Inground steel walls rusted through

[slowgary]

Hi,

I recently moved into a house with an inground pool, and after pulling the old torn liner out learned that there are some parts of the steel walls that are completely rusted through. There are some rust spots that I can simply grind off, and a hole near one of the drains that I think I can just cut new sheet metal for, but two of the sheets are rusted through and breaking right where they join at the seam. Do I need to replace those sheets entirely? Would covering the seam with a new sheet be a bad idea?

Any help you can offer is very greatly appreciated.

 

[Casey]

Welcome SlowGary!

Looks like you have a pretty nasty rust problem there. I've never recommended this for a steel walled in ground pool but for above grounds, I have recommended sheet metal and pop rivots over the rust and then duct taping the sheet metal to protect the new liner when it's dropped. I'd go right over the seam where it joins too.

Lets see what others have to offer in the way of advice.

In the mean time, adding you pool specs to your signature will help us, help you in the future. You can do that here: What we need to know to answer your questions.

 

[slowgary]

Hi Casey,

Thanks! ... and thanks for your advice. Most of the walls are in decent shape, with just a bit of surface rust here and there. As pictured, there are a couple of spots where the rust has clearly won the battle. Would've liked to be able to use it this season, instead it's just been an eyesore hole in the ground. Maybe dynamite can solve the problem?

 

[slowgary]

I spoke with a friend of mine who has had both IG and AG pools. While he's not a pool expert, he's usually pretty handy. He recommended sheet metal over the really bad spots, and not even worrying about all the other surface rust spots, as he said it's a losing battle. I was thinking maybe I'd still do a quick scraping for rust, maybe even line the pool with foam to ensure the liner doesn't get cut on any little sharp spots.

Does that sound like a sane plan to anyone else? Thanks for reading.

 

[gtnos]

if that was my pool, id do the repair with sheetmetal and rivots as previously suggested, then pop in a new liner and start

worry about the rest of the pool the next time it needs a new liner.