Plumbers in Bulverde, Texas

Where pool plumbing ends and house plumbing begins

Two trades meet at the equipment pad, and knowing which side a problem sits on saves a wasted visit.

Circulation is the pool company's system. Skimmers, main drains, returns, the pump, filter and the lines between them are pool plumbing, and a specialist with pressure testing and leak detection for pool shells is the right call for those.

The potable supply to the pool is ours. The autofill line, the hose bib used to top up, and any dedicated fill line come off the house supply and are subject to the same rules as everything else drinking water touches.

The gas run to a pool heater is ours. Sizing, sediment trap, shutoff and pressure testing on that line are gas work, and a pool heater is a significant load that often reveals an undersized system.

Backwash discharge is a drainage question. Where filter backwash goes is governed locally, and connecting it to a sanitary drain, a storm drain or the ground are not interchangeable choices.

A pool's water loss is not always a pool leak. Evaporation in a Hill Country summer is substantial, and a supply line leak near the pool can look exactly like a shell leak. Establishing which before anyone breaks concrete is the whole point.

Ask what was permitted when the pool went in. The gas run, the electrical and the backflow protection on the fill line were all part of that original installation, and on an older or owner built pool any of the three may never have been inspected. The county file answers it.

Autofill lines, backflow and the bill

This is the single most common pool related plumbing fault, and it is invisible by design.

An autofill is a float valve on a potable line. It keeps the level up automatically, which means a stuck valve feeds the pool continuously and nobody notices because the pool looks correct.

It needs backflow protection. A line that terminates at or below pool water level is a cross connection, and pool water must never be able to travel back into the house supply. This is the detail most often missing on a retrofitted autofill.

A hose left in the pool is the same hazard. Topping up with a garden hose lying in the water, with no vacuum breaker on the tap, is a textbook cross connection. The fitting that prevents it costs very little.

A high bill with a full pool points at the autofill. Isolate the autofill supply, then watch the meter. If the meter stops, you have found it, and that is a fifteen minute test rather than a leak search.

Freeze protection matters on the fill line. A small diameter potable line running to the pool is exposed, and it bursts before anything else on the property does.

Know where its shutoff is. Many autofills are fed from a valve nobody has identified since installation, which makes a simple isolation into an afternoon's hunting.

Meter the pool separately if it is a real cost. On a large pool with an autofill, a submeter on the fill line turns an argument about the bill into a number, and it shows a stuck valve within days rather than at the end of a quarter.

Heaters, water loss and proving where it goes

The two questions we get asked most are whether the pool is leaking and why the heater will not run properly.

Measure the loss before diagnosing it. A bucket test compares pool loss against evaporation over the same period, and it costs nothing. Without it, a hot dry week is indistinguishable from a leak.

Check the equipment pad before the shell. Unions, valve bodies, pump seals and the heater connections are where losses most often occur, and they are all visible and inexpensive compared with shell work.

A wet patch away from the pool may be your supply line. A potable line failure near a pool deck produces a soaking that gets attributed to the pool for weeks. Isolating the house supply and watching the meter separates them.

Gas pool heaters are a real load. Adding one frequently requires a larger gas line or a dedicated run, and a heater that will not reach temperature or drops out when another appliance fires is usually starved rather than broken.

Winterise the exposed parts. Above ground pipe, the autofill, exposed valves and the heater are what a hard freeze takes out, and isolating and draining them is a short job with a large payoff.

Watch the ground between the equipment pad and the house. A supply line failure along that route surfaces on the path of least resistance, which is often the pool deck, and it gets blamed on the shell for weeks. Isolating the house supply and watching the meter separates the two in minutes.

How a call plays out

The phone is answered around the clock, holidays included. Tell us whether the problem is water loss, a high bill, a wet patch, or the heater, and whether the pool has an automatic fill. That tells us whether this is ours, a pool specialist's, or a question we can settle with a meter reading.

Bulverde and this part of Comal County are on our daily route, with overnight dispatch. We test before anyone talks about breaking concrete, fit backflow protection on fill lines as standard, and will tell you honestly when the right call is a pool leak specialist rather than us.