Popped pool?

[zdylan]

Greetings all:
I've only been a pool owner for about five months now. With the help of TFP, we've been free of the pool guy and the pool store for almost that whole time. We're looking ahead to maybe some plaster repairs (there's a patch maybe a total of two feet in diameter on the bottom of the pool where the paint is chipped off clear to the gunite, as far as I can tell--I may be missing something, but I see concrete, then paint, no plaster) later this year. All around the edge of the pool deck, there is a two to three inch gap between the bottom edge of the concrete decking and the yard, almost as if the earth had eroded all around the edge of the pool. My wife is now concerned that the pool may have sat empty at some point and been lifted up a bit, causing the gap all around. So, my first question is, is it possible to have a "popped" pool and still have all the plumbing lines intact? Are there ways to tell if a pool has ever lifted? Second, if the pool has been lifted even ever so much, is it going to be a bad idea to try to drain and (re)plaster? Thanks for all your help.

 

[Butterfly]

Welcome to the forum

It would be helpful to responders if you could post some pix of the problem(s).

Congrats on having five months (so far) of a trouble free pool

 

[Casey]

Pics are worth a gazillion words! Welcome!

 

[zdylan]

Sorry it took a couple days for these photos. I had to wait for the rain to stop.

This first image should give an idea of the gap around the edge of the pool deck.

Here's one of the larger cracks in the deck, running right through the skimmer.

This is the chipped out patch in the deep end I mentioned in my first post. I've left the pool unbrushed for a day or so so the different degrees of chipping are more apparent.

Here's another spot on the side.

And one more small one on the step. Is that fiberglass I see peaking through there?
This post has turned into a catalog of my concerns about the pool, so, what do you think? I'd like to get a sense of how worried I should be about this chipping paint and some input on what my repair options may be. I also have no idea of whether this deck is within the range of normal, or something that I should be looking into a second mortgage for. Any help is much appreciated.