Don’t chase water! Too many times we get phone calls from contractors who say there is a puddle on the property, but are unable to locate the source of the water.  This scenario happens too frequently and generally happens when the customer insists that the puddle is due to a leaking pool.  Such was the case during a phone call we had only a few days ago.

A pool builder had completed their build approximately 6 months ago and the pool had been refilled and all was great.  Keep in mind that the pool needed to be refilled manually, but the owner never added water.  Then the call came from the homeowner who stated there was a puddle that was always filled with water.  The builder went back out, pumped out the water and watched as it filled right before their eyes.  The builder hired an outside company to perform a leak detection….the results, no leak was able to be located.

The builder performed a bucket test and noted that the bucket and pool both lost the same amount in the same time period.  Unfortunately the owner still insisted that the pool was losing water and hired their own company who said there was a leak.  The outside franchise company did not supply a written report to the owner.  When asked to supply the information provided by the company who checked for the leak, the builder was given information to a plumbing company.

When the company was contacted by the builder, the information provided was that they were unable to locate where the leak was coming from, but they insisted there was a leak.  The owner admittedly did not have to add water to the pool and the service company stated they did not have problems maintaining chemical content in the pool.

Our advice to the builder, test the chemical content in the water.  Our next conversation with the builder was that they went back out and tested the water.  The results were in, there were no pool chemicals in the puddle and the homeowner was furious.  After performing a bit more detective work, the builder found that after the pool was completely finished, the homeowner had an additional concrete slab poured and did not disclose this information to the builder.

So what was the water you ask?  Turns out it was wastewater!