Plumbing Assessment & Repairs

[Texas Splash]

After several months of debate and testing that has confirmed I have plumbing leak on both the pressure and suction sides, I've finally decided to go in. My priority is the suction line right now since I have a Frakenplug installed in my cracked return jet, but since I had to rent a concrete saw w/ a diamond blade and a 70 lb jackhammer, I decided to cut both areas of the deck to save $$$. I'll hold-off digging on the return jets until later. It's too blazing hot. My return jet diagnosis was confirmed in THIS THREAD. While working on my suction side, I have my original suction line bypassed with a temp above-ground line as noted in THIS THREAD.

Below are some starter pics as I begin my adventure. Even with the right tools, it's utterly exhausting. To say I'm beat is an understatement. I think I'll relax for the now and just cut-out the rebar and call it quits for today. More updates to follow.

 

[Dirk]

Sympathies and best wishes!

 

[Newdude]

In to root.

 

[Getitrite]

In to root.


View attachment 519494

If anyone knows relaxation, it's Al.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Pat,

Why did you pick the middle of the summer to do this???

Jim R.

 

[Texas Splash]

Why did you pick the middle of the summer to do this???

Jim, every year I say I'm not going to do a major project in the summer and then I do it again.

 

[Texas Splash]

After several days of digging in 105+ heat, I've decided on my course of action. In the pic below you'll see a blue line which is part of my original suction line from pool back to pad. The red lines represent two areas where the installers used flex pipe. I wish I knew better at the time of install. It is my belief one of those flex pipes or connections are the problem. In fact, I'm surprised there's not a break below the skimmer. Look how badly pulled-down the flex pipe is from the 90 degree elbow in the pic below. Those clowns positioned the 90 degree elbow 45 degrees backwards and ran that flex line along the bottom edge of the deep end of the pool. No way I'm going to tear up the entire end of the concrete pad for that flex, so I'm going to bring the suction line straight out & away from the skimmer, which IMO they should've done originally.

 

[Texas Splash]

By the way, this is the pressure manifold I made to perform my leak testing.

And to make sure I didn't have a bad seal somewhere, I did a manifold test on this short piece of pipe, holding pressure for about an hour. On the other end I used a Safe-T- Seal bladder.

 

[Dirk]

Dog on right: "Show me where to dig. Just point! I'll do it. I'll do it!"
Dog on left: "OK, you work on that. I'll supervise."

PS. Like the plan. Less work, solves the problem for good.

 

[Dirk]

Open to suggestions? (And maybe you've thought of this already.)

The angle of the pipe between A and B relative to the skimmer can be anything, since the elbow at A can rotate any which way.
B has to be 90.
And C has to be 45 (to avoid any more flex and to minimize the number of fittings).

Find that blue pipe first, before you trench or break out any more concrete. Because there is flex on each end of it, that blue run could be any angle relative to the deck, not necessarily 45°. Once you find the blue pipe, plot 45° from that pipe first. Maybe the pipe between B and C will be parallel to the deck, but maybe it won't. If you start at C and work your way towards A, then you can trench accordingly and be assured of using 45° and 90° fittings, without having to torque any pipes into fittings to fit, and make up any difference by rotating the elbow at A as needed.

Hopefully I described that well enough.

 

[Dirk]

Or, get rid of all the flex once and for all. It's really not a whole lot more trenching. You can get under that one corner of the deck with the ol' water drilling trick (I'll share if you don't know that one).



I've rented a trencher from Herc a few times. Miracle machines. Probably be about $250, and you could cut that trench in about half an hour, if that. If you go slow, it'll slice right through any roots from that stump. Sometimes they'll give you a half-day rate.

 

[wireform]

I've rented a trencher from Herc a few times. Miracle machines. Probably be about $250, and you could cut that trench in about half an hour, if that. If you go slow, it'll slice right through any roots from that stump. Sometimes they'll give you a half-day rate.

+2

 

[Texas Splash]

Or, get rid of all the flex once and for all.

Appreciate all the tips. Yes, I will eventually abandon all of the flex on the suction side. Of course the largest part is from the skimmer and against the pool shell to the corner, but that will be history soon. I've evaluated many pipe angle options which did include your thoughts as well. I hope to have it just about ready by the weekend, work and life issues permitting. I have limited hours I can work since it's so hot, but I'll get it. Thanks for the input.

 

[wireform]

Texas,
Are you going with 2" on the new skimmer run?

 

[Texas Splash]

Are you going with 2" on the new skimmer run?

I've thought about that as well. Unless I end up replacing the entire suction line, I may just stay with the current size which appears to be 1.5 inch. Changing only a portion wouldn't seem to be as efficient, but I'll see how it goes once I get the other plumbing exposed.

 

[Texas Splash]

Well, I made it. @wireform, it's a 2" line.

Here they are. The 2" return line at bottom of the pic with bond wire below it, then a 1.5" waterfall line against that. The 2" suction line I'll be working on is at the top tucked-up tightly against 2 of the 3 LED conduit lights. Now I just need to take my time, get things cleaned up and give myself some room to make cuts and get the new suction line connected to the skimmer.

 

[Dirk]

This is what I was getting at, to start your trench at the existing pipes. Then you could establish the angle you need for the rest of the trench, to minimize elbows. The pipe that connects to the skimmer doesn't need to be perpendicular to the pool's edge, so the trench doesn't need to be parallel to the deck.



It's not that big of a deal, you'll just need one extra elbow to get the angles you need.

 

[Texas Splash]

This is what I was getting at, to start your trench at the existing pipes.

Either I am suffering from heat exhaustion (very possible) or my mind is in the gutter (likely as well), but I only see one thing in your image, and it's not my pool. Remember this is a family-friendly forum. Bwaahaahaa!

 

[Dirk]

It's all pipes!

 

[Texas Splash]

Today was to be my final adjustments and glue day, but I had to make some mods along the way. In this first pic you can see my rod-style pressure tester is crooked. The top of the skimmer looks level on the decking, but when it was installed, the techs must've allowed the bottom to tilt inwards a bit towards the pool shell. They didn't care because they used flex pipe and ran it in a sideways position. So when I tried to connect my rigid Sch 40 pipe and extend it outward away from the pool, the 90 degree elbow below the skimmer was tiled down because of the bad angle. This resulted in the other end of my 5' pipe being too low into the ground.



My only fix was to modify the 5' pipe with heat and give it a bend to compensate for the downward angle of the skimmer. It may not look like much, but this is what worked and allowed me to make my connections at perfect angles. Tomorrow I should complete my final connections and get the skimmer line working again.