Pool Leaks

Did you know…? –It is estimated that one pool in every 20 has a leak. –A pinhole-sized leak in a pool plumbing system with 40-pound pressure (psi) will lose approximately 970 gallons of water in a 24-hour period. This comes to about 30,000 gallons a month or 360,000 gallons per year. That’s enough to drain and refill the average residential swimming pool more than a dozen times. But if you have an automatic refilling float, you will not notice.

Warning signs of leaks include:

–An astronomical water bill –Loss of 1/8″ or more water in a 24 hour period –Algae formation too soon after chemical treatment –Loose or falling tiles, pool deck cracks, pool shell gaps and cracks –A settling of the whole pool or spa structure into the ground –Constant damp soil surrounding the pool or under your house –A letter from your neighbor’s attorney advising you that your leaking pool is destroying their foundation

To determine whether your water loss is evaporation or leak, place a bucket on the top step of the pool and fill it to the pool’s water level. The next day, if the water level in the pool is lower than the bucket, there probably is a leak in the pool structure or plumbing system. (If it rains, the science experiment is off.)

To further investigate, measure the water loss with the pump running for 24 hours and again with the pump off. If more water is lost when the pump is running, the plumbing is probably the cause.

Thanks to up-to-the-minute technology, we can find and repair most pool or spa leaks without major disruption or the need to take out a second mortgage. We can find leaks the size of a pinhead. Try us!

First, prove there is a leak

Pools lose water without leaking. In Temecula, Murrieta and the inland valleys, evaporation in summer is substantial on its own, and wind and heat make it worse.

The bucket test separates the two, and it costs nothing.

1. Fill a bucket with pool water and set it on a step so the water inside and outside are at the same level

2. Mark both levels

3. Leave the pump running normally for 24 hours, then compare

4. If the pool dropped more than the bucket, the difference is a leak. If they dropped the same, it is evaporation

Run it again with the pump off. A pool that loses more with the pump running points toward the pressure side of the plumbing. More with the pump off points toward the shell, the main drain or the suction side.

Where pools actually leak

• The skimmer, and specifically the joint where the plastic skimmer meets the concrete shell. This is the most common single location

• Light niches and the conduit behind them

• Return and suction fittings, where the fitting meets the shell

• The plumbing, underground between the pool and the equipment pad

• Structural cracks in the shell, which are the least common and the most serious

• The equipment pad itself, where a leak is visible and often mistaken for the pool

Start at the equipment pad, because it is free to inspect and it is wet when it is the problem.

Why a leak is not only a water bill

Water leaving a pool goes into the soil beside it, and in this region that soil is frequently expansive clay.

Clay that takes on water swells. The pool shell does not move, because it is a rigid structure on engineered footings. The deck around it does. That is how a leak that costs a few dollars a day in water quietly becomes a lifted deck, an open expansion joint and a coping problem.

The joint between the pool and the deck is a detail rather than an accident, and it is the first thing to look at when a deck starts moving: pool decks and pool barriers in California.

On a raised or hillside pool, persistent saturation is a more serious conversation than a repair, and it is worth getting eyes on it early.

What repair usually involves

Most leaks are found and fixed without draining the pool. Pressure testing isolates which line is failing, and dye testing finds a leak at a fitting or a crack while the pool is full.

Never drain a pool to look for a leak without understanding the groundwater under it. An empty shell with saturated soil around it can float, and a floated pool is a replacement rather than a repair.

When the repair is a construction project

Some leaks are plumbing and stay plumbing. Others open up into the deck, the coping or the structure around the pool, and at that point several trades are involved and the sequence matters.

If deck work, coping, drainage or a barrier are going to be touched anyway, it is far cheaper to plan them together than to do them in three visits: planning a backyard in Riverside County.

Start with a free 15-minute call

Run the bucket test first, then tell us roughly how much the pool drops in 24 hours, whether it changes with the pump on or off, whether the equipment pad is wet, and whether any of the deck has moved. In fifteen minutes we can usually tell you whether this is plumbing, a fitting, or something that has started affecting the structure around it.

Call (323) 707-4979 to book the free 15-minute consultation.

The Ultimate Pro, Inc. CA License 831700, Class B General Building. Serving Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties since 1996.

Planning a backyard like this one? The order you build it in is what decides whether the trades end up tearing out each other's work. Book a free 15-minute call or call (323) 707-4979 and we will walk that order with you before the first crew shows up.

Prefer to watch before you call? X Plan Nation is The Ultimate Pro's YouTube channel, where we take construction apart step by step so you can tell good work from work that will come back.

The Ultimate Pro, Inc. · California contractor license 831700 · Class B general building · 18481 Grand Avenue, Lake Elsinore, CA 92530 · Serving Los Angeles County, Orange County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County and the Inland Empire since 1996.