losing water after replaster

Hi,

I have an older pool (30 years old) and recently got it replastered. To the best of my knowledge, the old plaster was the original plaster in the pool. We never had any problems with the pool losing water. The plaster was rough, stained, and there were areas where the rebar was rusting through. I did not have the tile replaced and and the foreman said it looked like the tile was in good condition so didn't need to be touched.

The plaster job looks great. However, ever since then we've been losing about 2 inches of water a week. The replaster guys came out and did a dye test (no one was home at the time so I can only take their word for it) and found no leaks.

I hired a leak detection company and they came out and did some testing and scuba dived the pool. The only leak they found was around the skimmer. They put some epoxy around it but said it was only a temporary fix and might not even work if the water was too cold (I live in the Sacramento area and the water is currently around 45-50 degrees).

The pool has continued to lose water and the epoxy doesn't seem to have made any difference at all. I called the leak detection guys back out and they found a couple of cracks/leaks around the spa tile area and put some epoxy around them. Again stating the fix was temporary and might not work if the water was too cold.

They did say that if I'd had the tile replaced originally with the replaster job then I probably wouldn't be having this problem. And I would need to get a tile guy out to either replace or regrout all of the tile to solve my problem.

I'm still losing water! My boyfriend (who knows quite a bit about construction) said that neither the tile nor the grout is water proof to begin with that it's the underlayment that keeps the water in the pool. He also said that if the tile had been replaced that normally the underalyment wouldn't be touched so that probably isn't my problem.

I'm frustrated and not sure where to turn now. We recently got water meters and I hate to keep filling my pool in the winter. I can't even imagine how much water I'd lose in the summer.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what next step I should take?

Thanks everyone.

Lynn

If you have a main drain, and can turn off your skimmer but leave the pump running, do so. Then you can let the pool leak down till it (hopefully) stops. That will ID the level of the lowest gravity leak. If the primary leak is at the tile line, the water will stop dropping at that point.

If it keeps leaking . . . you've probably got a leak in your piping, or the deeper areas of the pool.

If you have no main drain, you can add a double dose of polyquat algaecide, and then turn the pump off. With temps of 50 degrees, the pool should be fine for a couple of weeks.

Regarding the leaks founds so far, I learned the hard way myself to NEVER say, "I found THE leak!". Instead, I learned to say, "I found and patched some leaks (or a leak), but we'll have to wait and see if those were THE leaks. If not, we'll need to keep looking."

If you aren't sure if it's leaking you should try the bucket test, where you float a buck mostly full of water in the pool. If the water in the pool and the bucket both go down, no leak.

Carl

Thanks for the quick reply.

"We tested the suction lines for the skimmer, main
drain, cleaner, and return lines. These lines were all found to be free of
leaks. We dove the pool and spa and inspected the structures." - quote from the leak detection guys

I like the suggestion of draining the pool below the tile line to see if I continue to lose water. I think that will be my next step. At least that way I can determine if the problem is in the tile, right?

Where is all this lost water going? I'm not seeing any flooded lawn or apparent damp spots in the concrete? Is it possibly causing damage somewhere under the ground?

Lynn

If the pool stops draining at the tile, then your primary, but not necessarily your only, problem is at the tile line.

If you really want to be specific, use the poly-quat and turn the pump off. Then, if it stops draining at some reasonable level -- don't let the whole pool drain -- you can turn the pump back on (if you have a main drain) and see if it drains further. If it does, you have BOTH a gravity leak, probably in the shell, the tile or the piping from the skimmers and/or main drain AND a pressure leak in the piping coming FROM the pump.

In many cases, even rather large leaks will not show up above ground: the water tends to flow down, not up.

Good luck!