Crack in steps

[SeanH]

I did two layers of glass matting between three layers of resin.

I used Elmers brand. It hardens in two hours ready for sanding and paint. I sanded it after three. It seems plenty hard and I doubt it would leak anymore.

My only fear is that there is not enough support under it and I think it will crack in the same spot if someone steps on it hard. Hopefully I can get another month and a half or so out of it. There might be something to you idea about the spray foam to give it support. Depending on the price I'm planning on replacing my steps in the spring.

I'll let you know how well it lasts.

Sean

 

[SeanH]

Well it's been a couple of days now and I'd say the patch worked. I have not lost any significant amount of water since I filled it back up.

Sean

 

[deenamccauley]

Let me know how it works Sean. We have a couple more weeks before we can drop the water level and fix ours.
The fix we did under water has not held up at all.
Deena

Just wanted to update this thread from last year. We fiberglassed the steps and they are still holding up, no signs of any cracks.
Hopefully it gives me a couple of years.

 

[jjdurrant]

PB applied some epoxy to my crack this spring.. It held up until last week. Not sure what I am going to try next.

 

[deenamccauley]

Revisting the cracked stairs thread

Original post is here
crack-in-steps-t8105.html

Well, I had typed a nice long post about this but something happened....grrr.

Anyways, the orginal fiberglass patch lasted 4 years, so not too bad but this summer the patch fell off and the crack got a lot bigger. As well we had a crack on the other side of the same step and in the step on the other end of the pool.

We again tried the underwater stuff to try to limp us through the season (we are a very busy campground) but had no luck with that. People just can't leave things alone. So we dropped the water level and slapped some fiberglass patches on.
Once we closed the pool we knew we needed to do something about why the stairs were cracking.

I contacted Dave at poolstepspecialists.com. He was a great help and for around $200.00 we have repaired our steps and don't look half bad. I'm sure Dave would have done a much better job but he doesn't live anywhere near me.

Anyway, pictures speak louder then words so...
[attachment=2:33pjs2nt]stairs 007.jpg[/attachment:33pjs2nt]
The scariest part was doing the cutting. We had drilled a hole on each side just to see how much gap we had and it was at least 4 inches so we needed to cut a hole and repack under the stairs. That part was not too hard....we made a little packing stick and put in 3 (5 gallon) buckets worth of sand. We then repaired the hole with fiberglass.
[attachment=1:33pjs2nt]stairs 015.jpg[/attachment:33pjs2nt]
The areas we could not get to we put in low expanding foam.

We obviously won't be going into fibreglass repairs....lol....but it doesn't look too bad.
Now lets hope it holds.
[attachment=0:33pjs2nt]stairs 018.jpg[/attachment:33pjs2nt]

 

[deenamccauley]

revisting-the-cracked-stairs-thread-t53268.html
I did a new post for this because I could not figure out how to post pictures in a reply.

I merged your post in the new thread that you created into the original one. Try to keep related posts together on one thread. If you want to post pictures, you must reply using the "Full Editor" option rather than the "Quick Reply". With the full editor, you are given the option of adding files (pictures). Thanks!

257WbyMag - Forum Moderator

 

[mcaron74]

Are you sure those are "Fiber Glass" Steps? I have similar looking steps, and a similar crack. I was told it was ABS plastic backed acrylic steps? (from an online source who sells kits to fix them). You definately did the right thing by resupporting the steps. The complany selling the kits and DVD wanted like $250.00. My local pool company knows someone they have used before. They are going to try to schedule a few in one day and beleives i can get mine fixed for less than $200. I hope they are right. I will let you know. Has anyone else looked into this?

Thanks

 

[deenamccauley]

Are you sure those are "Fiber Glass" Steps? I have similar looking steps, and a similar crack. I was told it was ABS plastic backed acrylic steps? (from an online source who sells kits to fix them). You definately did the right thing by resupporting the steps. The complany selling the kits and DVD wanted like $250.00. My local pool company knows someone they have used before. They are going to try to schedule a few in one day and beleives i can get mine fixed for less than $200. I hope they are right. I will let you know. Has anyone else looked into this?

Thanks

I'm not sure if they are fiberglass or not. It's the repair that is fiber glass. It's really something you can do yourself, if you are handy at all.