A sad day at our house-bye bye pool :(

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One thing is I've heard that POR-15 is amazing for painting OVER rust, but does not actually stick well to other paint or bare metal. I have no first hand experience, just what I've read about it on various forums.

From the picture on Amazon: Note it says designed for "rusted, sandblasted, and seasoned metal" - which backs up my above statement to some extent.
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kimkats said:
The thing to do is to make sure any scrapped paint is repainted in my eyes. The hardware was stainless. I am really thinking it was the "cancer" like DIrk tlaked about.......once it start at a untreated spot it spread from there :( I could be wrong and more than willing to listen to any and all ideas with support thoughts.
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It could be. If it rusts under the paint, that can happen.

I have had the best luck with the "rust reformer" type products, you have to let the rust happen first though which is difficult in this application. It chemically reacts with the iron oxide and makes it a part of the plastic chemically... you have to flake off big chunks and then lightly sand what is left so there is a thin coating of rust for the best results. But that's going to be difficult if it's behind 30K gallons of water at 8 lbs/gallon.

Are you sure you don't want to go with a gunite/plaster pool? That's a whole different set of issues, trust me, but if you are not planning on moving and planning on having a pool for the rest of your life, I'd consider it. In FL, like AZ it doesn't detract from the property values. Or even the ability to sell the house like in many other places.
 
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POR-15 is basically the same stuff as the Rustoleum "Rust Reformer" I have been referring to in another brand (and Rustoleum is readily available throughout the US at Ace, Home Depot, Walmart, etc.). The original brand of it isn't even being made anymore. And yes, you do need to paint over it. I would recommend sanding the edges down. The problem with the stuff is that if you were going to use it on something like a car, you have to fill the gap in from the rust reformer stuff to the rest of the paint with something like Bondo, so to make the fix invisible is a lot of effort. If you are going to cover up with a liner I think a coating of that and then a coating of something like cold galvanizing paint or a matching color to the metal in normal paint would be fine.
 
mguzzy said:
It seems like the failure point isn't the panels per se.. but the attachment point of the panels to the posts.. I wonder if there is a way to strengthen that connection so it doesn't corrode... really sounds like resin is the way to go.
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The fact that connection points are a penetration through the protective coating is one reason for rust and eventually failure to occur at those places. The other reason is that they are a stress riser. Without going into a dissertation on mechanics of material, a stress riser is a point of increased stress in an object. Any sort of deformity away from a homogeneous, continuous surface is going to be a stress riser. Holes, such as for returns, skimmers, and bolts are locations of concentrated stress. Sharp corners are especially notorious, such as on skimmer openings. While penetrations are obvious points of increased stress, so are defects - dents, creases, dings, dimples, etc are all points of increased stress. So are places where you had rust and wire brushed it off. It is best to keep things as smooth as possible - no sudden transitions. Your return hole should be round, no jagged edges for example. It is like when a doctor fixes your torn meniscus in your knee by removing part of it. The edges of the tear are smoothed out and rounded, so that it is less likely to tear further - by eliminating points of stress concentration.
 
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Another vote for rust reformer. I had several rust spots on my rails at the beginning of the season. Got some Rustoleum rust reformer and rust inhibiting top coat, took a wire brush to the rust then cleaned it, sprayed the rust reformer, let it cure overnight, then top coated it. Looks good as new!
 
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Kim, is your pool covered by your Home Insurance? If so, it would reduce your cost to the deductible.

Sorry to hear about your pool. Some days I wish my in ground would self destruct so I could start over with a better pool builder...
 

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Kim, so sorry to see what happened to your pool and glad the water did not end up in your house.
Hoping you'll get a new pool up soon. :wave:
Here's to cheering you on. :kim:
You've done a lot of that for all of us
 
Chad1979 said:
Just tossing this out there, but what about rhino lining like used on truck beds? I know it wouldnt be smooth, but put a foam layer between liner and wall? Its tough as snot and from what i can tell is water tight. Let me know if my idea is not feasable or water tight.
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I can testify Rhino lining will work and it will protect it for YEARS... I have had these metal weights IN the pool for 6 years now and NO RUST what so ever :) The hard part is going to be getting someone to come to you and spray it... The stuff you buy in the can is not the same quality but may work the same


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I am just now seeing this. I am so sorry to hear about your pool! I can only imagine how devastating that must be. I guess if there is a bright side at least now you will have a chance to change all of the things that you might have done differently on the first one. Can't wait to see what you come up with for the new one.
 
Just saw this thread.
I looked at those pictures and thought. . . Tornado? Hurricane? What did I miss?
On second glance it looked like your pool cover got ripped out and tangled / destroyed.
The damage was so extensive I completely skipped who it happened to and read on. Then I had to go back and realize this happened to our Kim. No, this shouldn't happen!

I can't imagine losing your pool like that. Or the impact of all that water on the neighbors.
How long did this one last?

Just think.
You can join us frustrated people that are dealing with a 2020 pool build! Become part of the 2020 Alumni !!
 
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This wall was the original wall that was put up the day I joined TFP (July 2012). So it did not last near long enough Gurrrrrr It was said to have this or that treatment to keep the metal protected from corrosion. All resin everything else............what I thought/hoped would last a good long while...........sigh................We put in a new liner last summer (June 2019) due to wanting a new one as the old one was faded............when we took the old liner down we say the rust on the inside of the wall............we wire brushed it primed it and painted it with what we thought was the some good stuff...............the area that gave way to the rust was at the bottom right where the walls meet each other and were bolted together. One of the pics shows hos the bottom part the rust part just tore then the top where it was not as rusted ripped the metal out of the bolts.

Thankfully we live on 6.5 acres and the pool is at the back of the house and all of the water ended up in the pond. No damage to our house or any one else. I have the pool yard about back together.

We are still exploring our options as 8 yrs is NOT long at all. Yeah we live in FL so I am sure that is a HUGE part of what caused the rust..........going to play with some of the above ideas to see what I could put on the walls and bolted areas to keep this from happening again.
 
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Kim,

I put steel pipelines in the ground under high pressure that last decades even under ocean with no significant deterioration. Surely there's a way to do this better. I'm guessing the imperfections in prep of the metal before painting plus flexing and expansion/contraction cause minute cracks in the paint that then expose the metal. Pipelines use a primer and coal-tar epoxy if memory serves me. The experts that designed the coating system always told me surface preparation was more important than the coating system itself. They required "metal white" color after blasting. Some also have impressed current devices that use a very low voltage current applied. Some used sacrificial anodes that are monitored and replaced as needed. I wonder if some of these technologies would help? I'm not expert enough to know as my role was to manage the project to install. I've done this in the Gulf of Mexico, South China Sea, and the Surabaya Straits over the past 40 years and all of the pipelines are still in operation. They operate with strict integrity monitoring so I'm sure they have adequate metal to operate at 1440+ psi pressure ratings. Seems to me that a good coatings and corrosion expert could come up with a practical solution. This sounds more and more like it's @JoyfulNoise ish. Matt any ideas?

Chris
 
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For seam fasteners if you worry that is breaking the coating at the holes, I have a few off the cuff ideas.

1 - Paint/treat the holes before adding hardware. Depending on the quality, they likely buy treated metal, and then drill holes into that. This means that the holes are cutting through the coating, and leaving a weak spot. This costs far less then treating metal after they are formed and drilled.

2 - Use plastic or rubber washers. This prevents the metal washers from cutting into the coating. If you are worried that they might back off, apply a bit of loctite to the screws before you put on the nuts.

3 - AFter the screws are installed, spray them with some sort of coating. This way any coating that might have broken off will end up with some protection.
 
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Excellent, Yev. I'll bet that's exactly how they make the holes, penetrating the pre-coated sheets, leaving them "rust-ready." Lowes/HD will have a good selection of nylon washers (I wouldn't use rubber).
 

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