Short answer
A pool technician or a specialist leak detection service. Do the bucket test first: it separates evaporation from a leak in a day, costs nothing, and is the first thing a technician will ask whether you have done.
What to do before anyone arrives
- Do the bucket test. Fill a bucket, mark the water level inside it and the pool level, stand the bucket on a step so it is partly submerged, and compare the drop after 24 hours with the pump off. Equal drop is evaporation; a bigger drop in the pool is a leak.
- Repeat with the pump running. A leak that is worse with the pump on points at the pressure side plumbing.
- Note where the level stops falling, if it does. A level that stabilises at the skimmer or at a light usually identifies the leak.
- Look for wet ground, a patch of unusually green lawn, or subsidence near the pool.
What to ask when you book
- Have you done a pressure test on the plumbing, or only inspected the shell?
- Is this the shell, the plumbing, or a fitting?
- Can it be repaired in place or does it need excavation?
What changes the price
No dollar figures here: this directory holds no price data and an invented range is worse than none. What follows is what makes one of these jobs cost more than the same job next door, which is the part you can actually use when comparing quotes.
- Whether the leak is in a fitting, in the plumbing, or in the shell.
- Whether excavation is needed to reach the pipework.
- Whether the pool has to be drained, which brings its own risks and costs.
What you can do yourself
Is this licensed work?
Not separately licensed. Structural repairs to a pool shell are building work.
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state the work is happening in.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICBuilding and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
Licensing thresholds and certificate requirements differ by state and change with amending regulation, so this page describes the mechanism rather than quoting a figure. The regulator’s own page is the current answer.
Common questions
- Who should I hire for a pool that is losing water
- A pool technician or a specialist leak detection service. Do the bucket test first: it separates evaporation from a leak in a day, costs nothing, and is the first thing a technician will ask whether you have done.
- How much water loss is normal?
- Evaporation varies enormously with temperature, wind, humidity and whether the pool is covered, so there is no single normal figure — which is exactly why the bucket test exists. It compares your pool with a control sitting in the same conditions, which removes the weather from the question.
Find a pool service business near you
1,444 pool services in this directory, ranked on published evidence rather than on advertising.
Who to hire for
General information about who does what, not advice about your specific job. Licensing, consumer law and council rules differ by state and change; the regulator for your state is the current source. More guides to hiring a tradesperson.