Hi All!
I recently had to repair a crack in my thermoplastic steps and I bought a repair kit from Pool Step Specialists. I realized part way through that I was going to need to repair more than the one tread, and Steve graciously sent me an extra kit which ended up being overkill. Ultimately, I have an extra thermoplastic step repair kit that I do not need and I want to give it to anyone in the community who could use it (just cover shipping if you don't mind!). The only thing I used out of the kit are the foam rollers, which I'm sure can be had cheap at most hardware stores. I'm happy to send some photos of the kit if anyone is interested in it. I really appreciate the help I've received from both this community, and the folks at Pool Step Specialists, and just wanted to pass it along. They said the Step Gel (I believe some sort of epoxy gel coat) only has a 6mo or so shelf life, so I figured it might as well not go to waste with me. Feel free to message me and/or reply in the thread.
I ended up going a bit (ok, a lot) beyond their process and busted out the sinking pad behind the steps, backfilled with compacted crushed limestone, and also poured concrete under the surface of each tread. They recommend just cutting holes in the steps and reinforcing them from above, then patching the holes. You can see, I still had to do that on the second tread from the bottom because I couldn't quite get concrete to flow under there and they still had some flex in them. After I reinforced the steps, I repoured the pad behind the steps. Finally, I did the fiberglass repair and coated the treads of the steps using the kit. The steps now feel rock solid...because, well, they are 50% concrete.
Here are a few pics of the process!
Hope this was interesting to someone, and that maybe there's another person with cracked thermoplastic steps out there in need of help!
I recently had to repair a crack in my thermoplastic steps and I bought a repair kit from Pool Step Specialists. I realized part way through that I was going to need to repair more than the one tread, and Steve graciously sent me an extra kit which ended up being overkill. Ultimately, I have an extra thermoplastic step repair kit that I do not need and I want to give it to anyone in the community who could use it (just cover shipping if you don't mind!). The only thing I used out of the kit are the foam rollers, which I'm sure can be had cheap at most hardware stores. I'm happy to send some photos of the kit if anyone is interested in it. I really appreciate the help I've received from both this community, and the folks at Pool Step Specialists, and just wanted to pass it along. They said the Step Gel (I believe some sort of epoxy gel coat) only has a 6mo or so shelf life, so I figured it might as well not go to waste with me. Feel free to message me and/or reply in the thread.
I ended up going a bit (ok, a lot) beyond their process and busted out the sinking pad behind the steps, backfilled with compacted crushed limestone, and also poured concrete under the surface of each tread. They recommend just cutting holes in the steps and reinforcing them from above, then patching the holes. You can see, I still had to do that on the second tread from the bottom because I couldn't quite get concrete to flow under there and they still had some flex in them. After I reinforced the steps, I repoured the pad behind the steps. Finally, I did the fiberglass repair and coated the treads of the steps using the kit. The steps now feel rock solid...because, well, they are 50% concrete.
Here are a few pics of the process!Hope this was interesting to someone, and that maybe there's another person with cracked thermoplastic steps out there in need of help!
