Pools and spas
Pool and spa leak repair in Phoenix
A pool repair is not a house repair with water in it. Where the leak sits decides everything about how it is fixed — and whether anything has to be emptied, cut or lifted at all.
Shell or plumbing: the fork that decides everything
A pool loses water in one of two places, and the repair for each has almost nothing in common with the other.
The structure is the shell and everything set into it: plaster and gunite, the tile line, the skimmer throat where it meets the shell, the light niche and its conduit, return fittings, steps and the main drain. The plumbing is the buried pipe between the pool and the equipment pad, plus the pad itself.
Structural repairs happen at the pool. Plumbing repairs happen under the deck, or by going around it. So we settle the question before anyone picks up a tool — starting with equipment pad or the pool itself and pool and spa leak detection.
Shell and fitting repairs
A good many of these are done in the water. A skimmer throat that has separated, a cracked light niche, a weeping return fitting, a split in plaster — these are repaired underwater, at the spot, without lowering the pool. The trade-off is cosmetic and we say it in advance: a repair is a repair, not a resurface. New material against plaster that has spent a long time in Arizona sun will be visible if you look for it.
Plumbing repairs
Once a line has been isolated, pressure tested and located, there are two ways forward: open the deck at the failure and patch the decking afterwards, or abandon that run and reroute a new line by a different path so the decking is never cut. A reroute means a longer run on a route that is not the original; a deck cut means a patch in a surface that will not match. Once we can see your deck it is rarely a close call.
Why we would rather not drain your pool
Draining is not a neutral act in Phoenix, and it is never our opening move.
An empty shell has nothing holding it down
Water in the ground pushes up on a pool that has no water in it. After monsoon rain, or on a flood-irrigated lot where the yard is deliberately flooded, that pressure is real and an emptied pool can shift or lift. It is uncommon and it is nobody's idea of a good afternoon, which is why no pool should be emptied casually in this valley.
Plaster does not enjoy the sun
A surface that has been underwater for a long time does not benefit from days of June sunlight. Drying, checking and cracking are real risks, and they arrive on a shell that was sound to begin with.
So we lower only as far as the repair needs
Most locating is done with the pool full, and so are many repairs. Where one genuinely needs the water below a fitting, we take it to that level and no further, and you hear it first.
The decisions that are yours
- Repair the run or reroute it. If the pipe failed because something moved or something struck it, a repair at the fault is sound. If the pool plumbing is original and this is not its first failure, a new line on a clean route is a different kind of answer.
- Cut the deck or go around it. Travertine, pavers, cool decking and stamped concrete all patch differently, and none of them invisibly. Shorter route or untouched surface is your call, not ours.
- Sequence, if the shell is near the end of its life. A patch now and a resurface later is a reasonable order, and so is waiting if a resurface is already booked. We do not resurface pools, so we have nothing to sell you either way.
What the ground here does to pool plumbing
Monsoon storms wet the ground hard and then it dries hard, and soil that moves takes decks and rigid pool plumbing with it. A deck that has settled at one corner is a common reason a line that was fine for a long time is suddenly not. On flood-irrigated lots the same cycle runs on a schedule. None of that is a reason for alarm — it is a reason to look at the whole picture before deciding whether one repair is the end of the story.
Worth saying plainly: leak detection and leak repair is all we do. We are not a general plumbing company — no sewer work, no gas lines, no water heaters, no drain cleaning, no fixture or appliance installs. On the pool side that means the shell, the fittings, the buried lines and the equipment pad — not remodels or resurfacing.
Questions we get every week
Straight answers
Do you have to break up my deck?
Not always, and not first. If the failure is in a buried line under decking, the choice is between opening the deck at the located point and abandoning that run for a new line on a different route. Which one is better depends on what your deck is made of and where the pipe goes. We will show you the location and both options before anything is cut.
Can the repair be done with the pool full?
Many can. Skimmer throats, light niches, return fittings and cracks in the shell are routinely repaired underwater at the spot. Where the water genuinely has to come down below a fitting, we lower it to that level only, and we explain why before we do it.
The pool only loses water when the pump is running. What does that mean?
It points at the pressure side — the lines out to the returns, which only carry pressure while the equipment runs. Loss that is worse with the pump off points at the suction side and the structure instead. That one observation changes what we arrive set up to do, and you can test it before we come.
My spa loses water but the pool does not.
That narrows things quickly, because a spa shares only part of the system. It can be the spa shell or its fittings, the spillway, or a valve at the pad letting water move between the two when it should not. It is a useful symptom, because it rules a great deal out before anyone arrives.
Where we work
Across the Valley
Pools and spas across the metro, from Buckeye to Mesa and Anthem to Chandler.
Related pages
Start here
Text us a photo of the equipment pad
A picture of the pad, the water line against the tile and the wet area around the deck is usually enough for us to say what is likely going on.
Not sure what to photograph?
The pad, the skimmer and the pool at its current level. Three pictures and a sentence.
Send it in writing