Pond leak repair · Richmond, VA
Jordan's Water Garden Solutions finds and fixes pond leaks in Richmond, Henrico County, Chesterfield County and Charlottesville. Jordan Blanton, an Aquascape Certified Contractor, does the pond repair himself. Leak detection visits start at $495, the leak is found on that visit, and the repair is quoted before any work starts. Leak work is part of Jordan's pond cleaning and maintenance.
$495per leak detection visit, to start
Is it a leak or just evaporation?
The call Jordan gets most once the weather warms up is "my water level keeps dropping, do I have a leak?" Sometimes yes. More often it is the sun. A pond loses roughly an inch a week to evaporation in a Virginia summer, and a running waterfall or stream pushes that higher because moving water evaporates faster than still water.
So before anyone comes out, run the test on the right. It takes a day or two and tells you whether you have a leak at all, and if you do, roughly where it is. Jordan wrote a full guide to testing for a leak: Is your pond leaking?
Fill it to its normal level so you are measuring from a known mark.
Turn off the pump and the waterfall, then mark the water line with tape or a grease pencil. If you have fish, drop in a battery aerator while the pump is off.
If the level holds with the pump off but drops when it runs, the leak is in the waterfall, the stream or the plumbing. If it keeps dropping with everything off, it is in the pond liner.
How far it dropped and over how long, plus a photo of any wet or soggy spot around the edge. That gives Jordan a head start when he arrives.
Where leaks usually hide
A torn liner is rare. After years of chasing water loss around the Richmond area, Jordan finds nearly all of it in four places, and most of them are quick to put right.
The usual suspect
The ground under a liner edge along the waterfall or stream shifts and settles, and water trickles over the side where you cannot see it. The fix is often packing soil back under the edge and resetting the stone.
When the waterfall is running
Leaves, sticks or plants that have grown into the stream back the water up and push it over the liner. This is the leak that only shows up with the pump on.
Easy to miss
A loose fitting where the liner meets the skimmer faceplate, or a basket so full the water finds another way out.
Hidden behind rock
A drip at a fitting or a check valve, usually buried under rockwork, quietly drains a surprising amount of water over a week. Dye and a close look find it.
What Jordan does on a leak call
Jordan repeats the test you ran, with the pump off and then on, to separate a liner leak from a waterfall or plumbing leak. Then he works through the usual places with dye and a close look: the liner edges, the waterfall and stream edges, the skimmer faceplate and the plumbing behind the rock.
Anything small is fixed while he is there: a settled edge packed and reset, a stream cleared, a fitting tightened. Anything bigger, a liner patch or an edge rebuild along a stream, is quoted after the leak is found, and most of those are a short job too. The price depends on what the water is doing, so there is no repair price list here.
Why not to wait
A settled edge erodes a little further every week, and a slow drip at a fitting turns into a steady one. The pond pays for it in three ways.
If the level is dropping fast
A sudden overnight drop usually means a torn liner or a plumbing failure, and the fish come first. Call or text (804) 719-4761 and say it is urgent. If the water is getting low, move the fish into a stock tank or large tub of pond water with an aerator running, in the shade, until Jordan gets there.
Questions
Anything else, call or text Jordan.
Top the pond off, turn the pump off, mark the water line and wait a day or two. If the level holds with the pump off but drops when it runs, the leak is in the waterfall, stream or plumbing. If it drops with everything off, it is in the liner. If the level only falls about an inch a week in summer, that is evaporation. Jordan's Water Garden Solutions runs the same test on a leak call anywhere in the Richmond area.
In a Virginia summer a pond loses roughly an inch a week to evaporation, and more when a waterfall or stream is running, because moving water evaporates faster. Jordan's Water Garden Solutions tells Richmond homeowners to worry when the drop is well past that, or when it keeps falling with the pump switched off.
Usually, yes. Most leaks Jordan's Water Garden Solutions finds in Richmond, Henrico, Chesterfield and Charlottesville are at a settled liner edge, a stream edge, the skimmer or a fitting, and all of those are repaired with the water and the fish left in the pond. Only a tear low in the liner means lowering the level to reach it.
The leak detection visit starts at $495, and small fixes such as packing a settled edge or clearing a stream are done on that visit. A larger repair, such as a liner patch or an edge rebuild, is quoted once Jordan's Water Garden Solutions has found the leak, because the price depends on where it is and how much stone has to come up. The leak test is part of that visit in Richmond, not a separate charge.
Yes. Jordan's Water Garden Solutions repairs ponds, streams and waterfalls built by other contractors across Richmond, Henrico County, Chesterfield County and Charlottesville, and can rebuild an edge or a skimmer the Aquascape way if the original was never done right.
Keep exploring
See all pond care: Pond cleaning and maintenance Read: Is Your Pond Leaking? How to Tell Before You Call Anyone
Based in Richmond, working across Richmond, Charlottesville, Chesterfield County and Henrico County.
Estimate calculator
A few quick questions about the pond and what the water is doing, one at a time, then pick a time for a free phone consultation with Jordan.
