Hi all,
Just purchased a home in beautiful Golden, CO with an in-ground fiberglass pool, maybe 20 years old. Around here, pools seem to be more of a drawback than benefit for home sales. The seller was actually planning to fill in the pool to help sell the home, but we thought it sounded fun and figured we'd try it for a season or two before deciding whether to keep it.
Here's the first problem: the seller drained the fiberglass pool in preparation to fill it in, and it's been drained for six months to a year. I understand that this is a big mistake for a fiberglass pool! Fortunately, it's been a very dry winter. The pool hasn't popped out of the ground (yet), but there is some minor inward bulging of the walls around the deep end. A small (~8" long) crack has formed about halfway along one long side of the pool, from the coping down toward the water line, probably due to the bulging. There is also a chip in the gelcoat on the bottom of the pool about the size of a quarter.
Is the pool a hopeless case at this point? I've never had a pool before, but I'm an avid DIYer and have been looking forward to owning and using one!
My primary goal right now is to get the pool filled ASAP to stop the damage to the walls. I'd like to patch the gelcoat on the bottom and drill & fill the crack before filling. Is this something I can do myself? There is only one guy around here who will touch fiberglass pools, and he's looking for at least $500 for the job.
Is there anything else I should take care of before filling the pool? There is some damage to a corner of the concrete coping that I'd like to fix, but I think that can be done when the pool is full. I'm also putting in a new light, since there is an empty niche with no lamp fixture.
I know a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll snap some photos shortly.
Happy to have found this community, and looking forward to learning a lot about chemistry in the coming months and maybe one day helping out the next guy in my shoes!
Just purchased a home in beautiful Golden, CO with an in-ground fiberglass pool, maybe 20 years old. Around here, pools seem to be more of a drawback than benefit for home sales. The seller was actually planning to fill in the pool to help sell the home, but we thought it sounded fun and figured we'd try it for a season or two before deciding whether to keep it.
Here's the first problem: the seller drained the fiberglass pool in preparation to fill it in, and it's been drained for six months to a year. I understand that this is a big mistake for a fiberglass pool! Fortunately, it's been a very dry winter. The pool hasn't popped out of the ground (yet), but there is some minor inward bulging of the walls around the deep end. A small (~8" long) crack has formed about halfway along one long side of the pool, from the coping down toward the water line, probably due to the bulging. There is also a chip in the gelcoat on the bottom of the pool about the size of a quarter.
Is the pool a hopeless case at this point? I've never had a pool before, but I'm an avid DIYer and have been looking forward to owning and using one!
My primary goal right now is to get the pool filled ASAP to stop the damage to the walls. I'd like to patch the gelcoat on the bottom and drill & fill the crack before filling. Is this something I can do myself? There is only one guy around here who will touch fiberglass pools, and he's looking for at least $500 for the job.
Is there anything else I should take care of before filling the pool? There is some damage to a corner of the concrete coping that I'd like to fix, but I think that can be done when the pool is full. I'm also putting in a new light, since there is an empty niche with no lamp fixture.
I know a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll snap some photos shortly.
Happy to have found this community, and looking forward to learning a lot about chemistry in the coming months and maybe one day helping out the next guy in my shoes!