Bought a new house and pool has a leak....NEED HELP PLEASE!!

Hi,

We bought a house in beginning of May and has an inground pool. The pool has a leak and have asked two different pool guys to come and fix it. I did a test myself of troubleshooting first, by closing all the jets and skimmer drains, but the pool level still dropped with the system off. I was convinced there must of been a hole in the liner.

The first guy told me it was the skimmer after running a pressure test, but that does not make much sense to me since the water lever drops to about 1/2" above the skimmer front plate (bottom)...so there is always some little water in the skimmer, but just not enough to run the system.

I asked for a 2nd opinion, and this guy tells me it's the liner, but he has not found/showed me any holes.

Can I do any real testing myself? I did not expect to have this added cost/problem. The kids were excited to start swimming, so this is a big dissapointment. The city we live in has a bylaw that if we need to fill a new pool we need to get a water truck, so I want to avoid emptying and refilling pointlessly also.

What more can I check? Please send me some suggestions. Should I start by shocking the pool (it's all green still)? Will this help me find problems or run a dye test myself? Can it be something simple like the skimmer faceplate?

Thanks

Hi, and welcome to the forum!!

If your problem is in the liner, then you need to look around the level of the pool water, because the leak will stop when it gets to the level of the hole/tear. I'll let some of the construction gurus around here address the skimmer possibility, but just wanted to welcome you and let you know we'll try to get you swimming as fast as we can!

I think trying to shock the pool at this point, without a working pump and filter, will be a waste of time and money, especially if there is a liner repair/replacement in your future. You have to make frequent additions of bleach and get it circulated in order to kill the algae, and then the filter is required to get the stuff out, so I think I would wait until you get the pump/filter working to address the water. No need to drain and refill if you don't have to, you'd be amazed at what kind of messes a little (OK, a lot:) ) of bleach can fix!

Janet

Hi,

I found a hole in my pool liner the size of a dime at the height of the base of the skimmer. Should I attempt to repair myself with patch kits or better call a pro? I called a pool place and they charge $75, which is ok, but can not make it out here for a week. I would like to repair ASAP. I see the kits are under $10 online, but I am in Canada, so not sure how much more it is here..usually double :)

So is it worth doing it yourself or just pay the pro and do it right/better than I would since I never did it before?

Thanks

It isn't that difficult to do. If you have a spare piece of vinyl left over from a liner installation, you can use that for your patch. If not, you can buy a patch kit. The type of glue that we have used when we had to repair a liner is called Boxer 100 Glue. Good luck.