The Bill Moved, The Level Did Not
The classic estate version. The auto-fill quietly replaces the leak every day, so the only thing that changes is what you are billed for water.
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An estate pool rarely tells you it is leaking, because the auto-fill valve keeps topping it up and the loss shows on the water bill instead of the waterline. We rule out evaporation first, pressure-test the suction and return lines separately, then trace the leak to one chalked point, so nothing gets lifted on a guess.
Tell us roughly how much water you are losing and whether the auto-fill is on, and we will phone you back with a clear, upfront price before we start.
With an auto-fill valve running, the level will look fine. These are the tells that show up anyway.
The classic estate version. The auto-fill quietly replaces the leak every day, so the only thing that changes is what you are billed for water.
Switch the auto-fill off, run the bucket test for 24 hours, and if the pool drops further than the bucket, the difference is a leak and not a Boland summer.
A pool that drops to a certain level and stops is pointing straight at the leak, which usually sits at the skimmer throat, the light niche or a return fitting.
Losing water while the pump runs and holding when it stops puts the fault on the pressure side, in the return line or its fittings rather than the shell.
Bubbles at the returns, or a pump that keeps losing prime, means the suction line is drawing air in at the same place water is getting out.
Grass or planting that stays lush and spongy next to the pool through a dry February is often a buried line emptying quietly into the bed.
Pearl Valley sits on the Berg River between Paarl and Franschhoek, and almost everything on it was built this century. For a pool, that changes the odds completely. The cracked, moved marbelite shell that accounts for so many leaks in old-town Paarl is rarely what we find here, because these pools have not had thirty years of clay soil swelling and shrinking underneath them. What we find instead is a fitting or a pipe: the skimmer throat where the plastic meets the concrete, the light niche and its conduit, the main drain, or one of the buried suction and return lines running out to the pump housing.
The auto-fill valve is the other thing that makes an estate pool different, and it is the reason these leaks run for so long. On a home without one, you notice a dropping level within a week. Here the valve simply replaces whatever escapes, every day, without comment. The leak carries on, the garden beside it slowly gets wetter, and the first real signal is a water bill that has climbed for no reason anyone can name. If you are away or letting the house for part of the year, that can run for months before anyone joins the two facts together.
Which is why we test before we touch anything. The planting, paving and decking around a pool on this estate are a serious part of what the property is worth, and the quickest way to turn a modest repair into a landscaper's invoice is to go looking for a pipe with a spade. We isolate the suction and return lines and pressure-test them separately to find out which one is losing, then trace that line acoustically until we can chalk one square metre on the surface. Only that comes up. It is the same method we use for leaks inside the house on our leak detection page, and the same one behind our wider pool leak detection service across Paarl.
We are based in Paarl in Lemoenkloof, a short run down the R301, so Pearl Valley, Val de Vie and Boschenmeer are inside our ordinary working day rather than a special trip. See everything we do on the estate on our Pearl Valley plumber page.
What matters when someone is about to work around a pool and a garden you have spent real money on.
The leak trace is priced before we start, and the repair quoted separately once we know exactly what it is.
A short run down the R301 from our Paarl base, so a call-out here is routine rather than a special journey.
Contractor access cleared at the gate before we arrive, and the work kept inside the hours the estate allows.
We test and trace to one marked point first. The paving only comes up where the leak actually is.
What estate owners ask us most before we come out to a pool.
Run the bucket test before you call anyone. Stand a bucket of pool water on a step so the level inside and outside starts the same, mark both, switch the auto-fill off and leave it 24 hours. Evaporation takes the same amount from both, so anything the pool has lost beyond the bucket is a leak. The auto-fill is the part that matters here: on an estate home it quietly tops the pool up every day and hides the loss completely, so the first sign is usually the water bill rather than the water level. Our step-by-step guide to the bucket test walks through it.
Almost never in the shell. Pearl Valley homes were built this century, so the structure is generally sound and the leak is in the fittings or the pipework: the skimmer throat where it meets the concrete, the light niche and its conduit, the main drain, or one of the buried suction and return lines running out to the pump. That is good news, because a fitting or a pipe is a repair rather than a relining job.
That is the entire point of the method. We isolate and pressure-test the suction and return lines separately to establish which one is losing, then trace that line acoustically until we can chalk the exact point on the surface. Only then does anything come up, and only over that one spot. On these properties the paving and planting around a pool are a serious part of what the house is worth, so digging on a hunch is not an option.
Yes. We book contractor access at the gate before we arrive and keep the work inside the hours the estate allows, so nothing about the visit becomes your problem to arrange. We are based in Paarl in Lemoenkloof, a short run down the R301, so Pearl Valley sits inside our ordinary working day rather than being a special trip.
Normally, yes, and it is a regular part of the work here because plenty of the homes we attend are let out or stood empty for part of the year. You get photographs of what we actually found, where it was and what it needed, so an owner who is elsewhere can make the call on the repair without taking anyone's word for it.
We do. The trace is priced upfront and the repair quoted separately once we know what it is, so you can see the two costs apart. Skimmer throats, light niches, fittings and buried suction and return lines are all repairs we carry out ourselves. If what we find turns out to be structural rather than plumbing, we will say so plainly rather than sell you a fix that will not hold.
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