Hello. We are in the middle of having a fiberglass pool installed. The pool builders just got the water cleaned up and we can now see there are two hairline cracks along the seat ledge and stairs. We are having a separate landscaping company do the patio. They just got the bond beam around the pool poured last week but I asked them to hold off on the coping until I figure out what to do with these cracks. I reached out the the pool builder earlier today and they said they’ll be out right away. Was interested in others opinions. Thank you.
Hairline Cracks in New Fiberglass Pool
- Thread starter PoolFan248
- Start date
-
- Tags
- crack fiberglass
- May 3, 2014
- 63,001
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Welcome to the forum.
Likely spider cracks.
You will have to decide whether to leave them or repair. The repair will never match the existing gelcoat.
Likely spider cracks.
You will have to decide whether to leave them or repair. The repair will never match the existing gelcoat.
JohnnyUtah
Member
It’s a RiverPools T40.
Thank you very much for the reply. That’s what I was thinking those are. Those type of cracks are not structural correct? Now that the pool and been fully backfilled and the bond beam placed are they likely to worsen?
- May 3, 2014
- 63,001
- Pool Size
- 6000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
They are not structural.
Typically they stop occurring once the shell is settled in place.
JohnnyUtah
Member
Structural? The gel coat is the barrier and once that it’s comprised, it will only worsen as time passes. Complete BS for the prices they are charging for these shells for them to start spider cracking immediately only to be told it isn’t structural. Without taking the shell out or excavating underneath the affected area, you won’t know the extent of the damage.
Not necessarily true. The structural portion is bonded together with the same resin as the gel coat, the gel coat just doesn’t have any glass fiber in it. It’s still water proof as long as there isn’t a structural defect in it allowing water to pass through. It can be patched, but like mentioned the patch won’t match the surrounding surface color.
Thank you for the explanation. They are located underneath a return jet and when the jet is running you can’t see them at all.
The pool builder is recommending we get them patched and of course offering to cover the cost. We are probably just going to go ahead and do it since the water movement from the return jet would help hide the patch as well.
While I’d prefer that they were not there at all I was even more concerned that these could leak or progress to a full thickness crack in the fiberglass.