Repairs and Renovation help.

May 31, 2014
296
Wentzville, MO
I am not sure if this is the best area to post in but I figured no one would get angry. :)

(warning long winded)

I have a posted a bunch over the past few years on fixing my pools issues. It's was and to an extent is such a mess that ripping it out and giving up is most likely the best idea. But I just won't do it, partly due to doing everything myself (keeping it cheap) and forcing myself to get some exercise. Oh and well it holds clean water... so it's "usable".

So far I have drained it and repaired a large crack while learning how to fiberglass (then refilled). Ripped up all of the concrete decking and dug out all of the pipes and ran new ones. I also replaced the pump and dug out down both walls about 5 feet on the deep ends to alleviate bulges. All over last summer in 100 degree midwestern heat at that(lol). We ended up swimming in it last summer once I was done in mid July. I was pretty proud of myself to be honest.

Once closing time came I was done, I didn't have time to fill it all in or the money to have new concrete poured (won't do that myself). So with spring fast approaching I need to get back at it and finish some things up.

I have one major problem that I am trying to work around at the moment before back filling. The stupid bulges are some what back and I am realizing that the only way I can get rid of them is to keep pressure off of the backside of the wall. Obviously with fill it's not going to happen but they drive me nuts and I don't want to finish this project with them in place. If I can come up with some "trick" to keep them at bay it would be awesome. And of course with everything tore up I can access them right now.

The only idea I have had was to put something behind the areas that bulge. Like a heavier gauge aluminum plate, pressed somewhat flat (I mean it slopes) against the back wall. My thought is that the pressure would "maybe" be distributed better. However to get large enough plates it would be a few hundred bucks and not a guarantee. I am going to assume they is no way to attach / adhere ridgid beams to the backside. Because those aluminum wall studs (i beam shape) also came to mind. I think someone mentioned dumping some slurry of concrete with them braced also prior (sounds sketchy if it messes up).

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I am willing to try most anything, but thought maybe you guys could come up with something better than myself to try.
 
i dont know how comfortable you are with glassing but you could glass in some support stringers and plywood like a boat, or even straight plywood to brace the backside. if the pool shell is properly formed and repaired it should not bulge, but you know that. I dont know the history of your pool shell, but it may be under glassed in those areas. there are some good online sources for materials and its not that hard to do, especially if nobody can see it. anything you do to make a form on the backside to keep the dirt and backfill away is not guaranteed and will likely fail with time. I think a few layers of mat and some marine grade plywood layered in would be a permanent fix. theres alot of videos on youtube of instructions. I fiberglassed my deck with no experience and it came out perfect. they do alot of that here in coastal areas and I got a quote for around 6k and did it myself with one of my guys in 2 days for around 1k in materials I could have blown thru it in a day if it wasnt going to be seen lol
 
I felt like cosmetics did not really matter. It was pretty easy. I can see trying to make say a boat hull perfect being a lot harder. It looked pretty decent for a first try to me anyways. I had not even considered reinforcing it in that way and I still have a lot of fabric left. Thanks a lot for the idea! Ya pricing is insane, I got a few quotes to fix my issue that came in around 3k or so and I think between the fabric, epoxy / gel I spent two hundred bucks. The worst part of wearing the respirator and gloves when I was dripping with sweat.
Thanks for the help!
 
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