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Homebrew Bond Coat

Are you planning to invest in a pool replaster?  If so, the best decision would be to choose a plaster finish that will last longer than the current plaster has lasted in your pool. Choosing white plaster is not a good investment for a pool replaster. White plaster will not last more than 5 years. By that we mean when it is 5 years old, it will look double its age and be nearly worn out in visual appearance.  The companies that offer white plaster in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area will be the same companies guaranteed to be using a homebrew bond coat to improperly secure your investment to the substrate.

The most important part of a pool replaster is the surface preparation. How will the new plaster be bonded to the substrate? Most companies think this is the least important part of a replaster. Most, if not all of them, use homebrew bond coats.  The primary component of homebrew bond coats is glue.  Cheap glue. Companies use homebrew bond coats to be able to save the most money possible on their replaster jobs. They use the cheapest glue they can get. They use glue that is not designed to be submerged in water.

Pool plaster is not waterproof. It is water tight. Pool plaster is semi-permeable, water will get to the back of the plaster. Once water gets through the plaster, it goes to work on the worthless homebrew bond coat. If by chance the plaster was bonded to the homebrew bond coat, the water will re-emulsify it. That means your plaster is no longer secured to the pool shell.  A hollow spot will develop. Water will continue to separate the plaster bond and discolor the new pool replaster investment. Overtime unexplained water loss, stains, and black algae will develop.

Homebrew bond coats must be removed from our industry. They simply do not work. The companies that use them do so to save money for themselves, not for the pool owner. If you get a quote for pool replaster, demand that they give you a 5 year warranty. Otherwise what is the point of spending your money with them?

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Pool Cracks

As I have previously mentioned, there are many reasons why a pool cracks and what may have caused the cracks to develop. One of the major reasons points to the original construction of the pool. If the soil where the pool was built was not sufficient to support the weight of the pool, the pool will move and crack.  Soil in North Texas is known to move.  If it is too wet it swells. If it is too dry, it shrinks.  If you are a homeowner, undoubtedly have been told to put soaker hoses around your foundation. Do you know why you were told that?  If you also have a pool, why has no one told you to do that around the pool as well?  Soaker hoses around your home foundation are meant to keep the soil around the foundation moisture consistent. The problem arises when the soil dries out and compacts or shrinks away from the foundation. When this happens there is nothing supporting the concrete. The foundation then shifts or moves and cracks. Why do you think there are so many foundation companies in North Texas?  The same problem exists in swimming pools. Which is compounded if a leak develops from the pool cracks.

How do you repair pool cracks? To do so with success you must understand the cracks are a symptom of a larger problem. If you do not address the problem, the cracks will return. There two options for pool stabilization that G&B has utilized with success. We have placed piers in pools to stabilize the shell against future movement. We have also stabilized the soil under the pool to prevent future movement. There becomes a point in crack repair that the soil must be addressed if you expect the pool to become one you can enjoy rather that put up with.

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Crack Repair

 

What do you do if you had crack repair done with epoxy injection on your pool and it failed?

First, you must consider if other options were presented and did the crack repair company give any insight as to what might have caused the cracks? There are several reasons why the pool may have cracked in the first place. Pool cracks are generally a symptom of a larger problem with the pool. To properly repair a cracked pool the issue that caused the pool to crack must be identified and corrected. There is not a “one repair fits all” in regard to pool crack repair. Experienced companies will inspect the pool to identify the best repair methods and then provide you with some options. If a crack returned, it is either due to the wrong repair method being used or possibly the issue that caused the pool to crack is still present.

Epoxy injection repair is limited by the crack it is repairing. If the crack is not clean inside the crack, the epoxy will be bonding contaminated walls of the crack together, not the pool shell.  There essentially is nothing repairing the crack if that is the case. This is the case in most pools over 5 years old. Epoxy injection should not be done without also including staples in the repair. Most staples on the market are about as good as epoxy inside a dirty crack. They are worthless. G&B uses our own proprietary staples. We use a process like no other company with our staples. We open up the pool shell with our Hydro Demo process where the crack is located and find the structural steel on each side of the crack. G&B then saddles the steel with our G&B staples and secures it in place with epoxy. G&B’s staples are then tightened to put post tension strength on the shell along every 12” of the cracks. That same crack is also epoxy injected for a double repair effort. Keep in mind if the pool shell is sitting on unstable soil there is another option that must be utilized. If not the crack repair will likely fail regardless of the use of G&B staples or not.

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Crack Repair

Pool Patch Manufactures

 

 

Pools crack for several reasons… but how do you repair them? To understand who you should hire to perform crack repair in your pool you must understand these simple issues.  First of all, there is no such thing as “just a plaster crack”. All pool cracks are structure cracks. Second all pool cracks leak. It may not be a fast leak, like a tub drain, but it definitely is a leak. It should be dealt with sooner rather than later. The pool gunite or substrate is not watertight. If the plaster has a crack, it means the pool has a leak.  Once the plaster is cracked the pools’ ability to be watertight is compromised. There is an exception, homebrew bond coats allow the pool water to separate the outer plaster from the under plaster layer. When that happens a debonded hollow spot in the outer plaster layer can crack due to pressure from the water between the plaster layers. These cracks generally look like spider webs or crow foot pattern cracks. Homebrew bond coats do not work.

 Pool crack repair cannot be done with much success without understanding these issues. Most repair techs offer epoxy as the repair option, these same companies also use homebrew bond coats.  To understand how to successfully repair pool cracks you must realize that the crack is always a symptom of a larger problem. If you simply repair the crack with just epoxy you most likely will not be addressing the issue that caused the crack at all. There is a very good chance that epoxy alone will not repair a crack at all. Pool water has Total Dissolved Solids. A crack that is leaking will have that same TDS inside the crack. The epoxy works well, only if it bonds to clean concrete. The likelihood that a pool crack in 5 year old pool will not be contaminated is slim and none. It definitely won’t be clean concrete. That is why most techs include a coat of polyurethane over the crack repair in case the epoxy fails. This is also why crack repair with epoxy should not be done without also incorporating quality staples.  G&B uses our own propriety pool staples for crack repair.  They are the only staples on the market that properly address the goal of including staples in crack repair.

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Introduction to Repair of Pool Cracks

 

 

Pool cracks develop for several reasons, such as:

  • Inadequate bearing of the soils or soil related issues. Pools are built all of the time without anyone even considering the soil in which the pool is built on.  Consider the weight of a diving pool.  A diving pool can hold +/- 30,000 gallons of water, with the water alone weighing +/- 240,000 lbs.  When you consider all of the construction material and the water, a diving pool can weigh in excess of 450,000 lbs.  The reactive soils in North TX assure most pools will be built on soil that is not suitable for the pools weight unless the soil is properly prepared or construction efforts are in place to deal with the soil issues.
  • Inadequate tensile strength, and/or lack of, or improper placement of reinforcing steel. The rebar installed in older pools varies on its placement. I have seen rebar installed in larger than 10”x10” on center grid patterns which is bad. 8”x8” on center grid pattern is standard in today’s pools.
  • Inadequate compressive values of the gunite. Gunite application can be great and perfect for pool construction, as long as all rebound and trimmings are thrown out of the pool during construction. The reality of that is that the total cost would increase if that were done. So most companies do not throw any of that dead material out. It winds up in the pool floor, steps, and benches of the pool and spa. There is no compressive strength to rebound and trimmings. The areas of the pool that have rebound in them have no compressive strength and the pool structure is weak in that same area.

Add water loss or improper drainage to the equation and the above issues are compounded. Pool cracks consistently develop under skimmers and it is always due to a leak in the grout where the tile meets the actual skimmer. If you are losing water in your pool, it must be considered a major problem. You must be in control of the water in your pool. When you have a leak, it will soon be in control of you.

G&B does not use the same repair methods that every other company offers. We understand and respect the power of water.