staples or flexible rubber cement

[diasurfer]

I've been trying to get quotes on repairing a leaking crack in my pool. It's amazing the number of pool repair people who either never send the estimate, or don't show up. Why are they in the business if they don't want the work?

Anyway, of the two estimates (over phone) I was able to get, one involved using the concrete staples to stabilize and cover with hydraulic cement.

The other would use a "rubber" type cement (he didn't call it epoxy) that would supposedly flex and not fail as fast due to the ongoing soil dynamics around my pool (which would cost many many thousands to fix). His claim was that if you use staples, you'll just get a new crack right next to the old one.

Both are in the same neighborhood for cost. Is there a preferred method?

 

[duraleigh]

Sorry you haven't got a reply. That work is mostly out of the realm of pool owners and may be hard for you to get good definitive information.

I certainly fall in the category of not being able to help.

 

[diasurfer]

Thanks for the reply and explanation duraleigh. I was starting to wonder if I was on a "do not reply" list!

FWIW I am going with the staple method. We'll see how it goes.

 

[duraleigh]

I was starting to wonder if I was on a "do not reply" list!

Please keep us posted as to how it works. we all can benefit if you have some time to post some pics. Thanks!!

 

[diasurfer]

Sorry I didn't think about taking pictures when it was being fixed. Doh! But it looked like most other pictures you see where they remove a couple of inches on each side of the crack. He's cleaning up right now.

One thing that did surprise me was that after he removed gunite 2-3" into the pool wall, you couldn't really see the crack. I guess I was expecting something a bit wider considering the loss of water. By the time you get that far into the wall, the crack is so thin that you can't really see it. (this is what the repair guy told me). Enough to lose water though. I guess if the crack was as wide deep within the wall as it was at the surface, I could actually watch the pool drain rather than lose an inch or so a day! I was relieved he said that because when I looked in there and didn't see a crack going all the way through, I was afraid this might not have been the source of my leak after all! (I did the diagnosis myself using Pool School).

I have questions about adding chemicals to do a complete refill of pool. I use an SWG but I am going to add liquid bleach to bring it up to level first. I also need to add about 9 lbs of CYA. I was assuming I would buy bleach and crystal SWG, but is there an money savings if I use trichlor (ie something that is a mix of stabilizer and chlorine) to bring it up to specs, or should I stick to liquid bleac

 

[duraleigh]

Stick with the liquid. It first glance it seems clever to bring both up with trichlor (not much difference in cost, though) but the rate at which trichlor dissolves into the pool is just too slow for that operation. You can do it either way (I have) but I think you'll like the immediate results of the liquid chlorine and granular (or liquid)
CYA.