I see you posted previously and Scott replied.

If you have a concern, this is your pool and your money.
Call the pool builder and tell him to wait. You are in control.

Post some pictures here and let some of the experts help you.

1 pic = 10000 words in the pool world.

best to you.

Thank you for your responses. I will try to post some pics later today. With the opinions of yourselves and Scott and Natural One on my other thread I feel I can go to my pb and more confidently insist on burying the pvc and pressure testing. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now- maybe he is intending to do these things. I will be talking to him later today and will let you know how it goes. Thanks again.

How did this work out, buzz2?

I asked my pool builder to bury the deep heat returns and main drains and he did so by digging a shallow trench in the gravel already present under the rebar. I'm sure it was a PITA and for this reason I don't think he ever planned to bury the deep heat returns before guniting the pool. If he planned to do so, he would have trenched for the deep heat return prior to putting in rebar. That bothers me a little bit but at least it got done. Thank you to the pros and other people on this forum for their advice. It is a great resource.

How long he pressure tested the lines I am not sure but I know he did pressure test it. If he didn't pressure test it adequately and there was a leak he must know this is a big problem for him so hopefully this motivated him to pressure test long enough.

Why the separate deep heat return and drain suction lines? That can easily be plumbed to send return water to the drain pots instead of them drawing in water on an at will basis.

Scott

Scott. I see you talk about pots for main drains in pools and spas. Some areas of the country do not use pots. In southern California we stub them up out of the ground with no pots so we have to run a separate deep heat. I know they use a lot of pots back east not so much here. FYI.

The use of pots is manditory under VGB IRRC however, they can be field formed.

They have no bearing in setting up a deep heat though. Shutting off the drain from the pump suction and adding a short from the returns to the drain line with a valve will do it at the pad. You could then send heated return flow to the drain line.

Scott

Got it. Here So Cal we typically hook up the main drains to the front port of the skimmer. So that would not work. We do not shut down pools in the winter here. But I can see the application for that in other areas of the country.

Where in the country doesn't matter. Tying the drain to the deep skimmer, IMHO, is not a good practice. A pool can then not operate off the drain only or vacuum from the skimmer or set up a deep heat via the drain. I have a couple of PBs that do it here too. Darned annoying and a bit of a PITA to Winterize too.

Scott

Luckily we don't have to winterize here. Most service guys use the side suction line to sweep the pool. Or there is always enough suction on the skimmer also. Thousands of pool have been done this way and they all stay pretty clean.

tying drains to the skimmers is a mistake. what is the logic in doing so?

In your opinion it's a mistake. It's one less suction point for entrapment. There's a reason that there is a diverter valve at the bottom of the skimmer. It's to draw some water up into the skimmer from the bottom of the pool for clarity. Most pools also have pool vacs which with the pump running draws water from the bottom. I'm not against main drains with suction. Depending on the design look I am trying to achieve I will use mini-skimmers and install a separate main drain line if I feel the need for more circulation. Or if you are trying to achieve the look of a zero edge pool. There is a bit of a debate in the pool industry if we even need to put in main drain lines in pools anymore. Aqua magazine had an interesting article about it a few months ago. The jury is still out.All I know is that they are obnoxious looking on the floor of an all glass tile pool or spa. There has been something in the works to make covers that you can fill in with whatever material is on the pool floor and then all you have is a small slit opening around the edge. These would be made of stainless steel and be bonded to the pool shell. They look like a good solution for the aesthetic look on main drain covers. A slit is only needed because of the low flow that you can achieve with the variable speed pumps. Try not to make blanket statements about certain plumbing being a mistake. There are a couple of cities that I deal with that do not like a direct main drain suction line to the pump.

I find a separate drain line far more versatile for servicing and maintaining. I can't see a new pool being designed otherwise. Bottom drains have requirements from the VGB act that make them far safer.

An SVRS can be added relatively inexpensively to a pump if suction entrapment is a concern, especially with older residentials that only have a single drain design.

Scott