My old Gunite pool has some chipping in the plaster around the returns so I decided to try to patch it with Leakmaster Pool Repair Putty. The problem is the putty sticks to everything better than the plaster! The instructions suggest not overworking it and just pressing it onto the damaged surface. They also suggest using the polyethylene wrapper to apply the putty to avoid putty sticking to fingers. Unfortunately, the putty is no more likely to prefer the plaster or return PVC to the polyethylene than it is to prefer it to finger skin or nitrile gloves! The putty really wants to pull off the repair areas and follow whatever is used to apply it instead. It has no "stick affinity" for plaster or PVC it seems and the only way I can get a bit of adhesion is to use a press and smear off technique but the end result is pretty sketchy with curling edge margins and I don't expect any of the putty to last through a few passes of my Aquabot pool cleaner--even where I was lucky enough to get some of the putty to stick at all.
I used steel brushes and 60 grit wet dry sandpaper to prepare the damaged sites. I have a lot of experience with "terrestrial" epoxies of various types and applications. This stuff is unworkable in this application, as far as I can tell, so I also tried JB Weld "Water Weld" and found it to perform similarly.
Is A+B putty any better?
How about this stuff that Divin Dave linked in a recent thread?
Underwater epoxy
I could drain it down, but don't have a lot of water for refills (spring water only). The drain down would cost me over 2x what closing costs in drain down / refill water and I'd have to refil it before closing too, because it would put the water level at my light housing. I drain to the 1/2 point between the tiles and light housing for closing, which leaves a lot of water over the returns still.
I sure appreciate any advice or product testimonies!
I used steel brushes and 60 grit wet dry sandpaper to prepare the damaged sites. I have a lot of experience with "terrestrial" epoxies of various types and applications. This stuff is unworkable in this application, as far as I can tell, so I also tried JB Weld "Water Weld" and found it to perform similarly.
Is A+B putty any better?
How about this stuff that Divin Dave linked in a recent thread?
Underwater epoxy
I could drain it down, but don't have a lot of water for refills (spring water only). The drain down would cost me over 2x what closing costs in drain down / refill water and I'd have to refil it before closing too, because it would put the water level at my light housing. I drain to the 1/2 point between the tiles and light housing for closing, which leaves a lot of water over the returns still.
I sure appreciate any advice or product testimonies!
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