Most Florida homeowners who have a pool leak are aware that something seems off with their water level. Fewer of them have done the math on what that leak is actually costing them every month. The water bill is one part of the equation, but it is not the only one. A leaking pool touches several different areas of your budget simultaneously, and when you add it all up, the number tends to motivate people to pick up the phone and call a leak detection company.

This is not meant to create unnecessary alarm. It is meant to put real numbers behind something that a lot of homeowners are tempted to ignore or postpone.

The Direct Cost of Lost Water

Water rates across Florida vary by municipality, but the region has seen consistent rate increases over the past decade as water management becomes more complex. Most utility customers pay a tiered rate, meaning the more water you use, the higher your per-gallon cost climbs.

A pool that is losing half an inch of water per day is losing roughly 500 to 1,000 gallons per day depending on the pool’s surface area. Over a month, that is 15,000 to 30,000 gallons of water going into the ground. At average Florida utility rates, that extra usage can add anywhere from $50 to $200 or more to a monthly water bill depending on the size of the pool and the severity of the leak.

If your pool has an automatic fill valve, you might not notice the water level dropping at all. The fill valve just keeps topping it off quietly while your meter spins. Many homeowners in this situation go months without realizing what is happening until they finally look at their water bill and cannot explain why it has crept up.

The Cost of Replacing Lost Chemicals

Water and pool chemicals go together. Every time your pool loses water and gets topped off, whether manually or through an auto-fill valve, the fresh water dilutes the chemical balance. That means you are adding more chlorine, pH adjusters, alkalinity balancers, and other products more frequently than you otherwise would.

In a normal pool without a leak, chemical costs run roughly $50 to $100 per month for a well-maintained residential pool. A pool that is constantly being refilled due to a leak can push that number considerably higher. The chemistry also becomes harder to manage because you are always working against a moving target.

Over a six-month stretch, the extra chemical cost from a moderate pool leak can easily run several hundred dollars on top of what you would normally spend.

Structural Damage Costs

This is where pool leaks start to get expensive in ways that are not immediately visible. Water escaping through a crack in the pool shell or through a broken underground plumbing line does not just disappear. It saturates the soil beneath and around the pool, and in Florida’s sandy substrate, saturated soil loses its compressive strength relatively quickly.

When that happens, the ground beneath the pool deck begins to shift. Concrete slabs crack and sink. Paving stones become uneven. In more serious cases, voids can form beneath the deck itself. Repairing a sunken or cracked pool deck is a significant expense, often running several thousand dollars depending on the extent of the damage.

If the leak is in the shell itself and goes unrepaired for an extended period, the structural integrity of the pool can be compromised. Full shell repairs or resurfacing jobs range from $5,000 on the low end to $15,000 or more for significant work. Catching a crack early and sealing it is a fraction of that cost.

Equipment Damage Caused by Leaks

Pool equipment is designed to operate with water. When a pool loses enough water that the skimmer starts pulling air instead of water, the pump can run dry, which causes it to overheat. A pump that overheats repeatedly will fail earlier than its expected lifespan.

Variable speed pumps, salt chlorine generators, and automation systems represent significant investments. Replacing a high-end pool pump can run $800 to $1,500 installed. A salt system can run considerably more. Protecting that equipment from the consequences of an unaddressed leak is part of the financial argument for fixing problems promptly.

Landscaping and Property Damage

Water leaking from underground plumbing lines tends to surface somewhere, and sometimes that somewhere is in the middle of a lawn or garden bed. In Florida, where irrigation systems are common and lawns are already receiving regular water, additional saturation from a pool leak can kill grass, promote fungal growth, and damage plant roots.

In more severe cases, leaking water can work its way toward a home’s foundation or erode soil in ways that affect fence posts, exterior walls, or patios. These are not common outcomes from a minor leak, but they illustrate what happens when a problem is left too long.

The Cost of a Leak Detection Service vs. the Cost of Doing Nothing

Professional pool leak detection in Florida typically runs between $200 and $500 for a thorough diagnostic, depending on the company and the scope of the inspection. That cost often gets applied toward the repair if the homeowner moves forward with the same company. Florida Leak Locators, a Pompano Beach pool leak detection company, notes that “in most cases, we determine the cause of the pool leak and then add the cost of the assessment service into the overall repair costs”. While the initial diagnosis can be expensive, homeowners should know they could be saving thousands of dollars. 

Compare that to three to six months of extra water bills, elevated chemical costs, and the beginning stages of structural damage, and the math on getting it checked out becomes straightforward. The longer a leak goes undetected and unrepaired, the more expensive the total outcome becomes.

Catching a pool leak early is almost always cheaper than finding it late. For Florida pool owners who suspect something is wrong, the cost of the diagnostic is almost never the reason to wait.

Last modified: February 25, 2026