This whole job started with a simple task, replace the light bulb in the pool. I figured this should be simple and dropped into the water. A quick check and there was one flat head screw that seemed like the obvious choice. There were also 12 other screws that concerned me. I considered the possibility that perhaps the single screw held the cover on the enclosure and that the 12 screws held it to the wall.

I called up the pool repair shop that I have gotten supplies at before and they said that the 12 screws were what held it to the wall. 15 minutes underwater and the whole enclosure came out. I put it onto the surface and then realized that I still needed to remove the one screw for access. The screw was bent which made it more difficult, but it finally budged. Then there were a few screws holding the enclosure sealed.

A quick trip to the pool supply shop(and then a second once since they didn’t have the right bulb at the first) and I had it replaced and dropped in to put it all back together. The enclosure didn’t quite seal to the wall, but I figured it all felt tight and so I left it for the day. By the time I was out there again, the pool had already started to drop a few inches. Not realizing what was going on, I refilled the pool and went on but then a few days later it had dropped again.

At this point it was clearly leaking and no attempts that I made stopped the leak. I called a leak detection and repair shop on recommendations from multiple other pool shops and had him come in. One hundred and twenty five dollars later, he confirmed that I had a leak and there was nothing he could do about it from in the pool. For about $950, he could fix it though by pulling the concrete behind it, digging down, and then remounting the bracket.

Since none of what he was talking about was very complicated, I talked with him more and got a better idea of what to expect when I dug down. At $125, he had spent about 20 minutes at the site and used one oxygen tank, so I figured I was well within the time frame for the visit to keep asking more questions. When I got home that day, I started to drain the pool below the light to being the job.