What causes a swimming pool to leak? And how can I help prevent a leak?

We've been providing professional swimming pool leak detection services all over Houston since 1998. We've found a lot of leaking pools since then. In case you haven't noticed, Houston has some really gumbo-like soil. This causes a lot of sinking and settling on foundations of homes, pool decks, and pools themselves. The south is a great place to have a swimming pool, but the ground tends to cause a lot of leaks. A lot of times swimming pools will leak even though you see no water on the ground. This is because the water finds the path of least resistance and goes Underground. Unlike a lot of other areas in the United States which have a more rocky soil. On top of the fact that there are a lot of landscape and natural trees in the Houston area. Roots can be a huge problem on swimming pool plumbing. They can actually grow into the pipes or push up on the pipes causing them to break.

Does your swimming pool have a caulking like material surrounding the pool in between the deck and coping? It is supposed to. A lot of times that caulking or Mastic is damaged or removed and can cause water to settle down in between the wall of the pool and the ground. This causes the dirt to get washed away away from the pool which can lead to additional settling of the pool. If your pool is missing the joint sealant or caulking make sure you get that replaced as soon as you can.

We have seen over the years many different reasons for leaking pools. But one of the major ones, even in houston, is winter freezes. It is very important that you run your pool pump when you suspect a freeze. Even a light freeze can cause pipes to burst. To protect types above ground you may consider adding some sort of shelter over your swimming pool equipment.

A lot of pools get their Plumbing damaged by people digging in their yard or installing fencing. Be very careful when you are digging up around your pool. Just the slightest nick of a shovel can cause a cracked pipe and leaking pool. If you are planning on building a pool it is very helpful if you can take pictures of all the plumbing before the deck gets poured. This way you know where the plumbing is at and will also help any swimming pool Leak Detectors in finding links.

Another thing that can cause broken pipes is turning a valve the wrong way. Make sure that you know how your pool plumbing flows to prevent this from happening. We have seen pool plumbing explode because somebody turned a valve the wrong way. This can also be very dangerous.

While these are the most common reasons a pool can leak, there are still plenty of others. One final thing that causes quite the number of brittle and broken skimmers is putting chlorine tablets in your skimmer basket. Chlorine is a very destructive chemical that can leave your skimmers very brittle. Make sure that you use either an inline chlorinator or a floating chlorinator if you use chlorine tablets.

We hope this helps you in preventing any costly repairs. If you find yourself in an unlucky situation where your swimming pool is leaking, please don't hesitate to give us a call.