cracked pool bond beam + crack in tile around pool

[Dustin999]

We have been told that we have a cracked bond beam, which is causing a crack that goes pretty much around the entire pool. We've had a couple of companies come out and look at it. Most won't even come out, and the ones that do mention expensive procedures, ripping out the decking and repouring the beam, or bringing in some crazy expensive $80k saw. And even then, it's questionable whether they'll even warranty it since it's a repair job on a pool they didn't build, even though they're perfectly happy charging me at least $12k, possibly more.

The company who originally built the pool is out of business, so I have no recourse there.

So my question is, rather than going through all this expensive procedure to repair the pool, with no guarantee it will even work or last, is there a cheaper option? Is it possible to re-tile all the way around the pool and, if the ground happens to not shift anymore, maybe it will hold? What about using some sort of waterproof caulking on all the cracks?

We're using the pool currently as it is. While it's fine, the only problem we have is that we can't fill the water up too high. We have two young kids who constantly love to jump in the pool, causing wakes that crash up over the crack, thus constantly we're losing water when the kids swim.

Any thoughts?

View attachment 32151

 

[RangerBob]

I watched the tile guys set our tile with about 1" of it above the beam when they installed. They then bedded the coping so it would sit right above the tile and they will apparently seal what is a pretty small gap with mastic to finish it off. Because the coping is bedded on the beam, it will move with the pool shell. It's hard to tell by your photo whether you have coping or if your decks are poured right out over the edge of the pool. If the latter is the case, (in my unqualified opinion) ground movement is always going to be a problem for this joint. A lot of people have heave issues between their coping and deck which is annoying enough but to have it show up in the pool could explain why the pool company is out of business.

Bob

 

[gwegan]

Interesting photo. Can you give us a wider angle shot? So we can see more deck. Does the cracking extend to the rebar?

How old is the pool.

What do the PB say caused this? It looks like your deck is connected to the bond beam (often not a good idea) and the deck moved laterally as they do inTexas and cracked the bond beam. if that's the case then the fix the PBs are describing is probably the correct one. I'm not there so I ' m limited.

You can remove the tile, grout the **** out of it and retile. That plan will work for a while. However if your bond beam is compromised and rebar exposed it may rust out inside the structure. not good.

Pouring a deck over a bond beam is ok as long as the joint is properly enginnered for local conditions.