water is no longer cascading through the tiles into the main pool. I have not yet leak tested the raised/small pool. What I did note, however, is that where the water normally flows from the small pool into the large pool, there are 4 tiles that the water runs over as it moves from the small pool to drop into the large pool. In the middle of the four tiles where the grout should be there is a hole ("top hole") which I plan to patch after leak testing the jet/return in the small pool. These four tiles are facing UP- they are not vertically oriented like all the rest in the pool. They are also normally subjected to severe conditions- they are immersed in pool water when the pump is running, and then they dry off and bake in the Florida sun when the pump is off. Can I close the top hole with pool putty, or do I need something else, or is there something more suitable for this spot?
Thank you for your help in advance, and thank you to all the forum folks for making learning about my pool so much easier!
. I guess I could post one as the "before" for before and after. Its pretty wild and overgrown. Getting the pool stabilized is (one of) my 2019 projects, and the yard is ideally a 2020 project!
in an almost impossible place to see! How did you find it?