I think I found the source of my leak; Can this be it?

I have been losing about 3/4 of an inch to an inch a day. I did the bucket test, turned off the pump and plugged the returns and skimmer. It was still leaking, so I determined it has to be somewhere in the body of the pool. Also tested the skimmer and light fixture with dye and didn't find anything.

I finally found a hole about the size of the top of an eraser on a pencil. What I think happened was that I was manually vaccuming the pool, and a few months ago, I "hit" something. I think there might have been a small pebble under the liner and somehow I caught it and tore the liner.

Can something that small cause that much water loss, though? The hole is on the floor of the pool, and I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to be able to patch it.

Here's a thread where I posted how I did a deep end patch. And yes, a small hole can be the source of a high water loss.
Al


http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=101

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JenniferB

I I finally found a hole about the size of the top of an eraser on a pencil. ...
Can something that small cause that much water loss, though? The hole is on the floor of the pool, and I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to be able to patch it.

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Almost certainly. While not exactly analagous, a quarter-inch hole in the hull of a ship six feet below the water line would leak at the rate of 450 gallons per hour or 10800 gallons per day. (The two scenarios aren't exactly analagous because the ground beneath the pool would resist the water flow significantly, but the leak rate would still be significant.)

I never thought I'd be saying this, but I am so glad to hear that a hole that small can cause a leak. We have been dealing with a leak detection company, and he claims he couldn't find the hole, but he instead came out twice and did some repairs on the cavity of our light. That didn't do a thing. Now he thinks its the main drain and wants to plug it up to see if that helps any. I still think it's this hole. I need to just go down there and fix it myself. Thanks much for the link to your homemade patching system! I'm going to give it a try.

Unless I read it wrong .. It sounds liek it was just a pebble under the liner until you recently hit it with the cleaner and caused the hole. Patch it and see if it stops the leak but don't let the detection people off the hook if they are working on a flat rate.

That's definitely the leak - hole size sounds about right for the water loss incurred.
However, the leak detection company should have found this problem pretty much immediately.
Is there a way to get your money back or is it pay first, find leak later, no guarantees?
I guess they'll just argue that they fixed something that was amiss and therefore should be payed.

I haven't given this company a dime yet. They're going on a flat rate, and they've been out to the house three times now. The first two he tried to make repairs to the light and the third they didn't do anything, only to tell me they couldn't find the hole I told them about. After the second visit, I have found they're increasingly difficult to reach by phone, and I have to keep calling to remind them to come out when they haven't shown up like they said they would.

Jen,
Something else to try until you have time to patch is to place a plastic sheet over the hole and drop a sand bag on that to see if it stops. I did that on mine until I figured a way to patch the blasted thing. For the sand bag I used an old pillow case loaded with play sand.
Al