Mike's Diving Services

Mike's Diving Services Mike's diving services. Underwater search and recovery. Underwater repairs. Survey and photograph
(1)

This customer had an existing hole, covered with a customer-installed temporary patch. The temporary patch was leaking,...
09/13/2026

This customer had an existing hole, covered with a customer-installed temporary patch. The temporary patch was leaking, I replaced it with a permanent vinyl patch. While that was curing I inspected the liner, and found another leak near the cove, directly below the skimmer. Patched it and finished inspection. Both patches set well, and water pressure helped to bond them into place.

This customer indicated they have water in the grass on the side of the pool. I started my inspection, found no leaks a...
09/13/2026

This customer indicated they have water in the grass on the side of the pool. I started my inspection, found no leaks along the cove or bottom. The side of the pool was "floppy" meaning water was behind the liner on the sides. I located three cuts (one behind the ladder first step, about 1/4", then two additional cuts (a crescent shaped cut 3/8", and a longer 1/2" slice near the bottom). Patched all three and waited until side water drained out and liner firmed up.

This customer with Kayak pool had continued water seepage from beneath the pool. There were no cuts or holes in the lin...
09/12/2026

This customer with Kayak pool had continued water seepage from beneath the pool. There were no cuts or holes in the liner.
The patch I placed around the leaky light fixture (to be replace at a later time) had peeled back. I applied fresh adhesive to this patch and cleaned up the old adhesive residue that had failed to bond.
Then I inspected the main drain. It was leaking. The gaskets were deteriorated. I had the customer shut off the pump and filter, and I removed the gasket ring, revealing not only a deteriorated paper gasket but a hole pierced by small sharp pebble that had gotten under the liner, right between the liner and lower gasket. That hole was leaking in addition to the gaskets leaking. that hole was only visible after removing the top gasket reside.
I prepared a small patch and with adhesive, bonded it to the hole. I placed new gaskets below and above the liner after clearing out old gasket fragments. Top ring in place, and screws in place and properly torqued. The liner firmed up and all water stopped leaking. This customer had very high water bills and this leak is likely typical of a lot of customers with 3+ year old main drains that have had no gasket replacements. Air temperature 87 degrees, water temperature 84 degrees.

This was a prior customer with pool inspection and liner repairs. The main drains on my prior visit had loose ring scre...
09/12/2026

This was a prior customer with pool inspection and liner repairs. The main drains on my prior visit had loose ring screws. I tightened them at least a full turn each, which indicates a deteriorated gasket.

Customer ordered the gaskets specifically for these drains. I removed the old top gasket (wrong one!, just a paper gasket) and both drains, the top gaskets were completely falling apart. The bottom gaskets were the proper ones, but they had shrunk, and the pool installer had placed squares of duct tape over each screw hole (!!) and water was leaking through these duct tape squares, each of which was rotting. I used dye to verify the drains were indeed leaking.

One one of the drains the sand had shifted into a divot. Once I had the cover off an ring off, I used my hand to sweep sand back into place to level it out around the drain.
I installed the bottom and top gaskets and gasket rings, screws torqued properly, all the water under the liner around the drain drained once all the screws were tight, and the sand under the liner firmed up which indicated the gaskets had sealed properly.

09/12/2026

This customer (prior customer) had indicated water loss. It was likely due to evaporation. I did a full liner inspecton. My prior patch was rock solid, firm and fully bonded to the liner. I took a look at the two main drains and checked the gaskets, they are in good shape and main drain rings are firm.
The water loss was about 1/2" over a week period. That's due to evaporation, especially with cooler overnight temperatures.

This customer was still getting leaking. I took a peek behind the pool wall of this part-inground Kayak pool, and stres...
09/12/2026

This customer was still getting leaking. I took a peek behind the pool wall of this part-inground Kayak pool, and stress on the return pipe appears to have cracked the output jet, on the inside of the jet. This jet will need to be replaced. The gasket inside the pool is also deteriorated. This should be done with the water level below the jet, since the jet will have to be removed completely;.
Originally I was going to block off the main drains underwater, because there was still leaking even after main drain gasket replacements.

Returned to this customer's large inground pool, to inspect and replace the main drain gaskets. The top gasket was in f...
09/09/2026

Returned to this customer's large inground pool, to inspect and replace the main drain gaskets. The top gasket was in fair condition, the bottom gasket under the liner was completely deteriorated, and there had been underwater sealer applied to the gasket (just the bottom). I had to use a putty knife to remove the old sealer and deteriorated gasket. This is when I noticed that one of the screw holes had a crack (and that is where the bottom gasket was most deteriorated. I put new gaskets in place and did best to tighten the ring screws. There was still leaking around the three screws which would not fully tighten. I used ketone based adhesive which starts to coagulate when exposed to water. I just kept injecting the adhesive into the leaks until the water stopped flowing and the adhesive set.
Once the drain was back together (and appeared to be sealed) I went to the deep end jet, it's gasket ring was cracked and warped with rust stains underneat.h (with no rubber gasket), and I replaced it with a new gasket ring and gasket.
Customer will fill up the pool to level and check it after the weekend. If this doesn't seal we still have a couple more options on that drain.

I returned to this customer to replace the gaskets on the second main drain. The customer noticed continued water level...
09/04/2026

I returned to this customer to replace the gaskets on the second main drain. The customer noticed continued water level drop, and without a doubt it was both main drains. This one, the gaskets were deteriorated. Top casket was like soil, it just rubbed away. Bottom casket was cracked and deteriorated. I cleaned the surfaces and placed new gaskets skillfully in place, tightened the gasket ring screws properly. This should eliminate water loss from the pool. Air temperature 93 degrees, water temperature 80 degrees.

This customer has a partial inground oval pool, with two main drains. They observed water loss (with bucket test) accou...
09/03/2026

This customer has a partial inground oval pool, with two main drains. They observed water loss (with bucket test) accounting for evaporation. I inspected the liner, and found no leaks (cove, sides and bottom). Liner/pool is three years old and liner is in excellent condition. I inspected the main drains and the area immediately around the main drains was wet, in some places, there was a loss of sand. I took the covers off and found the gasket ring screws were loose--enough to allow a 1mm gap in the "sandwich" between gaskets and liner. This gap was likely because the installer didn't have the arm strength to tighten those screws. I was able to drive them all down at least two more full turns.
If tightening these screws doesn't fix the leaking, I can replace these gaskets underwater, without draining the pool.

This customer, prior customer this year, has had continuing pool leak issues. After thorough search of the liner for le...
09/02/2026

This customer, prior customer this year, has had continuing pool leak issues. After thorough search of the liner for leaks, our conclusion: the main drain line has a confirmed pipe break under the concrete pool deck (inground pool). Water loss occurs and the pool water level settles at the same depth as the main drain pipe crack.
Solution: re-stopper the main drain, until the pipe can be replaced (which involves busting up concrete and repairing the pvc line and laying new deck concrete). Until then the customer will rely on the two pool skimmers and a robot pool cleaner. I also did another full liner inspection, and checked the main drain gaskets (they look intact, gasket ring screws are tight). One of the jet gasket rings has some cracks in it, from prior pool installer over tightening the screws. Light fixtures, same. Photo'd those for documentation. Water temperature 79, air temperature 95 degrees.

Address

Plainfield, IL
60586

Telephone

+18155146525

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Mike's Diving Services posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Mike's Diving Services:

Shortcuts

Share