Small crack at light fixture in fiberglas pool

[GaryT58]

My fiberglass pool is about 15 months old. I found water is leaking from pool and tracked it to a couple small cracks (maybe 3/4" and thin, at where one of my LED lights is mounted to the pool. I suspect some kids (guests) we had over used the light as a step to help climb out of the deep end. I will have if properly fixed soon - can drain below light level and fix - ideally in a few weeks once swimming season is over.

What I would like to do now is patch in some temporary way which will not damage the fiberglass or be difficult to remove, and could be done with water still in the pool. I would need to drain about 1 ft to get to lights for more permanent and proper fix. This light is in the 8' deep part of pool. I don't want to keep filling without a fix and erode soil around pool, but dont't think that would happen easily, and no evidence of it yet. Leak just "appeared" last week. If no good way to patch now, will just drain below lights and use only drains for filtering and get someone here ASAP.


Update 9-5-17:

Just decided to let it drain below leak and have it properly fixed. Had pool installer come by today and they will talk with pool mfgr and get back to me. "May" be a ground settling issue - putting pressure on the light conduit - transferring it to the pool side.
Thanks,
Gary

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Oh Gary, No!!! That's such a shame.... I can't advise you on repairs but another poster just asked the same question. I thought you two could follow each others posts to see if they help find a solution?

Leak in light niche

Maddie

 

[GaryT58]

Update 9-14-17:

Pool builder came last week and examined, and we saw that the PVC for the lighting conduit is being pushed down and this caused pressure on the light fixture. Not sure the cause, but I suspect a small leak by the light itself, which led to some erosion under the pvc, causing it to settle, leading to the more major crack. So he had the fiberglass pool manufacturer come out.

They came on Tuesday (9/12) to examine. So to replace the light would mean cutting away concrete to be able to dig down and remove/replace the PVC. We rarely use the lights, as in summer its light until after 9pm, and we rarely swim after that. So we decided to just remove light,cut back the PVC through the hole, patch hole and go without light. They drained an addition 10" of water from pool and came back the next day to do actual repair. The patch really does look good - color matches. If right next to it you can see it, but it will be covered by water, so doubt anyone can

I am refilling pool, having added salt, and running SWG on boost mode for now. Pool is full of pine needles, leaves, and some small branches, as were hit by the tropical storm portion of Irma. Normally I would have my automatic cover closed for a storm, but it relies upon the water to provide support, so no-go there. Between myself and Robbie (my robot) it will be a busy day cleaning the pool. Hopefully the sand filter will get out all the pvc and fiberglass remnants - still not up to skimmer yet.

So, while not a great thing to happen, I am happy by the response of my PB and the pool manufacturer. I could have had the more major repair of ripping up concrete to replace the light, but not worth it to me. I would notice the difference in the concrete every time I used the pool, rather than miss the light which I may use twice/season.

I am bummed, because I have not had to add anything to pool this season prior to this other than some cya. So will see how it is after replacing a few 1000 gallons.