As some of you might know I have been having some major problems with my pool builder. I have my dream pool but there have been many, many problems. The pool was supposed to be finshed last June and has been operational since last November. HIs latest insult to my good nature just occurred. I have been dealing with a leak for some time now. My CYA dropped from 80 ppm to 20 ppm in a three month period and the calcium showed a similar drop. ( I fill with water that has 0 hardness and add calcium because of the grouted tile work and marble spillover on the spa and because of the heater, the pool is fiberglass). The builder was convinced that the leaks were coming from the light niches in the pool and the spa. He has NOT leak tested anything since the original plumbing was done and that has been modified several times already since it was not done correctly. I know that some of the pvc joints on the valves are leaking in the replumbed areas because I can see them. I have shown the builder as well and he hasn't dont anything about it for 2 months. The pool has a Hayward niche and the spa a Pentair...don't ask me why. Well the builder was out yesterday and got in his wet suit and took out the lights and used epoxy putty in the back of the niche where the wire for the light comes through. My lights are supposed to be Fiberstars FX lights according to the contract so they will sync up properly with the fiber optics in my water features which have a Fiberstars Illuminator. I discovered that he put in pentair Sam and Sal lights which are also color wheel lights but they won't sync up properly with the Fiberstars illuminator. He told me he will replace the illuminator with the Pentair one which is fine by me at this point.(The Pentair is metal halide so it is more powerful than the Fiberstars Halogen that I have now...Better light output in the metal halide.) The problem is that when he epoxied the lights he didn't leave enough cable for them to be placed on the deck when removed which means I will have to drain water from the pool or spa when I need to change the bulbs. I pointed this out to him when he was doing the epoxy and he told me not to worry about it...Just call him to change the bulbs. At the rate that he has shown up to fix things that he or his workers screwed up it means I would have a dark pool for a year! He was supposed to come back today to put the lights back in and fix some plumbing for the water features. I called at 7 pm and got his secretary. She told me he would not be coming out but that two of his workers would. Thwy showed up at 9:30 pm!. They got the lights in finally (they lost one of the niche screws and had to hunt for it in the dark for 20 minutes and they had no tools. I had to get a screwdriver for them!) but said that the builder had to come back with his wet suit to tighten them up. Also in the 26 hours the lights were out of their niches I lost almost 3 inches of water from the pool! It may very well be that the niches are leaking but his epoxy putty sure didn't fix it. My foundation has eroded away beneath the deck once already and he backfilled it. Now the new dirt is eroding where the pipes come out from under the concrete deck and go to the equipment pad. He backfilled last month! (and his backhoe operator broke the pad my heater sits on..don't know how they intend to fix that! He did replace the sensors that got broken when they dumped a load of dirt on top of my equiment pad and had to dig out the pumps and valves!) I know that the skimmer was never cemented into place and I think that is where some of the leaking is occuring. Now this builder does know his stuff but he sends out unsupervised people that don't really know what they are doing. Every problem I have had is becuase of this. His work crews have changed completely about 4 times since he started construction on my pool March 2005. I just needed a place to vent some of my frustrations but I would apprciate hearing any comments any of you might have. Be aware that this leak is just one of the problems remaining to be fixed and is a rather minor one compared to some of the others! I think he has justcreated more problems for me with this latest 'repair' and I am getting ready to demand that he find the leaks and get the lights reinstalled correctly with enough cable so they can be placed on the deck for service as the manual for them states is the correct way.

Thanks for listening!