Deena's pool repair & new liner

[deenamccauley]

We drained the pool and cut out the old liner yesterday. Aside from it taking all day to drain the pool, the liner came out pretty easily. We cut it into strips and took it out. Mind you it was very stinky and I'm sure anyone watching us was laughing their heads off while we were trying to stay upright on the slippery surface.

There is significant damage to the grout bottom so I see my cost going up before my eyes.
You can see the ground water seeping in in a lot of spots
Initial estimate for repairs and new liner was around the $4000.00 mark.

Has anyone done repairs to a grout bottom? To me it looks like the sloped side needs to be almost replaced as opposed to repaired.

 

[Guest]

is it possable to get bigger pics

 

[duraleigh]

Deena,

By it's nature, pool flooring is porous so water seeping in is not dangerous to the pool structure.

However, it will make it difficult to repair unless you can get it dry. Repairing is as simple as mixing more of the same type material and troweling it smoothly in place....but it must be dry.

Unless it dries out on it's own (and it may well), you may have to drill some holes vertically down the outside perimeter of the pool and drain the groundwater around your pool.

 

[waste]

Deena, I've done this more times than I care to think about. Bigger pictures would be a big help. Duraliegh's advice is great, as per usual If the area is always wet, the original builder may have left a 'well point' (a pipe sticking up out of the ground to which you hook up a pump that has it's bottom end below the pool floor) which will help keep the water 'at bay' while repairs are made. I can't be sure from the picture what the bottom is made of, though I'm leaning towards vermiculite. Looks like you've got a 'sport pool' and if so, the water table is REALLY high. What's your schedule for getting this done? I'm sure that I can give you the help you need.

 

[deenamccauley]

I've been told it's just a grout bottom. Not know much about grout or pools....is vermiculite like grout?
We have had serious ground water issues here since we moved here. The liner was literally floating to the middle of the pool when we pulled off the winter cover this year, so yes, we have high ground water.

Unfortunately we are supposed to get rain in the next two days too so it will probably be next week or later before we can get started on this.

I'm going to try to send some larger photos. I can't seem to get in the middle of the "file too large" and my small photos.
Ok, having no luck with bigger pics, can I send them to you privately?

 

[duraleigh]

Deena,

Ya'll might give some thought to drilling the wellpoint(s) Ted and I have mentioned. It can save you quite a bit of problems now during your liner replacement and in the future as well. It'll keep the liner from floating off the wall.

Again, like Ted, I agree that your pool bottom is a mixture of portland cement and vermiculite.....somewhat like grout but you can dent it with a hard shoe heel....much softer than grout.

 

[Guest]

thats ok, i enlarged them with my computer and can see fine.

 

[deenamccauley]

Can someone explain these well points more.
And waste....I sent the pics to your private e-mail.

Thanks everyone

 

[JasonLion]

The idea is to lower the water table level around the pool. You can do this by digging/drilling a couple of small well holes around the pool, probably lined with perforated pipe, and pumping water out of them the entire time you are working on the pool.

 

[waste]

Deena, I've got some bad news for you The sidewall you showed is trashed and should be completely redone The shallow end is ~'passable', but I would redo the entire floor. I am sooo sorry to have to tell you this, but it's my honest opinion from the pics. I think that the high water table has shifted the ground so much that the vermiculite became unstable and, therefore, all those cracks. I can't guarantee that having a few inches of gravel will prevent this from happening again (it looks like there is gravel behind the side walls), but it would lessen the damage to any areas you resurfaced (also, removing any 'squishy mud' and filling those areas with gravel would help keep the floor stable).

Again, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news! On the 'well point' issue - we frequently just dig a 1' hole in the deepest part of the pool, put a layer of gravel (to keep the pump from clogging up with mud) drop a sum pump in there and fill the hole with gravel to keep the ground water well below the floor. When we go to drop the liner, we leave the pump running until water is imminent, then use Thorite or waterplug (quick setting 'crete) to fill the hole once the pump is removed and gravel poured in to fill the hole. This is not a true 'well point' but suffices when we have a 1 time high water issue.

As always, if you've any more questions, simply ask and we'll be here for you

 

[deenamccauley]

Thanks everyone for your help and advise. We've decided this is too advanced for us/nor do we have the time to fix the floor/sides ourselves. So we are calling in the local pro's.
Now our biggest problem seems to be to actually get these people out here to fix it. We've been waiting weeks now.

I'll take some more pictures as the work is done.

(I've had a heck of a time getting back into TFP site, anyone else having issues?)

 

[deenamccauley]

We finally gote repairs done and the liner in today. The pool company assured me that repairs would be fine and that they gaurenteed their work if there was an issue, so I sure hope they are right.
He made sure he told me he had been in the business since 1968 several times and he was the orginal builder of this pool so I'm optomistic.
The liner does look great in, I wasn't sure how the darker liner would turn out but I really like it.

 

[deenamccauley]

Trying again with the rest of the pics.

 

[ktdave]

WOW, looks like those guys are doing a nice job!

 

[deenamccauley]

They did seem to do good work so I'm very hopeful that we wont have liner issues next season.

One thing they did mention was to drill a hole, put in a culvert with holes in it and drop a sump pump in it and drain it away.
The felt this would work better than putting in "well points" (I think that was what they were called from earlier posts)
This is a big, big job and will add a substantial amount to the cost of this repair so I wanted to bring it here first.
Does this sound like a logical solution to our ground water issues?
Anyone?
Thanks