Find And Fix Leaks In Your Swim Pool "I'm having to add water to my swimming pool every week. Do I have a leak?" Depending on the climate in your local area, it is not unusual to be losing a 1/4" of pool water a day due to evaporation. This means almost 2" a week! The biggest factors affecting this are humidity, wind, and air and water temperature. To find out if you do have a leak in your swimming pool, fill a bucket with water from the pool and set it on the steps of your pool with the top of the bucket above water level. This will keep the water in the bucket the same temperature as the pool. If you do not have steps, you can try balancing the bucket on the top ladder tread. Now, compare the water loss between the bucket and your pool over a period of several days, the longer the better. We are assuming that your bucket doesn't have a hole in it! If you see a difference, you have a leak
Now let's find that leak! Fill the pool to its normal level and mark it.
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Leak Detection & Repair Local plumbers with the latest, hi-tech tools for a job done right. http://www.findaplumber.com A piece of duct tape is ideal for this. Next with your filter system running the whole time, wait 12 to 24 hours and measure the loss of water. Then refill the pool back to the same level and with the filter system off, wait the same amount of time (also over the same part of the day, ie. 8 AM to 8 AM or 7 PM to 7 AM) and measure the water loss. If you are losing more water with the filter system running, the leak is on the pressure side of your plumbing somewhere PAST the impeller of the pump. If you are losing less water with the filter system not running, the leak is on the vacuum side of your plumbing somewhere BEFORE the impeller of the pump. Please note that in this case, most of the time the pool only loses water when the system is off and not when it's on. If the water loss is the same, then your leak is in the structure of the pool and not in the plumbing.
Let's deal with a leak in the plumbing first. We will assume that there is not an obvious leak (one that you can see) on the filter system. Did you check where your backwash line comes out? There are two ways to find this leak. First, you can pressure test the lines, then dig, following the leaking line till you find it. You can also call in your local leak detection service. We would highly recommend the latter, unless you like to dig. Professionals will use "geophones" to listen for the leak and only dig where necessary!
Now lets look at a leak in the structure of a concrete pool. You will need some food coloring for this, and you will want to turn off the pump at least an hour before you do this. In a concrete pool, any cracks in the shell are usually obvious. By squeezing out the food coloring near the crack, you will see the crack pull the food coloring in. That will show you where the pool is leaking. Yes, you may have to get in the pool to do this, but isn't that why you got the pool in the first place? If there are no visible cracks, you will want to squeeze out the food coloring around any of the items that pierce the shell of the pool (main drain, returns, lights, etc.). Be sure to check the "mouth" of the skimmer where the plastic of the skimmer meets the concrete. This area is very susceptible to movement and often separates causing a leak.
Once the leak is found, it is easy to fix using a patching material. Most of them will work under water. After patching, check again with your food coloring to make sure you plugged the leak. Please note that if you patch near a fitting, you will want to leave the pump off while it cures, so the flow of water doesn't wash the patch away.
What if you have a vinyl pool with a leak? A leak can be a little harder to find and fix in a vinyl pool, but it's not impossible. We would recommend that you first check around all the items that pierce the liner (main drain, returns, lights, etc.). If you find that the liner has pulled away or is leaking behind a fitting, we would STRONGLY recommend that you call in your local pool professional at this point. If you mess this repair up you could easily be looking at a new liner!
If you do not detect a leak around the fittings, you will need to search the liner itself. A lot of vinyl liners have a pattern on the walls or bottom which can make it difficult to see a hole. Sometimes by running your hand over the floor and walls you may feel a tear or puncture that's not easily visible. If you have a friend who is a diver, he or she can do the job a lot easier with a tank than you can by holding your breath. Note: only certified divers should be using diving gear, even in a pool. Sometimes there is a depression on the floor which might indicate erosion caused by the flow of water. After finding the leak it is an easy matter to patch, using a vinyl patch kit and following the directions.
Source: About.com Swimming
Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn. My God, do you learn. - C.S. Lewis
Life is usually all about how you handle Plan B. - Jack3Beans
Listen without defending; Speak without offending - FaithinAK
I'm off to have breakfast with 2 friends, for one of their birthday's - sounds yummy huh !?! Yep, I'm looking forward to it !
Full day again, another friend coming over for lunch, haven't seen her in months !
Kids have friends over to play this afternoon, and then this year's last hockey practice. Should be fun !
Tomorrow kids are off with H till Sunday, but I think I'm pretty much fully booked for the weekend. AND, I would love to get my hands on my wardrobe cupboards, they need some serious cleaning and clearing OUT !!!
Take care guys xxx
Love Cinders xxx
"In the depths of my winter, I realized there is within me an invincible summer" Albert Camus
I think it may be finally sinking in to my head that this is all not about ow.
Today D9's boyfriends (platonic !!) mother told me (we know each other reasonably well), that she knows ow !!!! That she is in far way related through her husbands family !! OMG !!
She told me that ow left to go and see Australia because of her feelings for H, (wow, what a way to win him over...she made herself even MORE wanted that way !!) She told me that ow's parents did not like it one bit to start off with...but that now they are trying to accept it for ow's sake. (don't we all end up doing just that...)
Anyway, apparently ow is also VERY young in her mind...very young spirit (I am assuming naive and in love ...)
URGH.
This tells me H left us for that....NOPE, he left because he is foolish enough to THINK that SHE will do for him. He left me, he stopped living with his children. He chose this other life...and I can only be left guessing why. But somewhere inside of me, it tells me that he was not happy, that something inside of him is not right, right now...that maybe it may never be.
I am so sad for him. Sad that he can't see the value of what he put aside. Sad that he will miss out on so many precious moments, only to find out, maybe one day, that you only live once and that what you miss, you miss. Sad that he has broken so many hearts, especially our kid's hearts. Sad that a marriage that could have been good, never stood a chance by him wanting something different. It saddens me to think of it all.
I am greatful to be standing on this side. It has made me feel even stronger and more sure of making the right choices, of loving my kids, friends and family. I still love him. I still would take him back. But I know that for now, I must accept that he is a lost soul.
Love Cinders xxx
"In the depths of my winter, I realized there is within me an invincible summer" Albert Camus
