New to forums, but advice and help for “possible” spa leak

[jakemiller69]

Gunite is like a sponge, when it is exposed to water, it will soak it up. It not a hydraulically sealed material like plaster is. So the entire stone face of the spa outer walls, with no waterproofing material applied, allows any water in contact with it to seep in. As you cycle the spillover of the spa, the water will soak into the gunite and then evaporate away or get pulled into the ground depending on water saturation. It’s also a large, rough surface with a lot of water flowing over the stones and in & around the crevices. That will enhance evaporation during hot days. So it’s not all that surprising that you’re seeing water loss.

The comments made by those people you brought out to inspect their pool sound like hedges to me - they don’t want to throw the original PB under the bus and they don’t want to be responsible for fixing his mess. It’s like they’re just shrugging their shoulders and saying, “Meh! Looks ok to me?”. It’s pretty unusual to NOT waterproof a concrete wall that is exposed to water. Think about home construction with basements - you’d never build a basement without adding waterproofing layers to the outside wall that sits in contact with the ground! Same concept with a raised spa wall - if it’s going to see any water at all it either has to be plastered OR a waterproofing material has to be applied.

So I think you’re at the point where you either have to live with what you have OR spend a lot of money to deconstruct that spa and have the exterior properly engineered.

Another local pool builder, not mine used to contract and build the pool; had a recommendation similar to that. Even if we remove the live stone up to where the water sits in the channel for the spillover area, it should reduce a lot of that loss. But my gut has been that since the beginning. I think deconstructing the spa and applying proper waterproofing and then either tile and re-stoning would see a lot of my loss go away.

Adding an automatic fill hose, which is what my pool builder said to do... would just prolong the waste and cost.

 

[jakemiller69]

Update: the PB finally admitted the spa was done wrong and not water coated.
They’re beginning the work and I’m not sure how this works, but how Is the waterproof coating applied? Is it on the shell or on back of stone?
I want to make sure this is done right so we don’t need another rebuild.

 

[ajw22]

Update: the PB finally admitted the spa was done wrong and not water coated.
They’re beginning the work and I’m not sure how this works, but how Is the waterproof coating applied? Is it on the shell or on back of stone?
I want to make sure this is done right so we don’t need another rebuild.

Great you have a Pool Builder who steps up to fix his mistakes.

See post #5. The waterproof membrane is painted onto the gunite shell. Then the tiles or stone are cemented on top of the membrane.

 

[jakemiller69]

Great you have a Pool Builder who steps up to fix his mistakes.

See post #5. The waterproof membrane is painted onto the gunite shell. Then the tiles or stone are cemented on top of the membrane.

Thank you for confirming that. The project manager just confirmed that as well.
It took 4 months and a lot of hassle, but they finally are doing it. The manager told me they fixed 4 other pools without this coating and it caused that 1” loss exactly like mine. The forum members here called that from the start.

 

[mknauss]

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[jakemiller69]

The saga may continue... the PB pointed out a cracked tile and small concern it could be a crack in the gunite shell in this area.
What do you all think? There is no waterfall on top of that area for some context.

 

[jakemiller69]

Another photo

 

[jakemiller69]

Bump

 

[ajw22]

The saga may continue... the PB pointed out a cracked tile and small concern it could be a crack in the gunite shell in this area.
What do you all think? There is no waterfall on top of that area for some context.

I doubt the gunite has a crack there but you never know. The PB has a few extra tiles? It is easy enough to chip out that tile and take a look.

I don't knwo what the joint is between the coping and the tile but the stone may have been resting on the tile and caused that crack.