The Most Common Problems Found During a
Pool Inspection

Every pool inspection report is different. The specific findings depend on the pool’s age, construction type, maintenance history, and how well the equipment has been serviced. But after inspecting pools across the Portland metro and SW Washington, certain problems show up over and over. Some are expensive. Some are safety concerns. Most are manageable when caught before closing.

This post goes through the eight categories I document most often. For each one I will explain what I look for, what it means, and what it typically costs to address. The full scope of what a pool inspection covers is in the pool inspection overview. If you are weighing whether to add a pool inspection, that decision is covered here.

From the field: “These are the findings I write up most often. They are the information that helps you understand the pool’s visible condition and plan for what you are inheriting.”

Equipment at or Past End of Service Life

Most Common Finding: Typical cost: $600 – $6,000 depending on component

This is the finding I document more than any other. Pool equipment ages quietly. A pump motor that has been running for 11 years looks identical from the outside to one that is two years old. A gas heater with a cracked heat exchanger still fires up and heats water, right up until it does not. The problem is not that the equipment is broken. The problem is that it may have little service life left, and buyers have no easy way to know that without an inspection.

Most pool equipment does not come with an obvious manufacture date stamped on the front panel. Pump motors, filters, and heaters have date codes embedded in their serial numbers. Decoding those codes is part of the inspection. A buyer who knows they are inheriting a 14-year-old gas heater is in a fundamentally different position than one who assumes the pool is in good shape because everything turned on during the showing.

Signs of failing equipment before it fails completely: corrosion on the pump volute and motor housing, pump that is louder than normal or vibrates more than it should, filter pressure readings consistently above normal operating range, heater that cycles on and off without maintaining water temperature. These are the things I look and listen for at the equipment pad.

Electrical Bonding and GFCI Deficiencies

Safety Critical: Typical cost to correct: $500 – $2,000

This is the most safety-significant category on the list. It is also the one that buyers most consistently underestimate, because these deficiencies are invisible to the eye.

Bonding is a copper conductor that connects all metal components in and around the pool: the pump, heater, ladders, light niches, handrails, and the reinforcing steel in a gunite shell. Its purpose is to equalize voltage between all those components. When bonding is missing or incomplete, a difference in electrical potential can exist between the pool water and a metal surface nearby. A swimmer who contacts both simultaneously completes the circuit. This is called electric shock drowning. It has occurred in residential pools. It does not require a visible arc, a sparking outlet, or any obvious sign that anything is wrong.

The most common bonding findings I document: conductors that were never connected to all required metal components, bonding wires that have corroded through at connection points, and ladders or handrails that were replaced or added after the original installation without being bonded into the system.

GFCI protection is required on all outlets within 20 feet of the pool and on dedicated circuits feeding pool equipment, including underwater lights. GFCI breakers can fail over time and test as non-functional even though they appear intact. Underwater light circuits that were installed before current code requirements may not have GFCI protection at all.

Main Drain Safety Concerns

Safety and Liability: Typical cost to correct: $500 – $1,500

The Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act, signed in 2007 and in effect since December 2008, requires anti-entrapment drain covers on public pools and spas, and every drain cover sold in the U.S. since then has to meet its safety standard. It doesn’t force a homeowner to retrofit a backyard pool, but the hazard is the same. The rule exists because suction entrapment, where a swimmer becomes trapped against an uncovered or flat drain cover by the force of the suction from the circulation system, is a documented cause of drowning.

Many pools built before 2008 still have their original flat drain covers. Those covers do not meet the standard. They may look perfectly fine. The issue is not visible wear or damage, it is the design of the cover itself, which does not allow water to flow around a body pressed against it.

Older-style main drain covers are a common finding in Portland-area pools built before 2010, and occasionally in pools built after that date where the drain covers have been replaced with aftermarket parts that may not meet the standard. Replacement with compliant covers is the fix. The cost is relatively low. But buyers need to know it is needed before closing, for safety.

Pool Fence and Barrier Deficiencies

Safety and Code Requirements: Typical cost to correct: $300 – $8,000 depending on scope

Oregon’s residential code sets barrier requirements for residential pools: minimum fence height, maximum gap sizes between pickets and at the base, and self-closing, self-latching gate hardware. Washington has similar requirements. The intent is to prevent unsupervised access, particularly by young children.

The most common deficiencies I find: gate latches that have corroded or sagged and no longer engage reliably, gate hinges that have lost tension and allow the gate to swing open without force, fence sections where gaps have widened as posts have settled or shifted, and vegetation that has grown into or over the fence line creating a climbable surface.

Sellers often do not know their fence has become a safety concern. They installed a fence years ago and have not had a reason to test the gate hardware or measure the gaps recently. The fence looks fine. The hardware has just worn. That is a normal maintenance issue, but it becomes the buyer’s maintenance issue the moment closing happens.

Plaster Delamination and Surface Deterioration

Significant Cost Risk: Typical cost to correct: $8,000 – $18,000

Gunite pools are common across the Portland metro and SW Washington. The shell is reinforced concrete, finished with a plaster or pebble coat on the interior surface. That finish has a service life. Depending on water chemistry, maintenance history, and the quality of the original application, gunite pools in the region are typically replastered every 10 to 20 years.

Delaminating plaster is the most costly structural finding in a gunite pool. I find hollow spots by tapping the shell surface with a blunt instrument. A solid sound is fine. A hollow thud means the plaster has separated from the shell below and is no longer bonded. Hollow spots will eventually pop off, leaving a rough, porous surface that is uncomfortable to touch and difficult to chemically balance.

Other surface findings: spalling plaster that is flaking or crumbling at the edges, staining patterns consistent with long-term chemical imbalance that has etched the surface, and rough texture from a finish that has worn through to the aggregate below. These conditions are visible during an inspection and can point to a replaster in the near future.

Not every buyer asks the seller when the pool was last replastered. Most sellers do not volunteer the information. The condition of the plaster offers clues.

Vinyl Liner Issues

Near-Term Replacement Risk: Typical cost to replace: $3,500 – $7,000

Vinyl liner pools use a flexible PVC liner to hold water. The liner sits in a frame and substrate assembly. Liners have a service life of roughly 6 to 15 years, though that range is wide depending on UV exposure, chemical balance, and whether the pool has been properly winterized each season.

The common findings I document in aging vinyl liners: fading that extends uniformly across the surface, a brittle texture that is obvious when touching the liner near the waterline, bead track separation where the liner edge has pulled away from the coping track and no longer sits flush, visible seam separation at the bottom or sidewall seams, and patches from prior repairs. A liner with one small patch is a different situation than a liner with multiple patches and visible fatigue throughout.

The Portland metro and SW Washington winters add a specific consideration. Vinyl liners that have not been properly winterized can suffer damage from water that has frozen in place. Ice expansion puts pressure on the liner from the inside, and improperly supported liners can develop wrinkles or separation at the seams that would not occur with proper winterization.

Structural Cracks: Cosmetic vs. Serious

Requires Evaluation: Cost varies widely by severity

This is the category buyers most often misread on their own. Cracks in a pool can mean almost nothing, or they can indicate shell movement that allows water loss and soil infiltration. The difference is in the crack itself, and telling them apart is not obvious without field experience.

Surface cracks in the plaster finish are common. They have sharp, clean edges, consistent depth, and stay within the finish layer. These are typically cosmetic. They may indicate that replastering is approaching, but they do not represent a structural failure of the shell below.

A structural crack runs through the plaster layer and into or through the gunite shell. These cracks are usually wider, may have rounded or eroded edges, and often show mineral staining along their length, evidence that water has been moving through them over time. They follow paths that suggest the shell has shifted rather than the finish layer having dried out or shrunk. A structural crack may allow water to escape the pool and migrate into the surrounding soil, and in clay-heavy soils common across the Portland metro and SW Washington, that ongoing saturation can compound over time.

Fiberglass pools have their own crack patterns. Spider-web stress cracks at steps or fittings are common and usually cosmetic. Gelcoat cracking accompanied by visible flex in the shell when you press against it is a structural concern. The distinction is in whether the shell itself is deforming or whether the surface coating has simply checked.

Gas Heater Heat Exchanger Failures

Safety and Mechanical: Typical replacement cost: $1,800 – $4,500

The heat exchanger is the component inside a gas pool heater that transfers heat from the burner to the pool water. It is typically a copper or cupronickel coil or a series of finned tubes. Over time, especially in pools with water chemistry that runs acidic, the heat exchanger corrodes. When it pinholes or cracks, water leaks into the combustion chamber, where it corrodes the burner tray and can disrupt combustion.

In an outdoor, open-air pool, this is primarily a heater reliability issue. In a pool with an enclosed equipment room or a covered pool house, poor combustion becomes a carbon monoxide concern. Either way, a failed heat exchanger usually means replacing the heat exchanger or the whole heater, not a patch.

Symptoms I look for: visible corrosion streaks inside the combustion chamber, flame rollout marks on the heater cabinet exterior that indicate the burner flame is not behaving normally, and a heater that fires and cycles off repeatedly without building water temperature. None of these symptoms are visible from a distance. They require opening the access panel and looking at the accessible interior of the unit.

Gas heaters also have age working against them. A 12-year-old heater that is still functional is not a heater that has three good years left. It is a heater that may have three good years left, or it may fail next season. That distinction matters when it is showing up in an inspection report rather than in a repair bill after closing.