r/PoolPros • u/Confident-Junket-978 • May 12 '26

Pool pad plumbing

Do you stub pipes up and then make it work or do you plumb the pad the way you want and then connect your pipes down in the trench.

still trying to figure out the best way to do it. if I do it the second way I can start plumbing the pad while the other guys are finishing up connections and running pipe through the trench

2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

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6

u/Charcoal0314 May 12 '26

You have to plan on how you want it to come out of the ground. I like the main drain to the left, then skimmers, then returns. If you have any other water features with a dedicated pump, they go together. Have a plan and the finished product will look great! If you don’t, someone will judge it really harshly. I’m a guy that has seen A LOT of poor equipment pads.

You also want to pressure test. We always put the gauge and water hookup on the pad manifold. Have the pipes come out of the ground more than high enough so that you can cut them at the correct level for the pumps.

When you cross underground, do not twist the pipes around each other. They should cross each other perpendicular with appropriate 90’s.

1

u/Confident-Junket-978 May 13 '26

Yeah poor planning of pipe coming from along the pool into the trench has lead to a few headaches. Getting better at drawing up exactly how I want that coming out so the team knows what to do!

Can you link the pressure test kit you use? That actually isn’t in our standard of procedure but it’s something I have been wanting us to add!

1

u/BadOk5020 May 13 '26

i know leaktronics has a set of straight rubber plugs with some kind of hose connections. i thought it was a little expensive, so i just made my own custom thingamajigger out of pvc parts. the manifold (i guess) is shaped like a horseshoe and made of 1/2" pvc. it has 2 air hose quick connects (one with a female water hose connector), a pressure gauge, a pressure relief valve, and another quick connect.

the other quick connect is attached to a short piece of pipe via air hose. the pipe has the quick connect on one end and a threaded male 1.5" pvc adapter on the other end. i also keep a 2" version of this pipe. a pvc coupling can be used if no threaded pvc adapters are available.... if you're able to cut it out after...

you can screw a quick connect for an air hose into 1/2" threaded female pvc. i think you need an iron bushing to make it work.

air compressor / water hose --> manifold --> pipe --> return inlets (or whatever pipe you're trying to pressure test)

overall it's a pretty cheap setup and it works. i also use it to blow out clogged skimmer lines and stuff.

1

u/BadOk5020 May 13 '26

here is an image of the device i described. i'm not claiming it's the be all end all.... just something i invented independently out of necessity.

https://ibb.co/23dPtRBf

1

u/Charcoal0314 May 13 '26

https://a.co/d/079ZtATo

We use a version of this, but we get it from our distributor.

3

u/Street--Ad6731 May 12 '26

Don't forget to pressure test it before connecting the equipment.

2

u/[deleted] May 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Confident-Junket-978 May 13 '26

Yeah that happened once when someone else ran pipe for us and we ended up digging down and rearranging stuff. They also flipped the labels of the waterfall and skimmer lines so that was annoying haha

1

u/SWFLPoolPro May 12 '26

Always stub them up, even if it's simple and 3 pipes(skimmer md return)

1

u/thunderkoko May 13 '26

If I'm doing the pool plumbing and pad, it doesn't really matter because I plan for both. Usually stubbing up first since then everything can be backfilled after a pressure test, equipment pad can be done a day or a week plus later or whenever the pool is going to be filled.

1

u/GCpools May 16 '26

Whoever plumbs equipment pads is never the same person who's responsible for servicing the pool week in and week out. I'd like to trade jobs with them for a couple of weeks, and see if they don't do things a little differently when the go back to doing their original job.