I spoke with Earl Brewer, the head of the municipal country recreation center in Wayne County and he told me about his experience calling for a professional technician to find the leak in their country municipal swimming pool. The reason he called was to get a better reference for the job, to call more than one option.
He told me that the pool had been losing water for a while and they suspected it was either due to a previous repair where he thought some epoxy might be failing, or that it was in the plumbing. Either way, they wanted a whole pool leak detection performed that didn’t cause invasive destruction. Sadly, I wasn’t his first call.
He shared, “Our office manager called a franchise company. Their cost to do the job was a $750 minimum just to come out, $375 an hour to work with a 2 hour minimum and an added $140 traveling fee with no guarantees on finding the exact leak. So we paid $890 up front, they took four hours to complete the job so we had an outstanding bill of $750 for a total of $1640 to find the issues. They drilled 3 holes in the deck, pumped the lines with helium and told us there was a leaking pipe but couldn’t tell us where specifically. They did nothing to verify the question of the pool shell stating that it was definitely in the plumbing and offered that for $8000, they would destroy the deck and replace the pipe. They’d already started destroying the deck, we just weren’t happy.”
I immediately referred him to 3 qualified and trained LeakTronics users within 40 miles of his location and he called them. As it turns out, 2 of the technicians were friends and they both agreed to come take a look at the job together because they both wanted to see what the other company had done.
One of the two technicians agreed to take the job for $400. In 20 minutes he found the leak exactly at it’s location in the return line, eleven feet away from where the franchise company drilled holes and with a 15 minute walk around on the pool using the Spot Mic, he addressed that there was a small weeping leak at the previous repair on the pool and that he could address that easily for Mr. Brewer and the county pool.
In an hour, for $400, the leaks were found, the customer was properly serviced and for a fraction of the previous repair quote of $8000, the pool was to be repaired and returned to service.
The point I’m making in sharing this is that you have options. Franchise companies have high overhead and often limited equipment options and training to find the leaks. Pools and residential plumbing are two completely different beasts, and while you maybe find someone trained to test pipes, there is a lot more going on in a pool than just a pipe running under a patio. A Leaktronics equipment user has the most modern equipment available to find modern pool leaks and trained technicians know the fastest and most accurate methods of leak detection for getting the job done right.
Visit https://leaktronics.com and view our Find-A-Pro map for a technician near you or call 818-436-2953 to discuss your situation and get the best advice for leak detection, repairs and to find a qualified contractor to end your mystery in finding out why your pool is losing water.
