Inground Fiberglass pool, need help ASAP!!

Hi all,

I bought a house in 1999 which has a fiberglass in-ground pool. I believe it is one of those pools where they dig a hole and then drop the fiberglass pool mold. Anyway, about a year ago we had some flooding, the back yard was mostly underwater for a few days. About a week after the yard dried, I noticed that some bulging was appearing along the walls of the pool in the deepest part. Stupid me, not knowing anything about pools, decided to drain the pool up to where the bulging was occuring (to see if I could determine the cause). So, I am in the pool inspecting the walls when I hear some cracking noise (like an egg cracking), I look at the bottom of the pool; where the floor meets the wall, and I see a crack begin to appear. In no time the crack grows from a few inches to about a foot or more. Dirt immediately starts to sip into the pool.

I have called just about every pool builder in Houston, and no one appears do do any fiberglass repair, or even deal with fiberglass pools. So I don't know what to do..

I was dragging my feet on this, because frankly, it was depressing just trying to figure out what I needed to do to fix my pool. Now, I am being forced to relocate out of state and need to sell my house. My house is fully paid for, but I obviously can't sell it with a broken pool. I want to see if anyone knows what I can do to solve my problem. Right now, I believe I only have two choices, remove the pool an fill the hole, or replace the pool. With this in mind I have the following questions.

1. If I decide to remove the pool, fill up the hole and plant grass; do i have to contact anybody to let them know the house no longer has a pool?

2. How much would it cost me to get rid of the pool all together.

3. If I want to replace the pool, would it be cheaper to just build a concrete pool which would assume the exact dimensions of the existing fiberglass pool, as opposed to building a new pool from scratch?

4. How could I repair my existing pool? I was told by a friend, that since the dirt around the pool caved in, simply fixing the crack will not solve the problem. He said I have to fix the ground around the pool before fixing the crack.

Thanks for your time. Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated!!

I'm sorry, I really don't have any answers for you - you may want to contact a fiberglass pool dealer - like San Juan or Waterworld - they may be able to tell you if the pool would be able to be repaired. At least they will know what is possible, and can direct you on your best options.

I agree with mbar. You should try to contact a fiberglass pool mfg. FG is gaining popularity all over the country, so there must be someone nearby that could advise you.
When I put my pool in, I sunk a 10" wide by 8' rigid pipe along and under the deep end of the pool. That way I can pump some of the groundwater away from the pool if I ever need to drain & service it. Your pool may or may not have such a drain. In any case you will have to remove the pressure from the outside of the pool before you can make a repair inside. Not exactly sure how to do it, but it may involve breaking part of the patio and removing the soil around the area where the problem started.

I agree with both posts above..
contact a fiberglass pool manufacturer.

I know with fibreglass boats; they can be repaired with gapeing holes in them...
but that's apples & oranges ( sorry)

I think contacting a realtor would be my first choice. Since you are selling, you need to understand how much value will be gained by fixing your pool.

I'll bet you'll find the most cost-effective plan will be to remove the pool and fill it in.

Find out the cost to fill it in too, including sod. That will give you a repair or replace budget, if it can be repaired at all.

As an inverstment, pools don't ad enough value to the price of a home to cover the construction cost. A pool is only worth additional money if a home buyer is specifically looking for a pool, and then only ads about half the cost of the pool to the value of the home. Your best bet is probably going to be removal - it might be a different story if you were staying in that house.