Above Ground Pool Rust Repair

[jinjersey2000]

Hey all - I have an above ground pool in my yard.
One "section" of the pool is showing some rust and starting to flake away.
The rest of the pool appears intact w no visible signs of rust and seems solid.
It has created a small tear in the liner.
See pic attached.
On the positive side - the major rust is just above the normal water line.
On the negative side - I'm sure it's going to keep spreading without some sort of fix.

Any thoughts on repairs to get me another couple of seasons??

My initial thought was to take off the top rail in this section only; pull back the liner just enough to slide in a piece of sheet metal w some epoxy, duct tape around the edges of the repair steel, and patch the liner.

Any advice and insight would be great! Thanks!

 

[Texas Splash]

My initial thought was to take off the top rail in this section only; pull back the liner just enough to slide in a piece of sheet metal w some epoxy, duct tape around the edges of the repair steel, and patch the liner.

Since your rust seems to be close to the waterline, that may be an option. The deal-breaker will be once you pull the liner back to see actually how low the rust and compromised metal goes. If the steel wall is rusted much below the water level, you can imagine the water pressure exerted. So safety first. The last thing you want it that hole opening-up on you.

Good luck, and welcome to TFP!

 

[ajw22]

You have two challenges- one is to stop the spread of the rust and the other is to structurally stabilize the pool against the water weight.

if you just cover the rusted are then the chemical rusting process will continue to eat away the wall underneath it. You need to neutralize the rust to stop its spread and extend the life, if possible.

How many gallons in your pool? I think it will take something stronger then duct tape to structurally support the water weight with a piece of repair steel.

You need to take that pool out of service before it collapses on you and someone possibly gets hurt.

 

[jinjersey2000]

Since your rust seems to be close to the waterline, that may be an option. The deal-breaker will be once you pull the liner back to see actually how low the rust and compromised metal goes. If the steel wall is rusted much below the water level, you can imagine the water pressure exerted. So safety first. The last thing you want it that hole opening-up on you.

Good luck, and welcome to TFP!

Yep - I hear you. I suppose that some assessment is in line to determine the extent of the rust. I did the "feel/push" test from the outside to get a rough idea. Do you see any issue w me just locally taking off the top rail in this area to peek down behind the liner? Water is still down right now because of winter here in Massachusetts....

Thanks for the response!

 

[Texas Splash]

Do you see any issue w me just locally taking off the top rail in this area to peek down behind the liner? Water is still down right now because of winter here in Massachusetts....

While not an AGP owner myself, I don't see a problem with looking. Seems like the ideal time really aside from chilly water. I know @zea3 experienced a total AGP failure a few years back due to rust, so she may have some additional insight.

 

[kimkats]

If it looks like that on the outside it will be a lot worse in the inside. I really don't want to say this but look at the wallet and tell it is going to need to go on a diet to buy a new pool I guess you could look to see how bad it is on the inside but I don't have much if any hope it will be safe to use.

 

[Pv2]

looks to me like the liner hole is what is causing the rust, not the other way around. there are threads here on replacing a section of wall, do a search, there was one pretty recent I just saw a few days ago.
biggest issue if most of your wall is good and reparable, is that doing the repare almost mandates a new liner. they dry out, shrink, and get brittle if you drain for the repair. if you are super lucky the damage won't be too bad on the inside, but it is likely worse than the outside so... talking a repair and a liner. new pool may be close in cost. especially if there is more rust than just this spot.