Repairing underwater cracks in Gunite with Epoxy Putty

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M

mccalculust

0
Mar 3, 2013
5
Hi All,

Long time reader, first time poster. I purchased a house with a gunite pool a few months ago, and the pool started to develop cracks and leak at a pretty rapid rate. I called a leak detection service and they came out and verified that my plumbing was fine and the crack was indeed the source of the leak. They patched the crack underwater with epoxy and said that should hold for 6-8 months depending, but that it will always begin to leak again eventually.

The pool has started to leak again, and this time I've noticed a new crack, and am attempting to patch it myself with JB Water Weld (http://www.jbweld.com/product/j-b-waterweld/)

Has anyone had success repairing cracks like this? I don't mind continuous temporary solutions, I think eventually the whole pool is going to need replaced. I just want to get though one or two swim seasons before I have to do that!!!!
 
Welcome to TFP!

When you have active movement of the pool shell like that, where cracks are developing and widening over time, no patch technique is going to work for long. The pool shell, and possibly the surrounding soil needs to be stabilized and made rigid again before you will be able to make any real progress.

If you want to go for temporary solutions, there are several brands of epoxy putty, including WaterWeld, that will work. Keep in mind that temporary measures like those make true repairs a little more difficult, as most of the putty would have to be removed before a permanent repair could be completed.
 
Thanks for the replies, guys. My patching job yesterday seems to have worked for now, which makes me very happy, but I know eventually it will come back. It's been an abnormally cold March here in FL and it was tough to get in there to do it!

Pool Clown, would you mind giving details about how much the epoxy injection was for you and how big your cracks were?

On one side of my pool I have a 38' long crack, and the guy said to repair it they would cut it out and (I think) replace it with new cement and then inject it with something, and for a crack that big it would be about $5k. AND if the pool continues to settle it might just come back and crack somewhere else. If I'm gonna spend that much I might as well go all the way and drop a new shell in or something. That's why I'm just puttying it for now, and waiting to see what happens before diving into any major repairs.
 
I don't know if this is properly considered to be a repair or may be considered a bad idea fofr that matter, but our poop as I understand it was a gunite pool that was covered with a vinyl liner. This was done before we bought the place so I do not know all the particulars plus I imagine advances have been made in repair technology since then too.

While not by any means a "permanent" solution, it is an option.
 
Thanks pogo. I considered that - it seems like a vinyl liner might be a little flexible which seem like it would agree with small amounts of settlement of the concrete shell, but I'm no expert there.

Update: I have new cracks to patch today and a good deal of water loss. I expect this to be a continuous problem but am not going to let it get me down. Having pool issues, though stressful is a first world problem for sure.
 

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