A to Z Crack Repair Example

Finding out, or seeing that your pool has a crack can be a scary thing.  To help take some of the fear out of the unknown, we will walk you through the process of a crack repair from A to Z.

For this example we will use a current project we have been working on this week.

1) Demolition

The first step in the process is breaking out the crack.  The reason we do this instead of epoxy injections and other methods is we want to relieve the tension that caused the crack in the first place.  The crack did not just appear out of nowhere.  Ground shifted, the shell was too thin, the rebar had rusted away.  Regardless of the reason, there was tension on the part of the shell that cracked and we want to relieve that tension.

Typically we will open up the structure about 6-12 inches on either side of the crack.  This really depends on the structure below.  In the case of this example, the shell was crumbling and the rebar was rusted out.  We needed to break enough to find good rebar.

3) Concrete Repair

Once the shell is dry and the rebar cage is built, we repair the shell using 4000psi concrete.  If the repair is small to medium size, we will hand mix the concrete and fill in the crack.  We use industry standard bond coats to ensure the new concrete adheres to the existing shell.

If the repair is large, or in certain areas, we will use shotcrete.  Shotcrete is a method of "spraying" in concrete.  It shoots the concrete at high speed and fills the void left in the crack.  The advantage to shotcrete is that it fills and bonds extremely well.  The disadvantage is that it is significantly more expensive compared to hand mixing.

2) Rebar Repair

After we have done the demolition, we need to wait until the shell is dry before repairing anything.  This can take anywhere from 1 day to 2 weeks.

Once everything is dry, we begin the rebar repair.  We repair any missing rebar, and reenforce with additional rebar to hold the repair to the existing shell.

4) Plaster / Pebble Patch

The final step in the crack repair is the plaster patch.  In this step we clean up the edges of the repair, and refinish the repaired area.

We have expert finishers who can take care of any pool finish including: plaster, pebble, quartz, and jewels.

The finish will never look exactly like the existing finish due to age and finish conditions.  However, we use the same materials and formulas as the original finish and adjust to get the best match possible.