Cracking around outside of short pool wall

[AustinPynes]

Cracking on outside of pool wall. no leaks noticeable. Looks like it might be water from top of wall...grout is loose...??
thoughts? this was a patch and a couple of cracks 3 years ago when i bought the house....now I need to do soemthing.
Plaster needs to be redone too but otherwise the pool is in great shape. Hairline cracks on bottom but no water lost except usual from Texas heat.

 

[bmoreswim]

That's just a skim coat on top of the exposed gunite pool shell, similar to what you'd have on an a cinder block wall. The pool shell itself is separate and I'm sure is fine.

The fix is to scrape it all off and reapply a fresh skim coat.

 

[AustinPynes]

Thanks
Local service company says it is steel in wall rusting and getting larger. Thus cracking veneer. I think water is coming in from brick and mortar (that makes up the cap) degrading
Sound reasonable? They recommend dig out steel near surface of wall and reapply veneer.

 

[AustinPynes]

Another angle

 

[duraleigh]

You could chip off that cracked veneeer and verify moisture is coming from behind. Does it freeze in Round Rock? How old are the cracks?

 

[AustinPynes]

No real freeze here....but when I looked at it that was what I thought....water seeped in from grout deterioration and froze pushing out...if you look at the first image the grout is in poor shape and has space between it and brick. There is actually a lip of veneer that has a gap between it and wall. Maybe the little freeze we do get was enough or maybe the local guy is right. When I bought house the corner had an off color patch with 1 maybe 2 small hairline cracks in it. That was three years ago.

- - - Updated - - -

Now that I look at it and think rust. It sure looks like a rust stain there.