My Stair Dam Project or, Dam Stair

Most of you will probably get a chuckle out of this but a few may find it useful. The pool is old, 1970's vintage Foxxx, and the steps are showing signs of age. Many years ago cracks or something started developing and haven't progressed much and they don't appear to leak but I'd like to head off a problem and do something about it. Have not thought that far ahead but I suppose there are some marine coatings that I could apply. Best way to do anything would be to do it dry. Thus the problem. I don't care to drain the pool to a few inches at the shallow end. Been pondering how to do a dry repair for a long time and got a brainstorm one afternoon floating on my noodle. Build a Dam. Pump the water out behind it and do the repair at leisure. Don't plan to do a fix until next Spring as I still have to research coatings but I did try the Dam today and it will work. A few little bugs need to be worked out but it kept the water out of the stairs. I shrunk the pics down as a consideration for dialup users like me.
Pic-1, upper left is a closeup of a stair edge showing the cosmetic cover over the liner clamping strip and the piece of stair, about 1.25" wide minimum, that the dam has to seal against. The distance between cosmetic covers is about 3' 10" and a depth of about 27". Used 1/2" plywood with a 2x4 brace to prevent the plywood from bowing excessively under water pressure. I screwed on 1x1.25" strips of wood to fit inside the cosmetic covers and provide the sealing surface. Siliconed them to the plywood for a seal. They keep the plywood off the cosmetic strips. Used a marine urethane to coat the plywood, strips, and the 2x4 brace. Bug-1.....need a better coating. The plywood is an old hunk I used for a solar array experiment years ago and isn't the best quality. Thus the black paint. Couple pinhole leaks even after several coats of urethane. Trick was the sealing gasket. Found a Tubular Vinyl Gasket at Home Depot that may work but doing the corners would be tricky. The plywood assembly isn't exactly flat so I squished a big bead of silicone seal on the wood strips, then laid the whole assembly on wax paper that was on a very flat surface. A pool table surface in my case. Protect the felt at all costs. Silicone doesn't stick to wax paper. Squished it down and let it cure for a couple days. Took a sharp box cutter knife and trimmed the silicone bead. End result, a very flat sealing surface. With the water pressure on this thing I'm not sure the flatness matters much. I set the thing in place and used the vacuum hose to pump out the 100 gallons of water then a shop-vac to get the remaining gallon or so. Bug-2...I've got one small squirt in a lower corner.
The way the weather is behaving, today may be the last dunk in the pool. Water is only 75 now. So, the saga will continue.
Comments, ideas, questions, laughs, wisecracks, are all welcome.
Al

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i'll be following your story with great interest as we also have a foxx pool..(i thought it was from the 80s..gulp..could it be 70s?:) no pictures of women with farrah fawcett hairdos on the cover to reference:) anyhew, my steps are fine..i think...but one day..who knows..i'll look forward to seeing how you make out and how you resolve. i would think yeah...some kind of marine grade liquid fibregl*** or something coating the whole thing sanded and painted if need be (given it's white, maybe not necessary) would be the way to go?

Nicely Done - Would Gelcoat work for the stairs??

Matt,
Not sure. I have the Winter find something so I'll look into it as I never used it. The pool is definitely not a showpiece anymore so appearance takes a back seat to functionality.
Thanks.
Al

Try www.poolstepspecialists.com . They are the best, and sell DIY kits.

Brad
www.waterworkspools.com

Thanks for the great pics and info Al. Mine is a Foxxx pool too, although it is just 5 years old.... so cracks must be pretty popular in their steps. I do like the dam idea.. never would have thought about it.

Thanks Brad for the link. I will check them out and see if there are any DIY kits I might try.

Rock G in SC