Wednesday, September 30, 2009

A mere coincidence?

With all the rain we have been having recently, people’s pools have been filling up and up. That was certainly the case with mine. In fact it had got to the point where I thought I should drain a few inches away to waste to avoid the pool overflowing.

I didn’t get round to draining the excess water so, with all the rain on Monday, I expected my pool to be full to the brim but it wasn’t. The level had stayed the same which alerted me to the fact that I had a problem.

It stopped raining on Monday night so no more water was going into the pool. By yesterday morning the level of water had dropped which confirmed what I suspected: I had a leak somewhere. I closed the valve which connects the skimmer to the pool pump to isolate that as the cause and waited to see what happened.

Sure enough, the water level has now dropped to the bottom of the skimmer and the box inside is dry which confirms that the leak is somewhere in that pipe. Thankfully, it hasn’t dropped any further which suggests that the other pipes are OK *.

Fortunately we know of a builder who can repair the pipe for me. We know this because he has already done the same repair for several people on the estate - all of whom had their pools constructed via the builder, Star Sol.

That leads me to wonder, “is it a mere coincidence that several of us have experienced the same problem years after the pools were completed?”

* The pipe to the skimmer is only a foot or two under the terrace and is also the shortest of the pipes from the pool box to the pool. To replace is involves taking up the terrace tiles, digging down below the pipe, replacing it and then making good. A pain in the butt but it could be worse.

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