How forgiving is fiberglass, and can you fix wall bulging and floor issues?

May 31, 2014
296
Wentzville, MO
I have a fiberglass pool, it's about 17 years old and the last few seasons more and more issues are cropping up. I posted here before on a crack on the bottom that formed, but now I am hoping I can fix the entire shell up to make it stable (save the pool). Back in December of 2015 we had a weeks worth of rain, the water table is high already but the extra amount ended up screwing up my pool floor by pushing up from the underside. This caused a crack in the bottom. It also caused the pool floor to become uneven with high and low spots. And one area in particular to bump up pretty bad.

I ended up just sealing up the crack and draining under the pool using the "sump" pipe throughout the season. As I did not have the money to put into doing much more. I did notice last summer the sides bulging more than they had been as well. They always had since I moved in, but it wasn't nearly as bad.

So as I stands now I have a uneven floor (that sometimes water beds). Sides bulging in and pure sadness. :p My first thought was to just get a new pool installed this summer now that finances are better. But then the quotes came in.... So then I thought screw it I will get it removed and filled in, then again the quotes came in and it made me take pause. So I thought "what if I could have it fixed?" This led me to start researching and a bunch of articles popped up. From reading it seems things like bulging sides could be repaired. And possibly even the floor. However it would take a lot of cutting and redoing the fiberglass. This also made me wonder how forgiving fiberglass is, and if you can just cut out areas and have it fixed back up? There are also separate large slabs around the pool covering some coping. They seem to have raised slightly over the years (guess it's been trying to float for awhile). I was not sure if they could be removed and the area around the sides fixed.

I assume the back fill was sand or something crappy. Although it's getting older, so I am not sure. Is this a feasible idea? Do you guys think if its doable it would be a good idea to save it? I also have NO idea how much something like this would even cost. I do know just the 14 inch crack quotes were coming in at 3-5k. However saving the pool might be worth the cost over losing it, or buying a new one all together? Removal I was told could be upwards of 15k, does that sound right?

The pool is small, I can not remember the exact size, I believe 11-12k gallons. The original install back in 2000 (irrelevant) was 27k. So I am not sure if this idea is even worth it.

Any opinions?
 
I don't know how the pricing compares up there in MO, but it seems like you could do a replacement for better than what you indicate. Best of luck on the project, whatever you decide, and let us know how it goes for you.
 
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