Firstly - Thank you for this forum. I have referenced it quite a bit over the last year during my pool overhaul project.
A little history - We bought a home in Coastal WA built in 1907 from my Grandma (the family home) about 8 years ago. This pool has a 75' X 27', 68,000 gallon concrete-gunite pool in the back yard. This pool was built about 1965 according to the little medallion cast in the pool deck near the diving board. The square-round pool is 9.5' deep in the deep end and has sloped sides from bottom to top (it does not meet current Code standards for side slopes). The last time anyone used it was 2004, the summer after my grandfather died. He was the one who kept it going. My family grew up around this pool, so many great memories and great days spent swimming with any number of family dropping by.
At any rate, we bought the house thinking that we would get the pool going again - by my oldest daughters freshman year (the goal). She is in the 8th grade now. The pool was spider webbed with structural cracks from top to bottom, side to side, everywhere. The main drain was permanently plugged, all the skimmer piping was okay, but the concrete around the skimmers was broken. I have an acquaintance in the biz, so I invited him over for a look. He told me that the only option for repair with a guarantee would be to backfill and drop in a new pool liner, total costs probably about $100k. I thought about it a lot and it just is not a great investment here in the Pacific Northwest. We only get 3 months of use from the pool on our best summer. So I decided to keep the current pool shape and go it alone. Sweat equity, stupidity, or stubbornness I am not sure which.
Last summer I:
Chased every crack, backfilled and ground flush. The big cracks I repaired structurally with rebar and epoxy, wire, fiberglass, whatever fit.
Cut in all new piping returns, lights, skimmers and backfilled old lights, skimmers and other holes.
Cut/bored in a new main drain set up, cut in floor drains, backfilled and ground flush.
Rolled in a 4 part liner over the new smoother surfaces.
Went through 5 grinders, $800 of blades and diamond cups, and 15 filter sets on my breathing mask. It was a long summer. Before and After:
The water table fluctuates between 6' and 11' BGS (I installed a monitoring well). The pool was watertight after last summers work until January this year, when it cracked again during a hard freeze. The crack was not in the liner, it is clearly a structural crack. This pool's construction, age, and location with the water table causes settlement. My grandfather spent all of his time filling cracks in the pool to keep it going. I know that will be my lot in life for the next 10 year, and have made my peace with it. This pool will never be trouble free! I figure I will have to make temporary fixes all summer long and at the end of swim season when the water table is down, drain and make better repairs. Maybe pool is to strong of a word for this thing, and "concrete hole" is a better term.
Anyway I have all the pipes stubbed out from the returns, skimmers, main drain and am about to start running pipes and conduit to the new machinery I haven't bought yet. I will have lots of questions going forward, and am happy to be here.
First question - What is a good temporary crack repair system for concrete/gunnite? I am looking at Aquabond because it has a mixing tip and seems like that would be the way to go for underwater work. The first crack is below the current water table so I will need to work with a positive head in the pool on that one.
Thanks - Ryan
A little history - We bought a home in Coastal WA built in 1907 from my Grandma (the family home) about 8 years ago. This pool has a 75' X 27', 68,000 gallon concrete-gunite pool in the back yard. This pool was built about 1965 according to the little medallion cast in the pool deck near the diving board. The square-round pool is 9.5' deep in the deep end and has sloped sides from bottom to top (it does not meet current Code standards for side slopes). The last time anyone used it was 2004, the summer after my grandfather died. He was the one who kept it going. My family grew up around this pool, so many great memories and great days spent swimming with any number of family dropping by.
At any rate, we bought the house thinking that we would get the pool going again - by my oldest daughters freshman year (the goal). She is in the 8th grade now. The pool was spider webbed with structural cracks from top to bottom, side to side, everywhere. The main drain was permanently plugged, all the skimmer piping was okay, but the concrete around the skimmers was broken. I have an acquaintance in the biz, so I invited him over for a look. He told me that the only option for repair with a guarantee would be to backfill and drop in a new pool liner, total costs probably about $100k. I thought about it a lot and it just is not a great investment here in the Pacific Northwest. We only get 3 months of use from the pool on our best summer. So I decided to keep the current pool shape and go it alone. Sweat equity, stupidity, or stubbornness I am not sure which.
Last summer I:
Chased every crack, backfilled and ground flush. The big cracks I repaired structurally with rebar and epoxy, wire, fiberglass, whatever fit.
Cut in all new piping returns, lights, skimmers and backfilled old lights, skimmers and other holes.
Cut/bored in a new main drain set up, cut in floor drains, backfilled and ground flush.
Rolled in a 4 part liner over the new smoother surfaces.
Went through 5 grinders, $800 of blades and diamond cups, and 15 filter sets on my breathing mask. It was a long summer. Before and After:
The water table fluctuates between 6' and 11' BGS (I installed a monitoring well). The pool was watertight after last summers work until January this year, when it cracked again during a hard freeze. The crack was not in the liner, it is clearly a structural crack. This pool's construction, age, and location with the water table causes settlement. My grandfather spent all of his time filling cracks in the pool to keep it going. I know that will be my lot in life for the next 10 year, and have made my peace with it. This pool will never be trouble free! I figure I will have to make temporary fixes all summer long and at the end of swim season when the water table is down, drain and make better repairs. Maybe pool is to strong of a word for this thing, and "concrete hole" is a better term.
Anyway I have all the pipes stubbed out from the returns, skimmers, main drain and am about to start running pipes and conduit to the new machinery I haven't bought yet. I will have lots of questions going forward, and am happy to be here.
First question - What is a good temporary crack repair system for concrete/gunnite? I am looking at Aquabond because it has a mixing tip and seems like that would be the way to go for underwater work. The first crack is below the current water table so I will need to work with a positive head in the pool on that one.
Thanks - Ryan