How a diagnostic works
Four stages, one fixed price, a written report within 24 hours. Here is what happens from the moment you book to the moment you know where the water is going.
A pool can lose water for a dozen reasons — a hairline crack in the shell, a perished return fitting, a split suction line a metre underground, a failed skimmer throat. A dye test near the waterline finds some of them. It misses the rest.
Our diagnostic works through every layer in order — measure, isolate, trace, then dive — so the answer is the actual source, not the first thing that looked likely.
Every booking moves through the same sequence. Stages one to three are on every diagnostic; the dive is included on Tier B.
You enter your postcode and what the pool is doing — how fast it drops, whether the pump runs dry, where you have seen damp. We match the right tier to those symptoms and show your exact total, including any travel surcharge for your postcode, before you confirm. A $99 deposit holds the slot.
The technician starts by establishing how much water the pool is actually losing against what evaporation alone explains, then isolates the plumbing from the shell with a pressure test, then traces any line leak underground with an acoustic ground microphone. Each step narrows where the water is going before anyone gets in.
This is the part most providers skip. When dye and pressure tests have not named the source, the technician puts on an air-supplied breathing apparatus and gets in the water. A PADI Open Water certified diver inspects the shell, the fittings, the main drain and the structural joints at depth — the places a poolside test cannot reach. Find no leak on Tier B and we refund $100.
Within 24 hours of the visit you get a written report: where the water is going, the evidence behind it, photos, and a repair quote where the leak is repairable. It is formatted to stand up to a Water Corporation high-bill dispute and an insurance claim — the two places a clear finding actually saves you money.
Four methods, each answering a different question. Together they separate evaporation from a real leak, and a plumbing leak from a shell leak.
Above 38°C in a Perth summer, evaporation alone runs about 5–8mm a day. We measure the pool’s real loss against the day’s conditions, so we know whether the drop is weather or a leak before anything else happens. A pool dropping a centimetre a day in mild weather is losing water somewhere it shouldn’t.
We seal and pressurise the suction and return lines separately and watch whether each holds. A line that bleeds off pressure has a leak underground; a line that holds is ruled out. This is how we tell a plumbing leak from a shell leak without digging up the yard on a hunch.
When a buried line is leaking, water escaping under pressure makes a sound. We sweep the ground above the pipe run with an acoustic ground microphone and listen for where that sound peaks — pinning the leak to within a small area so any dig is targeted, not exploratory.
Some leaks are only findable from inside the water — a cracked fitting, a failed main drain seal, a hairline split below the tile line. On Tier B the technician dives the pool on an air-supplied breathing apparatus and inspects the full shell and every fitting at depth, closing the gap a surface test leaves open.
WA permanent water rules allow pool top-up only to replace evaporation. A pool consistently topping above evaporation rates is operating outside the rules — and Water Corporation high-bill alerts often follow. Our written report is formatted to support a Water Corp dispute.
The same report supports an insurance claim where the leak has caused damage. A clear, evidenced finding — what failed, where, and the repair quote — is what turns a diagnosis into a result you can act on.
Same-week slots across the Perth metro. You pick the day and window; the $99 deposit holds it and comes off the total.
Most diagnostics take one to two hours on site, depending on the tier and what the tests turn up. You do not need to be home for the whole visit.
Your written report lands within 24 hours — findings, photos, and a repair quote where the leak is repairable.
We work Perth metro, Two Rocks to Mandurah. If you’re outside, send us a postcode — we’ll let you know honestly whether the trip makes sense for both of us.
Book a fixed-price diagnostic this week, or look at the two tiers first.