wall surrounding water return completely rusted out

[LucDuke]

As you can see my pool wall is completely gone. The blue is my liner. I found this yesterday removing hoses for winter. I am a first year pool owner and I inherited this pool when I purchased my new home. I don't know how old this pool is. Not sure what direction I should take with this. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

Also not sure why my pictures are sideways but you can get the picture of my situation.

 

[banditig]

Welcome to the forum. You could cut out the rust and pop rivet a new panel inside, how is the rest of the pool wall? around the base and skimmer? You might be better to buy new pool.

 

[LucDuke]

Thanks for the welcome and for the reply. The rust goes all the way down the bottom from it leaking for the last few years I'm assuming. There are a few other spots around the pool, but not nearly as bad as this spot. I sprayed some flex-seal on it to slow the leak earlier this summer as a band-aid to get me through the summer. And it worked well as a band-aid thinking I could patch it this fall or spring.

But now I'm leaning towards thinking I need a new pool, or at the very least a new section of wall where the skimmer and return are. I was curious what other, more experienced, pool owners thought I could/should do.

 

[Casey]

You need a new pool.

 

[Veccster]

I can't find my pictures but I came up with a fix for that exact same problem. It was right at my return and went all the way down.

I bought one of those Beware of Dog signs and cut out a hole for the return. That sign is a hard plastic but any piece of sheet metal would probably work. Then I sanded, scrubbed and removed as much rust as I could. A lot of the metal was chipped away around the hole during this process. Then I spray painted with Rustoleum. Then put the sign between liner and panel to give the wall strength again. Then filled it back up with water.

The patch got me 2 more years with this pool - and only cost $10 (paint and sign).

 

[LucDuke]

I can't find my pictures but I came up with a fix for that exact same problem. It was right at my return and went all the way down.

I bought one of those Beware of Dog signs and cut out a hole for the return. That sign is a hard plastic but any piece of sheet metal would probably work. Then I sanded, scrubbed and removed as much rust as I could. A lot of the metal was chipped away around the hole during this process. Then I spray painted with Rustoleum. Then put the sign between liner and panel to give the wall strength again. Then filled it back up with water.

The patch got me 2 more years with this pool - and only cost $10 (paint and sign).

That is a good idea. i had a somewhat similar thought process of patching it to buy our family a couple more years with the pool.

My question is did you have to drain your pool completely to do this? I drained half of my pool to where the water is about 6" below the return.

 

[Veccster]

No, I only drained to just below the return. I also didn't glue it in place. The return hole was cut into the center of the sign. So the return jet, and the pressure of the water held it in place.
If you go this route, be sure to spray paint the sign with rustoleum as well.

This 'repair' worked well enough for us to get 2 years out of the pool - and be able to sell the house without the inspector noting it on his report. Though to be honest, I went back a season later to help the new couple open the pool and noticed the rust was back. But it was better than replacing the pool!