Crack behind tile line in gunite pool

[ETNpooldon]

Hi, I’m so glad I found this forum!! We have a gunite pool that was built in 2006, refreshed/resurfaced in ~2013, and we bought it in 2020. We noticed a few tiles starting to pop off at the water line. When I went to remove them the problem area was bigger than we originally thought and some pieces of concrete came off with the tiles. The pool doesn’t appear to be leaking. I’ve revealed a ~7’ long crack at the water line. I was going to try to repair it myself (I’ve done interior tile work), and I bought some Pool Patch products, but some research has me worried that this might be structural and require an expert. What do y’all think? Thanks so much!!

 

[ajw22]

Welcome to TFP.

The usual reason for tiles popping off and bond beam cracking is a bad expansion joint between the deck and coping.

Show me pictures of the joint in the cracking areas.

Expansion Joints and Coping - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[ETNpooldon]

I’m pointing at the two expansion joints on one side of the crack. The crack starts between the skimmer and the slide. The pile of chunks of concrete on the deck is roughly in the middle of the cracked area. It goes almost to the slide. In the picture past the slide I’m pointing at the expansion joint over there. There’s some minor cracks on the stamped concrete deck that were there when we bought the house and seem to have been there a while.

 

[ETNpooldon]

I’m pointing at the two expansion joints on one side of the crack. The crack starts between the skimmer and the slide. The pile of chunks of concrete on the deck is roughly in the middle of the cracked area. It goes almost to the slide. In the picture past the slide I’m pointing at the expansion joint over there. There’s some minor cracks on the stamped concrete deck that were there when we bought the house and seem to have been there a while.

This crack on the deck does extend down and is sort of near the center of the cracked area.

 

[ajw22]

You do not have an expansion joint between the coping that sits on the bond beam and the deck.

The deck structure is putting pressure on the bond beam causing the cracking.

 

[ETNpooldon]

What would be the fix for this?

 

[ajw22]

What would be the fix for this?

Unfortunately the fix is extensive,

Demo the coping and deck around the pool. Determine the extent of the bond beam cracks. Repair and rebuild the bond beam with rebar and cement. Retile. Put new coping on the bond beam and install deck with a proper expansion joint.

 

[bmoreswim]

We had a repair done last year which was similar is scope (depth) although the root cause was up for some debate. They did about 25' of one side for about $3,500 as a price point. However, you would need to buy coping as well. In the end, I'd say it would be a nice upgrade, if you prefer coping versus cantilever decking. The rail you see in ours is for the autocover. Our tile had been discontinued so we have a slight mismatch. Oh, well. I wasn't in need of a full pool fix.

I suppose you could do that side as a fix and leave the rest cantilevered. A significantly lower price point, and see if anything goes south on the rest over time. Of course many couldn't handle the look. I personally think one full side done, especially the house side, would look fine.