Lesson 1: tenants are not capable of taking care of pools
I really don't know where to start with this story. I rent this house in another town (1.5 hrs away so I can't be there on a daily basis to diagnose) to a tenant who has been there for 4 years. Good tenant but new to pools. The liner was in decent condition until he moved in. I think he over chlorinated it early on which caused the wrinkles as seen in the picture.
He recently contacted me and said the pool has been dropping a lot of water for a couple weeks. It's close to pool closing/winterizing time in Ontario Canada; Question 1: should I deal with the leak before closing the pool or wait till next year? From some research I did it looks like the water helps maintain the structure of the pool over winter, and if it leaks enough, the walls could collapse. But if I wait till next year it'll buy me more time deal with this problem.
Now back to the leak. I believe step one is to determine if the leak is via equipment or pool. He said he explored the liner and didn't find any bubbles, tears, or holes (but he's not an expert). He sent me the picture of the equipment area (linked below) and has said the filter area has always been a little wet (which I agree with, the pressure gauge always leaked a bit) but doesn't think that it is causing the recent massive drops in water.
I told him to try turning off the waste discharge pipe to see if the spider gasket is bad and leaking water to through the waste. After a few days I followed up with him and and asked if it's still dropping like before and he said "Not as much but the weather has been much colder and I haven't used the pool at all." Question 2: should I ask him to turn off the pump for a few days and mark the liner's water level (or bucket test) to see if water drops?
Question 3: what's the process/cost like in hiring a professional to investigate? I'm scared if I get someone they'll just say to replace the liner and see if it fixes the problem when it might not even be there. I'm also scared the tenant might be angling this to get a new liner.
Any help appreciated!
I really don't know where to start with this story. I rent this house in another town (1.5 hrs away so I can't be there on a daily basis to diagnose) to a tenant who has been there for 4 years. Good tenant but new to pools. The liner was in decent condition until he moved in. I think he over chlorinated it early on which caused the wrinkles as seen in the picture.
He recently contacted me and said the pool has been dropping a lot of water for a couple weeks. It's close to pool closing/winterizing time in Ontario Canada; Question 1: should I deal with the leak before closing the pool or wait till next year? From some research I did it looks like the water helps maintain the structure of the pool over winter, and if it leaks enough, the walls could collapse. But if I wait till next year it'll buy me more time deal with this problem.
Now back to the leak. I believe step one is to determine if the leak is via equipment or pool. He said he explored the liner and didn't find any bubbles, tears, or holes (but he's not an expert). He sent me the picture of the equipment area (linked below) and has said the filter area has always been a little wet (which I agree with, the pressure gauge always leaked a bit) but doesn't think that it is causing the recent massive drops in water.
I told him to try turning off the waste discharge pipe to see if the spider gasket is bad and leaking water to through the waste. After a few days I followed up with him and and asked if it's still dropping like before and he said "Not as much but the weather has been much colder and I haven't used the pool at all." Question 2: should I ask him to turn off the pump for a few days and mark the liner's water level (or bucket test) to see if water drops?
Question 3: what's the process/cost like in hiring a professional to investigate? I'm scared if I get someone they'll just say to replace the liner and see if it fixes the problem when it might not even be there. I'm also scared the tenant might be angling this to get a new liner.
Any help appreciated!
