waste said:Deena, what I've done in the past for similar cracks is to use 2 part epoxy- putty to patch the crack. This is only a bandaid and will only prevent leaks for a while (the epoxy tends to wear away ~fairly quickly, say within a year or sooner
I've heard of companies out there that come and resurface the steps, but I have know idea who they are or how to find them (if anyone knows about them, now would be a really good time to mention it )
There is also the issue of 'what caused the crack to begin with?' - on this it's my opinion that the stairs were not correctly/ fully supported or backfilled when the pool was installed :x
Sorry this isn't a very informative answer, but until someone chimes in with who the stair resurfacers are and how to contact them, the putty will prevent water loss for now.
deenamccauley said:How old is your pool Sean?
Our pool is about 10 years old so of course the pool company says it's not their issue. We are trying a two part epoxy tonight.
I'll let you know how it works out.
pauster said:I had the same issue .. and the previous owner had applied many coats of epoxy putty to fix it, apparently always temporarily. Most steps will flex a bit, and the flexing may eventually cause another leak. The leak washed away the supporting sand/soil, causing more flex etc.
So I decided to fix it for good: I drained the water below the step, sanded off the epoxy mountain, fitted a 3/8" thick sheet of schedule 40 PVC that covered the whole step, and used high quality underwater epoxy to glue the thing down.
McMasterCarr http://www.mcmaster.com had the schedule 40 PVC sheets in dark grey that nicely matched the steps. You can cut it with usual woodworking tools if you are careful. I used a router with a roundover bit to ease the edges.
The surface will be a bit more slippery so you want to do something to roughen it up - route shallow grooves with a core box bit etc.
I ended up spending less than $150 instead of thousands to replace the steps.
Good luck !
Patrick