Leaking Pool?

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mknmike
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Leaking Pool?

Postby mknmike » Sat 23 Jul, 2022 15:36

Edit: video from 7/20/2022
https://youtu.be/k_u8VucXNLY

Well I can see that there are a lot of spots where the tile could get water behind it. That can’t be good in the winter. So I think I really need to continue grouting with the pool patch. I’ve been doing that and have realized that it will make more sense to lower the level of the water before I try to patch the bottom of the tiles.

Here is what the pool looked like yesterday, Friday.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202207 ... 8baf57.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202207 ... 0c404f.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202207 ... f5d0b1.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202207 ... 4faad5.jpg

[img]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220723/1d6a0f37125d4365795bd5093f8baf57.jpg[/img]
[img]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220723/0b1f156f6d0c9f117c1d367e850c404f.jpg[/img]
[img]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220723/58584d50e4a371ccaebaf471f2f5d0b1.jpg[/img]
[img]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220723/9c6db19048f559614cd4f81f424faad5.jpg[/img]


As I do this, I feel that maybe I should just have it all ripped out and get the pros to fix the top of the pool and put new coping on. However, the pool has been like this for probably at least 60 years. So maybe I can continue to maintain it just doing the minimal amount of work.

While I was doing some grouting and patching I noticed that one tile was cracked vertically and then noticed that crack continues low down into the pool and has previously been patched. In addition to the other locations that have clearly had issues in the past this one could be another problem area.

I am also concerned that maybe everything has been held together with some type of thick paint. I wonder if this could be like that basement wall paint do UGL masonry moisture block material.

I’m on my way to the pool supply store now to get more shock and chemicals that I know I need including the baking soda chemical that I know is needed to keep the bromine stabilized and probably protect the walls of the pool too.


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Teapot1
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My Pool: 12000 gallons vinyl liner,

Re: Leaking Pool?

Postby Teapot1 » Sat 23 Jul, 2022 16:19

Baking soda to keep bromine stabilised?
I may not give you the answer you want to hear, but I will give an honest opinion of your situation as you decribe it.
mknmike
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Re: Leaking Pool?

Postby mknmike » Sat 23 Jul, 2022 16:56

Teapot1 wrote:Baking soda to keep bromine stabilised?

Wrong stuff? Which one is the chemical that helps the bromine level stay up? Is it the PH UP stuff? I’ve got some of that, but thought the baking soda stuff was what I need to add to add.
Teapot1
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Re: Leaking Pool?

Postby Teapot1 » Sat 23 Jul, 2022 18:10

Bromine is used to form a bromine bank of sanitiser but needs an oxidising agent like chlorine or monopersulphate to oxidise bather waste or activate it as it often called. Bromine is a good sanitiser but poor oxidiser compared to chlorine that does both. Also bromine is more toxic to humans which is why I wont use it.
I may not give you the answer you want to hear, but I will give an honest opinion of your situation as you decribe it.
mknmike
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Re: Leaking Pool?

Postby mknmike » Sat 23 Jul, 2022 18:42

Teapot1 wrote:Bromine is used to form a bromine bank of sanitiser but needs an oxidising agent like chlorine or monopersulphate to oxidise bather waste or activate it as it often called. Bromine is a good sanitiser but poor oxidiser compared to chlorine that does both. Also bromine is more toxic to humans which is why I wont use it.

I am curious to learn in what ways Bromine is more toxic. I hope to learn this soon. I don’t spend much time in the pool, and don’t think my tenant does either. I’ve had the pump off for over a week now while letting the level drop. Algae has started for form. I used two bags of shock when opening the pool, one more bag of shock a few weeks ago, and one bag of shock last night. The pool just started getting cloudy a day or so ago. I’m primarily focused on getting the pool to hold water this year and not becoming a slimy mess.

The decision to not spend $12-20,000 that I don’t really have redoing the top of the pool is a tough one, as my pool guy suggested that, and he’s really been great. As the cost of chemicals, water, and time grouting tiles all increases, it makes me wonder if shelling out the money would be the smart economical decision.
mknmike
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Leaking Pool?

Postby mknmike » Sun 24 Jul, 2022 10:23

So yesterday while I was at the pool store the guy suggested that maybe the seal for the light is bad and that I should check that out. He said that there’s often caulk where the wire is that will dry up and cause a leak. Right now I’m sitting at the pool and see that in most areas the water level is now below the tile. In some areas it is right at the bottom edge of the tile. I think this should give me an opportunity to grout the bottom of the tiles. Rather than sucking water out or filling the pool now I was able to get the wall suction working and the robot running. I think if I continue to manually skim the top of the pool and keep the robot running with manual starts I should be able to keep the water clean. I think I might do that but understand that it’s bad to have the plaster exposed and not wet. I am hoping that just The top inch of plaster will be OK to be dry while I continue this grouting project.

I should really be taking better notes in a notebook of what I’m doing but figure I can just document it here and hopefully get back to it.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202207 ... 5d549e.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202207 ... 89282b.jpg

[img]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220724/53a0fbe277aa555b5b42f5981a5d549e.jpg[/img]
[img]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220724/71a9fad72a99a0c0669b136a3989282b.jpg[/img]


Edit: videos from today…

https://youtu.be/0itHhxP1YVA

https://youtu.be/okeswf-DzWQ

https://youtu.be/4fZLYc2ncOk
mknmike
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Re: Leaking Pool?

Postby mknmike » Sun 24 Jul, 2022 18:25

Teapot1 wrote:You could try a bucket test. Mark a water level in a bucket and compare the loss to the pool level, if they are the same its evaporation. Bucket near the pool as possible.

Although I haven’t put bungs in to eliminate the possibility of pipes leaks, and the guy at the pool store suggested the light as a possible leak, I’m starting to think that it’s unlikely that my leak is from one of these sources.

The reason is that I believe I lose water really fast up high, while I loose it much slower when the water level is lower.

Now I understand that there’s less “head” pushing water out when the level is lower, but it seems like when the level drops below where the skimmer works, I stop losing water so fast. My pool guy suggested the cracks around my skimmer as my problem. He may have been right. I found a few other potential leaks in the tile too, but admittedly not too many “up high” on the tile such that they’d stop leaking when the level got low.

Additional support for there not being a leak in the LIGHT is the fact that the pool filled itself to about 1” below the tile over the winter. So it seems unlikely to me that the light would the the leak.

The pipe work was all plugged though. So it is possible that’s where the leak is. I hope it’s not the pipe work. That would be a mess.
mknmike
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Re: Leaking Pool?

Postby mknmike » Wed 27 Jul, 2022 11:52

Two days later. Almost all the water is now below the main tile, almost low enough that I can grout the bottom line of the tile.

I’m manually turning on the pool pump to make sure that the main pump can get rolling, and then the scavenger pump can get going and provide the extra power that the robot venturi vacuum needs to run and clean the bottom of the pool. Ordinarily, when the skimmer can go full force, both can kick on at the same time with no issue. That doesn’t seem to work with only the one small side suction port. I also have to manually skim the whole pool with the net. I think the tiniest of particles aren’t getting removed.

Anyway, I’m wasting minimal money this way (not wasting chemicals and water pumping water out), and I’m also able to track the water level. I will fill it after the water level gets low enough to grout the bottom of the skimmer inlet, still another half inch or inch to go.

https://youtu.be/txTE-CpVUDY
mknmike
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Re: Leaking Pool?

Postby mknmike » Thu 28 Jul, 2022 12:01

Skimmer is now completely non-functional. Water level isn’t dropping very fast anymore.
Might have to suck some water out to complete my pool patching.


https://youtu.be/eSufsa_o9kM
mknmike
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Re: Leaking Pool?

Postby mknmike » Fri 29 Jul, 2022 17:10

Got a little rain, but this is getting boring. I decided to put the frogs in a bucket and take them away instead of continuing to scoop them out of the pool and just putting them in the garden for them to jump right back in.

https://youtu.be/cGbuPBhhmA4
mknmike
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Re: Leaking Pool?

Postby mknmike » Sun 31 Jul, 2022 09:23

So yesterday I finally pumped some water out. I have threaded connections that I’m able to get flexible PVC onto, and then I was able to also connect my vacuum hose to the inside of the other end. The two hoses together got me far enough down the driveway to send the water down the street (instead of taking any risks by sending the water through the garage floor drain as I’d been doing in the past, resulting in the basement flooding). That alone was a good triumph in learning how to maintain this adequate setup on my own. No other pump required.

At first I pumped down just enough to grout the skimmer inlet tile, but later realized that there’s a whole section where the pool wall is recessed along an old crack a few inches below the tile. It’s the type of thing that I could just keep on going and going, perhaps until I drain the whole darned pool. I had a $250 water bill last MONTH, and with Bromine now being $450-500/50 gallon bucket, I really don’t want to waste too much water or chemical. It’s tough because I know that if I don’t resolve the leak, that’s exactly what one doing. So it’s a real balance.

Anyway, when it started getting dark last night, and my thumb that I’d been using to rub the grout in felt like it had been rubbed raw, it was quitting time. I didn’t get a video before leaving.

Oh. There’s another frog in a bucket in the back of my truck right now. Totally forgot about that.

More pics and video to come later today.
mknmike
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Re: Leaking Pool?

Postby mknmike » Sun 31 Jul, 2022 14:58

mknmike
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Re: Leaking Pool?

Postby mknmike » Thu 04 Aug, 2022 22:57

Ok. I’m pretty confident that I have this pool holding water again. I got lucky last year. I’m still getting lucky with no apparent leaking cracks in the plaster. It appeared that all my issues were at the tile line which was easy to grout.

Now that I understand pools a little better, I’m looking forward to the next maintenance issues:
- sealing the pool coping before winter
- getting the plan ready for how to resurface the pool (sandblast and plaster?, paint? Vinyl linter?, other material?… options are good to have.)

Final video before I close out this thread… until the pool leaks again.

https://youtu.be/Vt0K1GEdiok
mknmike
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Re: Leaking Pool?

Postby mknmike » Sun 07 Aug, 2022 22:49

I’m very pleased to report that the pool seems to be holding water well. It’s not a scientific measurement, but the level it’s at now feels like it’s so close to the coping that I don’t think I’d ever experienced it holding at this level other than over-filling the pool (and flooding the basement as a result). So I’m very happy to report it holding water at this level. It’s now basically got the drain box and copper pipe / escutcheon under the foundation completely submerged.
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Leaking Pool?

Postby mknmike » Thu 20 Apr, 2023 16:59

More leaks this year noted below the til this time. I backwashed while filtering after opening the pool, and the level was ~2.25” above the top step after backwashing.

Here’s about where the level was before I filled the pool Monday. (See pics/links.)

I filled it to mid-way of the tile and got the skimmer working correctly. (Before that I was using a pipe from the skimmer port to the pool to be able to use both suction ports.) I then put the bubble cover on and today pulled it off. It’s down about 3/4”, maybe a full inch in 3 days. It must be leaking somewhere. I guess the air has been dry, but I would not expect that much evaporation.

I had hoped to at least paint the top ring of the pool before the start of this season.

I did run that fountain thing (to increase PH) a bunch, but not when the pool was covered the last three days.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202304 ... 628ea4.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202304 ... c66707.jpg

[img]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230420/8b98b372ab4c777bd461dc4fc1628ea4.jpg[/img]
[img]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230420/6b4b307d6b71a4194ab3931ef0c66707.jpg[/img]


The pool is about 15.5-16x27-28’. So I will have to calculate how many gallons I’ve lost per hour, and maybe track it carefully next time I do a fill.

Right now the water is at what I’ve always viewed as the mimimal level for the skimmer to never suck air, the bottom of the overflow drain rectangle. It was about dead center on this before.

[img]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230420/256bc7e1c99259d1d6749d5dce6cd559.jpg[/img]

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