I had a leak around my main drain. When I drained the pool to paint it there was an obvious deterioration of gunite and concrete around main drain and water was seeping out. Pool company told me they pressure tested my main drain line and it was fine. They plugged the deteriorated concrete and I painted my pool. They came back a few days later and plugged my main drain then epoxy-ed a new drain cover to bottom of pool. They werent supposed to plug my main drain because guy told me it was fine, but they already started to fill my pool up. I asked guy why he did that and he insisted he told me my line was bad and demands his $300 payment. My question is if I lower the water in the pool several feet below the skimmer should the water in the main drain stay if their isn't a leak? If there is a leak won't it level out with the pool water line? Any help greatly appreciated. Just trying to prove he told me line was ok with out emptying whole pool and ripping epoxy-ed drain off.
Main Drain Question
- Thread starter meccanj98
- Start date
Mecca:
Welcome to the forum and can you please add your signature.
Pool School - Read This BEFORE You Post
Responses to your questions:
The main drain line could be fine through a pressure test, but you indicated that water was leaking around the main drain and not the plumbing, so both are possible.
Was this service agreed upon? Anything in writing or a verbal commitment?
If you lower the water below the returns and skimmer(s), and the water does not leak further, then you do not have a leak. Is the main drain plugged or not plugged? If you do not lose any more water with the plug in, then try removing the plug to see if there is a leak. If so, then it is in the piping and the pressure testing was false. You stated that they "plugged the deteriorated concrete". Does this mean that they filled in all around the main drain where the concrete fell apart?
Trying to grasp what this means? Can you please elaborate? Are you working with 2 separate companies or people? Thanks!
Welcome to the forum and can you please add your signature.
Pool School - Read This BEFORE You Post
Responses to your questions:
The main drain line could be fine through a pressure test, but you indicated that water was leaking around the main drain and not the plumbing, so both are possible.
Was this service agreed upon? Anything in writing or a verbal commitment?
If you lower the water below the returns and skimmer(s), and the water does not leak further, then you do not have a leak. Is the main drain plugged or not plugged? If you do not lose any more water with the plug in, then try removing the plug to see if there is a leak. If so, then it is in the piping and the pressure testing was false. You stated that they "plugged the deteriorated concrete". Does this mean that they filled in all around the main drain where the concrete fell apart?
Trying to grasp what this means? Can you please elaborate? Are you working with 2 separate companies or people? Thanks!
It is a pool company and no there was no work order because according to the owner he was doing me a favor only charging me $319. All he basically did was clean area out around drain where there was crumbling concrete and reapply hydrolic cement. Total time 25 min max. He told me the $319 didn't even cover his man hours.
I totally understand it could have been the drain and/or the line. The obvious first culprit was the crumbling concrete because it was visible and ground water was bubbling in.. He only pressure tested the line because the pool was empty and to just knock that out of equation. He also repeatedly told me it normally costs $350 to pressure test and he did me a favor there. Mind you the pool was already empty so they didnt have to swim down and hook up pressure stuff. So when he originally pressure tested it he called me and said good news. Your line is good. We will just fix the concrete throw a new drain cover on and you are good to go.
So he patched the hole. It still leaked a little bit because of high ground water, so he came back a second time and put more hydrolic cement on and told me to go ahead and paint the pool and fill it up. He advised me he will be back in 5 days after pool dries from paint and put new drain cover. I come home one night and pool was filling up. He had come and put drain cover on and started filling pool.
I started to pull plugs and get equipment ready to go. I noticed the main drain line was still full of water so obviously he plugged it in bottom of pool or it would have drained out. I called guy and he advised me he told me the line was bad and he plugged it. I advised him he told me line was good and wasn't supposed to plug it. He told me he was driving and would have to call me back. This was May 30th and his secretary called me yesterday looking for payment. He never called me back.
I used the pool all summer and it did not lose water. I told secretary I wasn't sending payment because he never called me back and didn't complete job correctly and he epoxy-ed the drain cover on instead of just putting adapter on and new 8inch cover.
So owner called me back with an attitude right off the bat. He insisted he called me back and told me line was bad. Then he changed his story and told me gauges were bad on pressure tester and he retested line and it was bad. (never communicated any of this to me). Then told me he had to epoxy drain cover on because by law I need an 8inch cover and my drain is 6inch.
He basically told me send me my $319 or I will see you in court. I did you a favor and should have charged you $1000
My thought was if he was going to plug main drain shouldn't it be plugged in skimmer and in bottom of pool? He only plugged it in bottom of pool. So if line still is good and I go to close my pool that water could freeze in that line.
I really don't want to pay a company to come out and re pressure test. My question is if I lower pool about 2-3 feet past skimmer. The water in the main drain line shouldn't go down if the line is good correct? If line is bad it will start to go down until atleast the pool water level if not ground water level correct?
I apologize for the lengthy response. I understand I can drain pool and pull plug. My concern is he epoxy-ed the drain cover directly onto my concrete and new paint job. I didn't want to mess with it if I didn't have to.
Thanks
I totally understand it could have been the drain and/or the line. The obvious first culprit was the crumbling concrete because it was visible and ground water was bubbling in.. He only pressure tested the line because the pool was empty and to just knock that out of equation. He also repeatedly told me it normally costs $350 to pressure test and he did me a favor there. Mind you the pool was already empty so they didnt have to swim down and hook up pressure stuff. So when he originally pressure tested it he called me and said good news. Your line is good. We will just fix the concrete throw a new drain cover on and you are good to go.
So he patched the hole. It still leaked a little bit because of high ground water, so he came back a second time and put more hydrolic cement on and told me to go ahead and paint the pool and fill it up. He advised me he will be back in 5 days after pool dries from paint and put new drain cover. I come home one night and pool was filling up. He had come and put drain cover on and started filling pool.
I started to pull plugs and get equipment ready to go. I noticed the main drain line was still full of water so obviously he plugged it in bottom of pool or it would have drained out. I called guy and he advised me he told me the line was bad and he plugged it. I advised him he told me line was good and wasn't supposed to plug it. He told me he was driving and would have to call me back. This was May 30th and his secretary called me yesterday looking for payment. He never called me back.
I used the pool all summer and it did not lose water. I told secretary I wasn't sending payment because he never called me back and didn't complete job correctly and he epoxy-ed the drain cover on instead of just putting adapter on and new 8inch cover.
So owner called me back with an attitude right off the bat. He insisted he called me back and told me line was bad. Then he changed his story and told me gauges were bad on pressure tester and he retested line and it was bad. (never communicated any of this to me). Then told me he had to epoxy drain cover on because by law I need an 8inch cover and my drain is 6inch.
He basically told me send me my $319 or I will see you in court. I did you a favor and should have charged you $1000
My thought was if he was going to plug main drain shouldn't it be plugged in skimmer and in bottom of pool? He only plugged it in bottom of pool. So if line still is good and I go to close my pool that water could freeze in that line.
I really don't want to pay a company to come out and re pressure test. My question is if I lower pool about 2-3 feet past skimmer. The water in the main drain line shouldn't go down if the line is good correct? If line is bad it will start to go down until atleast the pool water level if not ground water level correct?
I apologize for the lengthy response. I understand I can drain pool and pull plug. My concern is he epoxy-ed the drain cover directly onto my concrete and new paint job. I didn't want to mess with it if I didn't have to.
Thanks
Mecca:
Sorry for your troubles. This is one of the reason why I always am home when someone does the work. Your main drain is the drain, attached to 1.5" or 2" plumbing (maybe smaller, but I doubt it), and it runs back to the equipment pad. Depending on the type of run, which could be flexible or straight pipe, the plumbing pressure testing leak (if any) could be from any where. Personally, I would have removed the drain, cut it out and determined if the line from the pool (not the drain) was and has a leak back to the equipment pad. Even if in concrete, you could have easily removed, inspected, and placed back in the cement.
U]Also, is the main drain line tied into the skimmer? Or are they separate? [/U]
Now, there is really no way of knowing what the real story is. He can drag you to court, but without any type of written agreement, it is your word against his. You should eventually pay him, but he also made a lot of mistakes.
Sorry for your troubles. This is one of the reason why I always am home when someone does the work. Your main drain is the drain, attached to 1.5" or 2" plumbing (maybe smaller, but I doubt it), and it runs back to the equipment pad. Depending on the type of run, which could be flexible or straight pipe, the plumbing pressure testing leak (if any) could be from any where. Personally, I would have removed the drain, cut it out and determined if the line from the pool (not the drain) was and has a leak back to the equipment pad. Even if in concrete, you could have easily removed, inspected, and placed back in the cement.
U]Also, is the main drain line tied into the skimmer? Or are they separate? [/U]
Now, there is really no way of knowing what the real story is. He can drag you to court, but without any type of written agreement, it is your word against his. You should eventually pay him, but he also made a lot of mistakes.
My main drain line feeds to my skimmer then back to me equipment. I just don't want my line plugged if it doesnt need to be. I have to run my equipment 2-3 hrs longer each day now and bottom of my pool needs cleaned more often. Honestly he could just offer to come out and pressure test it right in front of me and be done with it.
This means you will only pull from your skimmer. If you are not leaking water and only pulling from the skimmer, and you pull the plug, there will be more water leaking than normal. You could also be losing pressure from the valve at the equipment pad and this could have caused the failure of the pressure test. It is like locking a main drain and you hear hissing as the valve has gone bad (supposedly).
Instead of driving yourself nuts, call the guy, be nice and explain the situation. Explain to him that you want to pay him, but you need to be assured. Work something out with him and explain to him that you need to be 100% certain. If this was my pool, I would drain it and have him come back out. I doubt he will waste a whole day in court without a written contract of work and services performed.