how to know a crack is at surface or deep into structure?

[feitianmao]

I just bought a house with a gunite pool. There is a crack in the spa as shown here.

how do i know if it is only at surface or there is a crack in the gunite as well? I have a gunite warranty.

One contractor hired by my pool warranty company came over to inspect and said to me that it is not leaking but it is into the gunite. The second day the pool company said that it is at surface and it is not covered by the gunite warranty as it is not leaking.

my question is how i can know a crack is at surface or into structure? is it possible/common that gunite has a crack but is not leaking?

i read through the gunite warranty file. it says the warranty warrants the pool structure will remain structurally sound. "structurally sound" means that the gunite structure is capable of retaining water.

thanks you for your comments.

 

[pooldv]

Yes it is possible to have a crack in the plaster/pebble that goes into the gunite and not leak. I have had a crack that did leak and one that did not leak. PB fixed both some kind of underwater epoxy that matched our dark pebblesheen. It has been good for over two years. Most gunite warranties only warrant that the shell will hold water.

 

[OldPoolMan]

Does your pool leak? If it doesn't your warranty probably will not apply