Starting the deck

With the spa up and running beautifully, it was time to start on the structure for the deck that surrounds the spa.

Tommy put a piece of plywood between the rafters that will hold the joists, but that was only temporary and did not go all the way to the edges of the basic deck structure, which made it not secure enough for me.

I did a plan that laid out a plan for the structure that included the placement of the concrete piers, rafters and spacing of the joists between the rafters.

I wanted to get the rafters on the west and south side of the spa installed first so I could put plywood sheathing on as a temporary deck. I will now work on the east and north side rafters and joists where I will also begin the placement of the final deck material (which I have not decided on yet).

The plywood deck will allow us to use the spa while I work on the rest of the deck from the opposite direction.

I bought a solar cover that helps keep the water from losing heat while generating heat at the same time.

I've spent some time over by the equipment leveling the area next to it to put a small shed where I will keep the spa supplies.

It has also been a time to re-aquaint myself with the rest of the backyard. I've had some time to trim and weed and generally clean up the "Work area" that got a little ignored over the last few weeks.

I'm definitely taking the time to enjoy the main accomplishment of completing the spa. It turns out to be a great place to make plans for the rest of the yard!

Start me up!

My strategy for starting up the spa was to energize one of the three systems at a time. I would check the waterfall, circulation system and jet pump individually in case there were any problems. There was a lot of pollen and small debris floating on the top of the water, but it was time to flip on the breaker for the waterfall pump and see if it worked.

The waterfall has a suction line from the spa, a line to and up the back wall of the spa to the waterfall manifold built into the wall, and a bypass line back to the spa in order to adjust the water flow out of the waterfall. I opened all of the valves to begin with, and flipped on the breaker with a broom handle. I looked the other way, too. I don’t like that kind of electrical stuff.

No sparks. I went and turned on the waterfall.

Nothing. No wait, there is something. It works! And it didn’t just work, it worked perfectly! I adjusted the bypass until the water fell from the wall in a steady, clear sheet of water that entered the spa water with the sound of, well, a waterfall.

With the waterfall working, I knew I should energize the rest of the equipment to begin the filter circulation and clean the spa water. I flipped the breaker (again with the broom handle) and the system was on! Once the priming mode had passed it immediately began to circulate and heat the water.

As part of the start up mode, all of the systems would automatically turn on for a short period to be checked. On came the blower. Bubbles. Lots of bubbles. Wonderful bubbles!

Lastly came the spa jets. They came on and worked for a while, but then I noticed 3 small steady squirts coming from the wet end of the pump. This can’t be good. I stopped the pump, and the jets didn’t come back on when I tried them later. The pump would turn on, but no water came out of the jets.

This was the first weekend in March. I spent the next few days corresponding with Gene The Spa Guy, trying to figure out what was wrong with the pump, other than the leaks in the wet end housing that I knew I would probably have to get replaced.

I flipped off the breaker to the control unit, closed the valves and disconnected the pump from the plumbing lines. I moved it to where I could work on it. I know nothing about pumps.

I took off the housing to inspect the impeller to see if it had somehow become disconnected and spinning freely. It hadn’t. While I had the housing off I decided to try and fix the leaks with my new favorite product-Plast-aid. After all, it is suppose to work on various plastics, and the housing appeared to be some sort of composite. I could see the crack causing the leak. It was small and it appeared to be in a place that I could reach from the inside as well as the outside. This could save me a lot of trouble and expense if it worked. I prepared the solution and made the patch on both sides of the housing which has held so far.

Still no solution to the pump mystery. I reinstalled the pump, opened the valves, flipped the breaker, pushed the pump button and heard the motor go on, but the water stood still. The problem with the pump didn’t make sense to me. How could it work to start with, then turn on but not be pushing any water?

I had Tommy brush away any debris from the suction covers. I tried aiming a garden hose into the suction line. I tried to remove the suction cap, but I was unsuccessful.

Gene had reminded me that the pump had to be below the water line in the spa to work. I had installed the pump below where I thought the water line would be, way before there was water in the spa. Perhaps it was not below that line. It would not work if it was even slightly above that line, because air would be present in the plumbing. If I could somehow purge the line of the air it would work regardless of if it was actually above the water level.

Tommy and I were trying to work our way through this when I told him the possible problem with the location of the pump above the water line. To which he suggested “Why don’t you just raise the water level in the spa?” It really is amazing I've gotten this far on my own.

Why does that seem so elementary now? I put some more water in the spa, but it still didn’t work yet. “Take the suction side plumbing off of the pump and open the valve until the air is flushed out and the water flows” he said. Well, he was on a role, and the least I could do was humor him, even though I knew there was obviously water in the line because it had leaked. So I did what he said and opened the valve after I'd taken the line off of the motor. Out came this huge burst of air before the water. I did it again, and again air preceded the water, but not as much. I hooked it back up with great anticipation.

What a moment we had together when that motor turned on and pushed beautiful water through the jets. We had a working spa.

After nearly two years I had to stop and think for a moment. Have I forgotten something? Then it softly hit me. It was done.

I found a leak or two

Fast forward past this entry to the good news in the next entry that the spa is done and working great if you don't wish to read sad stories about your friend Ted.

It has been 2 months since I started finding and fixing leaks. I'm not at liberty to say how many leaks I found and fixed. Let's just say there were more than a few, and I've gotten pretty good at finding them and fixing them. I guess I won't have any of you asking me to help you with any new plumbing!

The leaks are still a mystery to me. They were all sort-of seeping type leaks-not enough in many cases to even drip, but just seep around the unions where the pvc pipes were supposed to be glued together. I don't know if it was the glue (yeah right), or perhaps it was a matter of not getting enough leverage to handle the larger plumbing. I had to make multiple connections at times, but there were leaks in other places too. I had meticulously planned out, measured, dry fitted and primed every piece. But let's face it, I did a shitty job.

When I found a leak I would go about fixing it the same way. I identified which size pipe was leaking, usually either a 1 1/2" air line (that's correct-water is in the air line when air isn't-surprised me too) or a 2" water line. I cut a 1/2" wide ring from the next bigger pipe, then cut through it so it would snap over the smaller pipe. I also cut a ring out of the next size bigger pipe to go over the seam between the first ring and the fitting. I lowered the water level so the area of the leak would dry, which sometimes took a day. I sanded the pipe and primed everything, then put NEW glue everywhere. I slid on the first ring as tight as I could against the fitting and tightened a hose clamp around it. The glue doesn't stick to the metal clamp, so I could take it off when the glue dried. I put the second ring over the seam between the first ring and the fitting, glued and clamped it.

I fixed all of the leaks in first level, then raised the water and waited. None of my repairs leaked again, but I would find new leaks when I raised the water level.

I got very tired of bailing the water out of the spa to lower the level, and I didn't like wasting the water, so I developed a plan to save it. I cleaned out 3 big trash cans and 4 muck buckets. I bailed the water into these containers on the edge of the spa when I needed to lower the water level, then dumped them back in the spa when I wanted to raise the level.

I worried that the water already in the spa plus the water in and out of the containers would get nasty over the course of the repairs, but it tested fine and I didn't have to drain out all of the water when I started up the spa.

I continued up the 7 levels of plumbing, past the midway point and on to the two highest levels, fixing leaks with a running commentary on my level of plumbing expertise, or lack there of, until I noticed a definite darkening of the dirt where all of the plumbing to the equipment levels out before it attaches to the pumps. Sure enough, there was a significant leak under the remaining dirt that covered these lines, which I thought did not need to be uncovered because they were straight connections that I could not have possibly screwed up. Wrong again.

I bailed out the water until the level was below the leak, and dug out the mud around the area. I couldn't believe what I found. There was a connection to a 45 degree fitting in the line from the jet pump that did not appear to have any primer or glue on it at all, and therefore had literally just pulled apart. Who would be stupid enough to miss that? I had planned it out so precisely to allow all the pipes to come into the equipment with minimal angles that might restrict water flow. So precisely that I couldn’t get to the problem connection. I had to cut the line and add some pipe, but it didn’t leak again.

My confidence in my plumbing work was completely shattered. I decided that I had to be able to see all of the plumbing in case I found more leaks. I removed all of the pea gravel that I had carefully placed over the dirt that covered the lines to the equipment, then I completely dug out the rest of the lines going to the equipment. That doesn’t sound so bad when I read it back to myself, but it was slow work with only a trowel and no leverage. Of course there weren't any other leaks in those lines.

I brought the water level up past the top two plumbing lines only to witness the first leak that I had originally found and fixed was dripping steadily. It turned out to be leaking in a different place than where I had fixed. This leak was coming from a crack in a molded valley underneath the jet housing. This was not the same type of leak as the others, and I would not be able to fix it the same way. I lowered the water level and waited for the area to dry.

I went online to look for something to fix the leak. I found a product that sounded pretty good-almost too good, to use on my type of leak.

Like so many of the experiences that I have had during this project, this product and the man that invented it, turned out to be a good story.

The product is called Plast-aid, and it works by molecularly bonding to many types of plastic products, especially pvc. It’s a 2 part product that begins as a liquid when mixed, then shortly becomes a gel, and finally ends up as hard as a rock!

It got into the crack as a liquid then built on itself when it hardened for strength. No leak.

I decided to try and fix a couple other very slow seepages that showed up after I had filled the water way past their level, but Plast-aid was suppose to work even when water is present. These leaks were in the air lines in the middle level, so I had the idea to start the blower to clear the lines of water to insure a successful repair. I prepared the Plast-aid solution and began to fix the leak. The solution entered and covered the leak, but the blower that cleared the line of water also blew the patch right out of the leak! I turned off the blower and luckily I could still work the patch, so I fixed the leak before the water could displace the patch.

It now appeared that all of the leaks were indeed fixed. I could now focus on energizing the equipment and seeing if this thing would really work. But first I disconnected all of the equipment to put Teflon on all of the threads and Vaseline on all of the O-rings in the compression fittings, so I could make sure they didn’t leak when I opened the valves.

They leaked. But I fixed ‘em.

The time had come to add some electricity.

Testing for leaks

After the final inspection I thought I was ready to go. The first step before I energize the system is to do a static test of the lines and equipment connections. That means to close all of the valves to the equipment and fill the spa with water and wait to see if the water level stays the same or goes down. If it stays the same over the course of a day, I'm good to go. If it doesn't-there is a leak somewhere that needs to be fixed before continuing the start up process.

You may recall that sometime in the summer I had a cracked jet housing on the outside of the spa. I knew at the time that the air line which is on top was cracked, so I fixed it. But when the spa began to lose water after the water level went above the top jet line, I checked the water pipe on that housing and it has a slow leak.

After a visual inspection, it appears that the leak may come from a crack in the crease at the "T" on the bottom of the housing. It's hard to believe that the housing could crack where it appears to be leaking. The good news is that my glue job was so good that the crease became the weak point. I'm concerned that this weak point could break again, but I'm confident that the solutions that Gene has suggested will be successful.

I could open the valves and test the connections to the equipment while I have water in the spa, or wait until I fix the leak and do it then.

I held off for a couple of days to see if the water level continued to drop past the leaking top jet level.

It did. I obviously have another leak.
At this point I was very discouraged. I was so meticulous about all of the glue joints. How could there be another leak? What if the leak wasn't in the plumbing? Could the spa itself be leaking after all of the time, trouble and expense I went to so it didn't? I was meticulous about that too. Then what would I do?

If there was another leak in the plumbing without even using it yet, what would happen when the plumbing is under pressure? What happens if (when) there is an earthquake?

I decided to remove all of the dirt surrounding the spa so I could observe the plumbing and the spa walls when I refilled the spa and tested it again.

I suppose I shouldn’t have filled in the dirt in the first place, but I was anxious to get rid of the dirt. I'm not going to refill the dirt around the spa when the leaks are fixed. I'm going to build the deck over the trenches so I can service any future problems.
The second leak has turned out to be on the lowest level (of course). It is an area that I had to make three simultaneous connections while in a difficult position where I didn't have very good leverage. The connection from the housing to the body going through the spa is crooked and leaks very slowly. I actually suspected that connection when I had a hard time threading the jet housing because of the angle.
It amazes me that a small leak like it appears to be can drip enough to drop the water level after a few days, but so far there does not seem to be any other leaks. The walls are dry and the other connections seem solid.
I’m letting the water drop below the bottom row so the area to be fixed will be dry. Then I plan on filling the spa above each level, observing the water level and checking for any other leaks. Then I can continue to test the system. I can hardly wait to see what that will bring!

I've also unfortunately learned an additional lesson: My right wrist seems to have had enough digging, and has painfully swollen to where I should not use it for a while. But I need to finish clearing out the remaining dirt from the plumbing before I can fix the leaks and refill the spa. I'll just have to see how it goes. Perhaps I can go with my left!