Wells Branch is on soft water, about half as hard as the water a few miles north. That flips the usual pool advice, and it's the thing most owners here have never been told.
Plaster that feels chalky underfoot, grout giving up, a tile line that never looks clean. Homeowners here notice those first, and they all trace back to the same thing: the water.
Soft water can pull calcium out of plaster and grout instead of laying scale on them. Chemistry is one of several things that can be behind it, so it's worth having someone look before you spend money on it. Repair diagnostic.
A heater that hasn't run in a while can be slow to come back. We read what it's telling us and repair or replace only what needs it, once you've said go. Pool heater repair.
A pump running loud, losing prime, or dripping at the seal is worth a look. We'll tell you what we find and what it costs before we touch anything. Pool pump repair.
Wells Branch MUD buys its water from City of Austin Water, which treats surface water out of Lake Travis and Lake Austin. The district's own 2025 water quality report puts total hardness at an average of 102 parts per million, across a measured range of 100 to 107. That's about 6 grains per gallon.
Here's why that matters. Pool plaster wants calcium hardness somewhere around 250 to 350 parts per million. Below roughly 150, the water goes looking for calcium, and the only calcium it can find is in your plaster, your grout and your tile line. So it starts pulling it out.
Fill a Wells Branch pool from the tap and you're starting well under target. You're not fighting scale here. You're fighting the opposite, and the damage shows up as etching, a chalky feel underfoot, and grout that keeps giving up.
That's why advice from a friend in Round Rock doesn't transfer. Their water runs more than twice as hard. Everything they do to hold scale back is the wrong direction for your pool, and we've met plenty of owners in 78728 who spent a whole season dosing for a problem they don't have.
Wells Branch sits north of Parmer Lane, west of I-35, and east of Grand Avenue Parkway, with Wells Branch Parkway running through the middle of it. It's its own place rather than a subdivision, a census-designated community of around 14,000 people with roughly 7,130 homes, and it has been on the map under that name since 1990.
It runs its own utility district, its own library district, and a community center over on Klattenhoff Drive. There are two district pools, Katherine Fleischer and Willow Bend, which is part of why so many back yard pools here get used hard all summer and then sit through a long quiet winter.
Most of the housing stock went in before the newer building out on the edges of town, so the pools we see here are rarely new. Equipment from the early 2000s is common, and that's usually what brings us out the first time.
The older parts of Wells Branch have real tree cover, and the streets backing onto Mills Pond and Katherine Fleischer Park get the most of it. Leaves are the visible half of the job. The half nobody sees is that soft water and heavy skimmer load pull in different directions, and chasing one can make the other worse.
Our weekly visit covers brushing, skimming, the basket and the filter, and a water test every time. On this side of town that test is watching calcium as much as chlorine, because the number that gets a pool in trouble here's the one that's too low.
Brushing and skimming every visit. Baskets, filter and a water test too. $249.
A deep clean for a cell that has stopped producing. $99.
Before you buy, with photos and a plain list the same day. $329.
A full drain and pressure wash when the water is past saving. $549.
A general home inspector will tell you the pump runs. That's not the same as telling you what the plaster has been through, whether the heater has been sitting unused, or what the surface looks like after years of water that has been quietly working against it.
We inspect the pool on its own, before you close, and you get photos and a plain list of what needs doing now against what can wait. Given what soft water does to a surface over time, the plaster is the part worth knowing about before the money moves.
When something breaks, the question is almost never what it costs to fix. It's whether this is a repair or a replacement, and nobody wants to guess at that with a quote in hand.
So we charge a $149 diagnostic, and you pay half of it to book. We come out, find the actual fault, and tell you what it could involve. If you go ahead with the repair, the diagnostic is free and what you paid comes off the job. If you decide not to, you've paid $149 for a straight answer and you owe us nothing else.
A pump that won't prime could involve a seal, an impeller, or a motor, and those are three very different afternoons. We would rather look than tell you a number over the phone that turns out to be wrong.
Wells Branch doesn't sit on one kind of ground, so here's what we see in each part.
The shadiest part of the neighborhood. More tree cover means more in the skimmer, so these are the pools where the baskets need watching between visits.
The middle of Wells Branch, on the heavier end of the local clay. Ground that swells and shrinks with the weather is what works on equipment pads and rigid plumbing over time.
Lighter, thinner soil through here, so rain runs off faster and carries grit toward the pool. Filters and skimmers fill quicker after a storm on this side.
The land here falls gently east toward the creek and the pond, which is good news most of the year and less good in a hard storm. Runoff carries grit into the pool, and a filter that was fine in May is doing real work by the end of a wet week.
The ground moves too, the way most of this part of Travis County does. That shows up as hairline cracks in decking and, occasionally, as a plumbing line that has been nudged out of true. Neither is an emergency on its own. Both are worth a look before they turn into one.
Wells Branch sits inside the area we cover across northwest Austin. Our shop is up at Forest Creek Drive and Red Bud Lane, usually a twenty minute drive down depending on how I-35 is moving. Pool service in Northwest Austin.
True Flow is a local outfit, not a franchise with a call center in another state. You deal directly with the people who work on your pool. We're licensed in Texas for residential appliance installation, which is what covers pool equipment electrical work, and we carry insurance on every job.
Often same-day, just ask. If we can't get to you today we'll tell you when we can, and we will give you an arrival window, and text when we're on the way.
This books our $149 on-site diagnostic, the visit we start with for any equipment problem. Half is due when you book, and it comes off the repair if you go ahead. Looking for weekly cleaning or something else? See all pool services.
Book a pool visit with True Flow Pool Solutions. These are the visits you can book online:
Schedule a pool visit · Text (737) 259-7379 · Call (737) 259-7379
"We've been really happy with True Flow Pool Solutions for weekly pool cleaning. The service has been dependable, professional, and easy from start to finish."
"You'll have a good experience with True Flow Pool Solutions on a pool repair. They're straightforward and show up ready to work. I recommend them!"
"Very dependable and hard-working team. You can tell they care about doing the job right!"
Want us to swing by your pool? Text us your address and what's going on. We'll figure out what it needs and what the fix costs. Then we make sure you're happy with it.
