Bond beam issues, any hacks?

[tifacola]

I’m back.

I am considering my options on how to fix my cracked bond beam. I’m kinda in a desperate situation since I cannot find anyone local willing to help me. There’s only a population of 220k and as my neighbor said, pools are kinda new thing in my town. Looking for some creative problem solving and recommendations.

Do you think it would be an option to take a concrete saw, or perhaps a jackhammer to break the control joint around the pool? I was thinking that if I can provide an expansion joint, that might prevent the deck from moving and re-cracking the bond beam should I decide to attempt to fix the crack with epoxy or hydrostatic cement followed by thin set and tile.
Lmk what you think!

 

[ajw22]

It looks to me like tiles are loose and the bond beam is cracked for a dozen tiles to the left and the dozen tiles visible to the right.

Yes, you absolutely must saw cut the deck down the the ground to create an expansion joint all around the pool.

The correct fix to rebuild the bond beam structurally is to remove the coping above the cracked areas and the tile, remove the gunite down to the crack, epoxy rebar rods into the remaining bond beam if the repair is 4" thick or more, and then top off the bond beam with concrete.

That crack is likely completely through the bond beam. Slathering some epoxy or hydraulic cement on it will not stabilize it structurally and you will probably have tiles crack off over time as it moves.

@bdavis466 may have thoughts.

Bond beam repair

I recently purchased a house with an in ground pool where the tile was loose around 1/3 of the pool, and a lot of the coping sounded hollow. After removing all of the tile I discovered bond beam damage in several places. As such, I have removed the coping stones, and chiseled out the bond beam...

www.troublefreepool.com

You will find other bond beam repair threads at Google search results

 

[ajw22]

It looks like you have cantilevered coping where there should be a slip joint between the concrete deck and the bond beam.

You have a plastic filler strip in what should be the slip joint gap. Before you saw into the deck I would pull off the plastic strip above the cracked area and see what is going on with the slip joint.

Expansion Joints and Coping - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[tifacola]

@ajw22 do you happen to have a picture of what a slip joint should look like? Does the plastic cover the entire width of the beam, This just looks like dense plastic moulding that has been glued on.

Here’s a couple more pictures.

It looks like you have cantilevered coping where there should be a slip joint between the concrete deck and the bond beam.

You have a plastic filler strip in what should be the slip joint gap. Before you saw into the deck I would pull off the plastic strip above the cracked area and see what is going on with the slip joint.

Expansion Joints and Coping - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[ajw22]

@ajw22 do you happen to have a picture of what a slip joint should look like?

Nope.

Does the plastic cover the entire width of the beam, This just looks like dense plastic moulding that has been glued on.

That plastic strip is just cosmetic covering the gap. The gap is often left open but some people think it is unsightly.

Either plastic sheets or roofing felt should be placed on top of the bond beam before the deck is poured on top of it. That creates a slip joint between the bond beam and deck. Contractors who don't understand the need for the slip joint leave it out and create the problems.

Look into the gap or feel into it and see if you can see or feel any slip joint material. If you don't have it then you need to saw cut an expansion joint around the pool deck.

 

[AQUA~HOLICS]