Pressure test

[drrayb]

Hi All,

We are going to redo our pool deck next week. Coping will be reset with fresh grout and then an expansion joint, and concrete poured for the rest of the deck which is currently interlock.

Today, while I was getting liquid chlorine, the pool stors owner lady who is generally very ornery and not helpful asked the age of my pool, and then "who is doing your presure test after you tear up all the decking?"
When I said no one, she rolled her eyes and looked away as if to say "ok your funeral"

Is this something that I should be having done on the pool? Its at least 40 yrs old, I have no idea when plumbing was done but there is no evidence of leak...

Thank you

 

[ajw22]

The question is will the deck work create a leak.

With new pool builds the plumbing is done early and then kept under pressure as other work is done. If any of the other work damages a pipe it shows in the loss of pressure.

It is not as simple doing a pressure test on existing pool plumbing as it all cannot be connected together. Each line needs to be individually pressure tested.

Whether you need to worry about it depends on where your pipes run relative to where the work will be done. And if you did not build the pool you may not know.

So that is what her eye rolling was trying to communicate.

 

[drrayb]

Thanks for your reply. The pictures of the pool and plumbing locations are attached. I can only assume the pipes run straight under the deck. They do split off somewhere as I only have a single return line on the equipment pad with no valve.
I also assume the deck is fairly well compacted given its age, and our location (toronto, canada, frost line is at 4 feet)...
Not opposed to doing this if people think it would be silly not to.

Thank you again

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I say ignore the old bird and her smug eye rolling. Considering your previous assessment of her not being very nice (good thing she’s working in retail … see what I did there ), she’s one of those personality types that likes to tell people what to do and, when she’s ignored, it’s treated with passive-aggressive defensiveness. Ignore her. Your pipes are buried by 4ft at least if the pool builder followed code. As long as the deck crew is just doing basic grading and not rolling a 40-ton cement mixer over the ground, you should be fine.