I bought a house with an older inground grecian style pool. We have had no major problems up until 2 years ago when a crack formed in a wall behind the liner. It jutted out but didn't break the liner. The next year it was a little worse and a corner felt soft. The liner was still holding and we intended to get the liner replaced this year. When I opened the pool I noticed that the sidewalk had sunk a little at that damaged wall and the liner was pushed out of its channel. There was rust behind the liner where it was pushed out. I called a local pool guy and he sent a couple of guys over to take a look to see if it was safe to swim. They pulled the liner away from the wall to look down and told me not to swim. They didn't give me any options other than recommended that I drain the pool below the wall. I did what they asked and pulled the liner back a little more and found a lot of rust and holes. I can't get them to come back to look at it and every pool place in the area is completely swamped. I'm in this by my self. I would appreciate any and all ideas to repair this mess. Here are some pictures.
Inground wall rust and holes
- Thread starter CBennett73
- Start date
- Jul 21, 2013
- 52,424
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Welcome to TFP.
Your pool is “replace” not “repair”. I think you basically need to demo the deck and build a new pool with new walls in the hole.
While you are studying the problem I suggest you brace the walls with 2x4 and plywood. A storm can cave in those walls.
@jimmythegreek thoughts?
Your pool is “replace” not “repair”. I think you basically need to demo the deck and build a new pool with new walls in the hole.
While you are studying the problem I suggest you brace the walls with 2x4 and plywood. A storm can cave in those walls.
@jimmythegreek thoughts?
Last edited:
sktn77a
Gold Supporter
The only way you can repair walls is if the framing behind them is decent. What you see is sheetmetal amd that attaches to C channel very similar to metal stud framing. Sheetmetal can be skinned over but needs decent framing to attach. If the wall buckled amd settled a little the channel is likely rusted bad too. Only cheap repair is to frame a pool wall inside this and pour concrete walls, extend the piping thru, and hang liner on that and use new coping to blend into existing deck. Otherwise it's a fiberglass pool shell inside this hole, or rip it all out and start new.
If I build a new wall inside of this how can I get the steps to line up? Could I tear out this old metal wall and replace it with a cinder block wall? I'm really out of my league here, but I've got to do something. Thank you for your suggestions.
I'm in a similar situation. DIY pool kit is 42 years old, and needs the walls replaced. I talked to my concrete guy who redid the concrete several years ago, he's working on a quote for another R&R on that, however, the new pool kits have a broader corner radius, so in the deep end, this will put the corner of the wall over "nothing", and will need a fill in on the corners. I guess I need to find a PB that would do just this step? I think I can handle the rest of it. My concrete guy has laborers available to remove the fill in behind the wall, I can do the plumbing.
@CBennet73, have you contacted any PB's, and what are they offering?
What radius do you have now? Its been pretty standard for years to have 2ft, 4ft and 6" radius corners.
I've seen an old steel wall pool that needed walls left in place amd turned into a slightly smaller concrete wall pool. You can even cut the concrete back and save it amd add new coping. Many areas of the country pour concrete wall liner pools. You already have the rear of forms in place
I've seen an old steel wall pool that needed walls left in place amd turned into a slightly smaller concrete wall pool. You can even cut the concrete back and save it amd add new coping. Many areas of the country pour concrete wall liner pools. You already have the rear of forms in place
It has 6" radius. I've been told those are not as desirable because the liner in the corners doesn't get up against the wall and causes a hot air spot behind it which can reduce the life. If they still make a 6", we could always go back with that. The guy that replaced our liner 11 years ago is going to stop by this week. He's done hundreds of these pools
I'm going to do what you have recomended. Thank you for you input. It seems to be my best option. How thick do you recommend I make the wall?
Most concrete wall pools are formed at 8" for regular concrete. You need a little bit of a footing under it for support. I'd consult an engineer for a site evaluation on soil but if you have good soil and used good mesh mix could prob get away with 6"
I'm not planning to replace the entire pool, just a 15 foot section. I'm going to remove the deck, dig the back fill and an 8 inch deep footing. with mesh and rebar. do you think that this will be an issue butting up against an existing metal wall?
Should be OK I've seen it done. Try real hard to use some rebar or metal plate to tie the steel wall into the new pour. I'd your gonna go thru the trouble of digging out backfill why not just grab 2 steel panels amd replace that. Much easier
I can't find the steel walls without buying a kit. Ive looked on a few websites and they only seem to have kits available. Also Ive decided not to remove the backfill because their is about 6 inches of concrete at the base of the steel wall. I think that I would tear up the pool floor trying to get all of that out. I'm just gong to pour the wall on the inside of the pool per the original plan. Thanks again for all of your help!
I just looked at the pics to refresh my memory. How bad are the panels at the C channels and the panel joints? If you bang on them are they still somewhat sound? How about trying to drive a self tapping sheetmetal screw into them will they hold?
Other than the panels that you see in the images, they are pretty solid. There are a couple other small holes int he corners, but I can patch those.
2 things you can do. You can get new sheetmetal and skin it over. And attach to the C channels amd whatever will hold a screw. Before you do this you can make access holes at tops of panels amd pour a wet slurry mix to fill the voids to support panels amd channels even further. The sheetmetal just decouples the earth from liner. The other thing I've seen done is the use of PVC sheet material like 1/4" 4x8 sheet cut to size. Older pools were made of treated lumber amd composite sheetface and are still around. I know of one in my neighborhood from 1979 still going