Hello my TFP experts,
I'm in Maryland (Mid Atlantic), its less than a week before Thanksgiving, and my pool is still open. "Why?" you ask "would you still have your pool open?" That's a great question! It's not because of lack of desire or laziness, I assure you. I normally start the closing process as soon as the water temp approaches 65F (Late Sept/Early Oct). It's due to a less than stellar landscaping contractor we hired back in April to "spruce up" our pool area. More details on that if you care to read in the details section below.
The TLDR; Version
We have a known leak. Underwater pool light conduit was punctured/broken during grading/prep for pool deck concrete. Light is about 30" below the typical water line. Leak estimated at 200-300 gallons a day. It's cold here at the moment and we are expecting temps in the low 20s tomorrow night. Pool temp currently sits at 43F. I have the pump constantly running, but I'm not sure how much longer this will hold up before I have some major problems with plumbing, pump, and filter freezing. I'm seeking advice for what to do. I'm running out of time, and quite frankly it angers me that the pool is still open. With every degree drop outside and in the pool my anger grows.
This project began back in May. New and expanded pool deck, rock walls, privacy plantings, etc. An amazing transformation promised compared to the wasteland our pool area has been for years. We committed just over $50K for the work and unfortunately the project has not gone well in my eyes. My wife is pushing me to contact a lawyer. I'm trying to avoid that, but it's getting harder and harder to dispute her feelings on the matter. Issues we've run into.
After writing all this out, perhaps my wife is right. I need to contact a lawyer. $50K might not be much for some, but it was for us. But we committed to it because the pool/yard is the reason we bought the house to begin with. We love entertaining and enjoying our pool and this was a promise to ourselves to improve that... Instead, we've had nothing but one headache after another, and the issues aren't even gone yet.
Thanks in advanced for your help. This forum is always fantastic.
Attached some photos for reference.
I'm in Maryland (Mid Atlantic), its less than a week before Thanksgiving, and my pool is still open. "Why?" you ask "would you still have your pool open?" That's a great question! It's not because of lack of desire or laziness, I assure you. I normally start the closing process as soon as the water temp approaches 65F (Late Sept/Early Oct). It's due to a less than stellar landscaping contractor we hired back in April to "spruce up" our pool area. More details on that if you care to read in the details section below.
The TLDR; Version
We have a known leak. Underwater pool light conduit was punctured/broken during grading/prep for pool deck concrete. Light is about 30" below the typical water line. Leak estimated at 200-300 gallons a day. It's cold here at the moment and we are expecting temps in the low 20s tomorrow night. Pool temp currently sits at 43F. I have the pump constantly running, but I'm not sure how much longer this will hold up before I have some major problems with plumbing, pump, and filter freezing. I'm seeking advice for what to do. I'm running out of time, and quite frankly it angers me that the pool is still open. With every degree drop outside and in the pool my anger grows.
- Can/should I close the pool with the leak? Line up leak repair early spring upon open. Understanding that it will only leak down to the light level which is about double my normal winter draining level (I generally go just below the 2 returns which is about 14"). Perhaps buy a tarp larger than normal to address the additional drop?
- Do I need to get the leak fixed before closing? Coordinating repairs and other issues with this contractor has been unnecessarily disappointing so I hold no confidence this thing will be fixed within the next week, especially with the holiday. The longer it goes, the colder the air/water gets and the risk of freezing impacts grows.
- Any other options/thoughts here?
This project began back in May. New and expanded pool deck, rock walls, privacy plantings, etc. An amazing transformation promised compared to the wasteland our pool area has been for years. We committed just over $50K for the work and unfortunately the project has not gone well in my eyes. My wife is pushing me to contact a lawyer. I'm trying to avoid that, but it's getting harder and harder to dispute her feelings on the matter. Issues we've run into.
- Revised downspout draining system was installed incorrectly and it dumps water from the roof under my house. My sump pump now runs anytime there is an average amount of rainfall for an hour or more. Then it will run every 5-10 mins. In fact, the sump drains to the new piping they put in, so I'm pretty sure it is just cycling the water over and over. It runs more now in a single rain event than it did in all the past 11 years we've lived here. I found the issue using a scope camera, they came to "fix it", yet it still dumps water under the house constantly. The old spout was gravity and dumped out about 60' into the yard downstream. The new system is a "pop-up" system. The popup drain is properly graded, but they dry fitted the pipes underground so any standing water on these joints is just seeping out of the system and into the ground about 1' from my foundation.
- When demoing the old concrete they busted a large section of our brick coping loose. I understand that when demo occurs, there is sometimes collateral damage, but they didn't fix/set the coping back correctly before pouring the concrete so now I have a section of coping that is pushed into the pool by 1/2". Tiles are now all not flush in this section.
- To add to that, their attempt at applying coping sealant was atrocious. It took 4 people over 4 hours and it looks like Crud. Not smooth, not clean. I'm not even sure they used the proper self-leveling caulk. The last time I had it done a single person came out and had it done in 2 hours and it looked amazing and clean.
- When demoing/grading concrete for our new expanded deck they did something to the pool light conduit creating a major leak. I told them about the leak after the first of 3 pour phases. Yet they continued to pour the other 2 phases and buried the issue. This is the topic of this post. My pool has been leaking for 4.5 months.
- It took forever to get the leak detection company out to find the leak
- It took another month before the pool repair contractor could come up and seal the leak (11/8)
- Of course, even after the "repair" it's still leaking, which is why I'm here today.
- The third pour of concrete was brought in by a different concrete company which doesn't color match the other 2 pours and is showing all kinds of signs of poor curing and surface cracking.
- Installed plant beds were not edged, 80% of the green arborvitaes they planted died or are in the process of dying
After writing all this out, perhaps my wife is right. I need to contact a lawyer. $50K might not be much for some, but it was for us. But we committed to it because the pool/yard is the reason we bought the house to begin with. We love entertaining and enjoying our pool and this was a promise to ourselves to improve that... Instead, we've had nothing but one headache after another, and the issues aren't even gone yet.
Thanks in advanced for your help. This forum is always fantastic.
Attached some photos for reference.
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