Concrete Deck lifting, moving, cracking around inground pool

[BB_Sacramento]

I am noticing my inground pool's deck shifting/cracking/moving (and it's really scary!) My pool is 13 years old and I've been noticing this for about 5 years now but it's gotten a lot worse in the last year. It might be related to the drought in California - I don't know. I'm not sure what to do or who to contact. For instance, my deck is in large "sections" and some whole sections are seeming to sink (at the part of the concrete deck furthest away from the pool wall, near my fences.) so it creates a gap between the top of the pool and the bottom of the deck concrete that surrounds the pool at the top. Some of the gaps are > 1/4" wide.
There is also a crack in the concrete where the skimmer basket is, and that is getting wider. I hope it won't cause any plumbing problems or water leaks.
It seems to me that if someone were to put something under the bottom of the concrete that is sinking it would prop it up so there would be no gap at the pool edge, but I don't know if that is possible or advised. I don't even know if this is anything to WORRY about, it may just be aesthetic. It may be that it would be advised to demolish the shifting/moving/cracked deck sections and re-do them?
Has anyone else had a similar issue, and if so, what did you do? Who do you call?

 

[tim5055]

You are looking for a slab jacking company. Do a google search for your city and slab jacking and you should find someone.

Kind of like these guys. Pool Deck Leveling Contractor--lifting leveling Concrete Jack

Now, they are an example - I know nothing about that company other than it came up first on a search.

 

[Agent99]

Are you ready for some new decking? Want a color change? Perhaps stamped concrete?

The concrete decking is probably only 4-5" thick and therefore all your plumbing is buried below that so it moving shouldn't cause any pool plumbing issues.

What you might need to do is to understand WHY it is moving so that if you jack-hammer it all up, you can do something to prepare for the next pour so it doesn't do the same. After removing the decking, it might be obvious (or not) why it is slowly moving on you.

If you find a company like Tim suggested, they might be able to tell you why your concrete is moving and then you can decide what to do from there.

I just had all new decking poured a little under 2 months ago (stamped concrete) and the sad fact with concrete is that it cracks. You hope it cracks along control joints (usually does) but it may crack elsewhere, too. On both my skimmer and auto-fill, which are close to the coping, there is a crack from them to the coping. It is a thin spot of concrete there but other than aesthetics, it is no big deal. My concrete isn't going anywhere. For your decking, is it captured on all side? For example, the concrete between your house and the pool is captured by your homes foundation and a little bit of the pool and its coping (there is a gap between your concrete and coping to allow expansion and contraction...should have some kind of caulk/mastic there). For the slab that is moving a bit, is it captured or blocked by anything? If so, then the cracking is what it is and the slab shouldn't move a whole lot. If not, it could continue 'sliding' away as time goes on for whatever reason.

 

[BB_Sacramento]

Oh my gosh, I am so relieved. Thanks to both of you for your replies. I have never heard of a "slab jacking" company in my life. I have been so worried and dreading a huge fix that I can't afford. This sounds do-able. I'm so glad I asked you! (I'd love to have all new decking and colored or stamped concrete, but I can't afford it right now, so just leveling what we have would be the best solution for now!)

 

[BB_Sacramento]

Oh my gosh, I am so relieved. Thanks to both of you for your replies. I have never heard of a "slab jacking" company in my life. I have been so worried and dreading a huge fix that I can't afford. This sounds do-able. I'm so glad I asked you! (I'd love to have all new decking and colored or stamped concrete, but I can't afford it right now, so just leveling what we have would be the best solution for now!)

Update to this old thread - We ended up having a concrete company remove all the damaged concrete decking and pour new concrete. They also added dowels to connect the new deck sections to old sections so they wouldn't separate again. The new concrete is not the same color as the old but we don't care - the important thing is the deck is level again and we can use our whole deck again. The entire job was not expensive and the concrete company was resourceful and came up with good solutions to my issues which I'm sure are different at every job.

 

[sktn77a]

Great! Glad to hear you got it taken care of.