Concrete decking cracks

[boojew]

Hey everyone!

I had my pool installed during the fall of 2020 and went with a concrete decking over unistone - which I am now regrettino. Early in 2021, we started to see hairline cracks in the decking and some of them have become unsightly.

The pool company we used has a great reputation- but with the huge demand, their customer service has dropped dramatically and so they aren’t super responsive. In your opinions, was this a bad “install” or to be expected or bad luck? Anything to do about it? Could I use masonry crack filler like this to repair it or big enough job I should be patient and get the pool company here Search Results

Probably relevant: I live in Quebec - so cold winters and freeze-thaw cycle.

Thanks

 

[kimkats]

I know concrete has cracks and it looks like yours are small ones. Interesting that most of them seem to be coming off the "control cut". Are they getting bigger? Is there any kind of settling with the deck?

 

[ajw22]

Those control cuts should have been continued down the sides. Where the control cuts stopped is where the cracks started. The purpose of the cuts in the concrete is to prevent that cracking.

 

[boojew]

Those control cuts should have been continued down the sides. Where the control cuts stopped is where the cracks started. The purpose of the cuts in the concrete is to prevent that cracking.

This is what I thought. It was nicer that way.. but I didn’t understand why they stopped, but trusted them. They did a concrete patio for me and they did the full cut there and no issues…

What, if anything, can I do? Should I have them finish the cut? This sucks

 

[AQUA~HOLICS]

Only thing you can do is to have the cuts continue through the end of the deck, this will be difficult to line the blade exactly for the continuation of the straight line.

 

[ajw22]

What, if anything, can I do? Should I have them finish the cut? This sucks

Whatever they do will not fix the cracks.

 

[KJB1]

Usually concrete contracts state they are not responsible for cracks. Look at any slab an you will find a crack eventually. When our deck was poured we had below freezing temps the next morning. Small cracks showed up in 1 area. Nothing you can do.

 

[Toxophilite]

They poured it more attention to aesthetics than function, which is eye-pleasing to the customer. Those are long runs for that thickness with no expansions and wide spaced control joints. From a stress side, you see all those hairlines radiating from the bottom ledge, and can bet the underside of these panels have many hairlines starting like the one you see on top middle of that one. Maybe they stay hairlines, who knows, but you also have freeze and thaw cycles that will exacerbate those lines as water holds there, evidenced by the wet lines. Maybe in a few more years you will have fully broken sections to deal with. There's no way to tell.

If you are still in a warranty period, keep your claim active, as there's nothing that's going to reverse where you currently are sitting.