I am in SoCal and having my in ground gunite pool resurfaced. The pool is a free form kidney bean with NO jacuzzi built sometime in the early 60s from what I understand, I have no documentation or plans on the original build or any other major maintenance. I am the second owner of the house and pool, bought it from the original owners. I’m not entirely sure when the last time it was resurfaced maybe 80-90s, however the pool use was very limited but maintained by a pool service company until I bought the home. The pool looked in generally good condition but the color layer on the plaster was thinning and really started to thin in high traffic areas as we started using the pool a lot more and the top layer on the plaster started to pop last year on the entry steps. There was seemingly no leaks at the time prior to start of the work.
The concern: The plaster chip out was completed and I noticed that the shell didn’t really look like many of the pictures I had seen of other chip outs. There were no cracks I noticed at this point. When I went into the shell I noticed that the gunite was flaky in some spots along the bottom, it sounds hollow when you drag a hammer across some section and that hollow sounding section can be pried out with relative ease. The plaster guys came, and after they finished cleaning everything they did not feel comfortable proceeding mostly due to the condition of the floor of the pool.
The contractor and the concrete guy basically came back with a few options, do nothing but the bottom could fail and chunks can start popping out with foot traffic or jumping impacts, skim coat the bottom in with a 1/2in of extra concrete, or chip out further and build a new floor with new rebar and a lot more concrete.
I don’t really feel I’m being taken for a ride, I and handy enough and know what I’m seeing with my own eyes. I just want to know what are realistic expectations on the situation. Additionally, given the situation we just want a reasonable lifespan but we’re considering a larger project shape modification in 15-20 years, which now seems like it might be a full redo. We are pool people, we don’t want to fill it in and abandon it.
The concern: The plaster chip out was completed and I noticed that the shell didn’t really look like many of the pictures I had seen of other chip outs. There were no cracks I noticed at this point. When I went into the shell I noticed that the gunite was flaky in some spots along the bottom, it sounds hollow when you drag a hammer across some section and that hollow sounding section can be pried out with relative ease. The plaster guys came, and after they finished cleaning everything they did not feel comfortable proceeding mostly due to the condition of the floor of the pool.
The contractor and the concrete guy basically came back with a few options, do nothing but the bottom could fail and chunks can start popping out with foot traffic or jumping impacts, skim coat the bottom in with a 1/2in of extra concrete, or chip out further and build a new floor with new rebar and a lot more concrete.
I don’t really feel I’m being taken for a ride, I and handy enough and know what I’m seeing with my own eyes. I just want to know what are realistic expectations on the situation. Additionally, given the situation we just want a reasonable lifespan but we’re considering a larger project shape modification in 15-20 years, which now seems like it might be a full redo. We are pool people, we don’t want to fill it in and abandon it.
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