In Ground Gunite Pool Deck Issues

[germaneighter]

Hi there from just north of Tulsa. I have an in-ground gunite pool about 30 years old. It has a cantilevered deck (I hope that is the correct terminology for a deck and coping all done with one pour....) It is a "Lazy L" design with about 3' of walkway deck all around with one end extending about 10' for laying out or whatever.

The deck has cracked (about 1/2" wide crack) pretty consistently around the perimeter, about 12" from the coping edge, with the exception of a couple places.

My initial thought was to bust up the deck and coping and do another cantilever pour after back-filling and compacting the soil. I had a return water line leak that I needed to repair so while I had excavated I decided to bust out a small section of the walkway deck to get a good idea of what it would take to remove the coping from the bond beam (correct term for top of the pool wall???). There was rebar that ran parallel to the pool through the deck but there did not seem to be any bar running perpendicular through both the coping and deck. After removing the small deck section I could see the coping and how it sat on the pool wall. As suspected the crack was right in line with the width of the pool wall. But the coping seems "bonded" to the bond beam - no pun intended.

I'm hesitant to try demolition on the small section of coping to try to remove it from the bond beam. Now I am having second thoughts about replacing the coping. I am thinking about renting a masonry saw and cutting a "clean" edge just inside of where the crack is now - leaving the coping there and pouring a deck up to the coping utilizing an expansion joint. But I am also worried the coping remnant will eventually come loose from the bond beam. I would also have to repair/patch a few sections of the coping.

Any ideas?

I have a sketch but I'm not sure how to attach.....

[germaneighter]

Well I posted first time a week and a half ago and no replies. What do I need to do to get some action on this forum? Thanks

[PoolDoc]

Most of the users here are pool owners, not pool builders.

I made the decision many years ago to not tolerate standard pool industry chemical advice, and that I would not soft pedal or muffle my rejection of that approach. As a result this forum has never been a comfortable place for 95% of the folk who are in the trade.

It's possible for pool owners to learn enough pool chemistry to become expert in helping others, and this forum has depended on many of those folks over the years.

The same is not true of pool construction. Pool owners DO work with pool chemistry, but 99% of them are never involved in pool construction. That has been fine with me -- I have always considered the focus of the PoolForum to be pool chemistry and operations, NOT pool construction and repair.

However, it remains the case, that the sort of question you asked can only be answered well by someone with heavy pool construction experience.

Your best bet may be to post your question on poolspaforum.com, which DOES have a heavy pool industry user base. But while some there do accept the BBB method -- Waterbear is active there -- in general I would not recommend trusting them for advice on pool chemistry.

[BigDave]

Ben is (as always) right. Only a couple regulars here have any construction experience. I have none - be warned. I'm only posting because I think you're right. The bond beam may be thermally coupled to the "coping section" of the deck. Especially in a generally warm area like "north of Tulsa". What you propose makes sense to me (not a pool pro of any stripe). Cleaving the thermally and mechanically bonded section of the deck from the "disconnected" section sounds reasonable. Just my two cents.

[germaneighter]

Thanks Bigdave and pooldoc. Hope I diodn't come off sounding jerky. I'm a big time do-it-yourselfer (read cheap skate). Way back when I was 17 yrs old (38 yrs ago) I paid $150 to bet the front oil seal on my Opel Kadet Ralley replaced - and it still leaked. I figured out how to do it myself.....part cost $5. Since then I would rather screw it up and learn something than pay someone else....(cheap & stubborn).

Pooldoc - I'll check on poolspaforum.com. Thanks for the tip. And I have never trusted any pool shop about my chemicals. I watched my father-in-law do whatever the pool shop told him concerning pool chemicals. He would spend $100 per month minimum and that was 30 years ago. (cheap, stubborn, and skeptical)

[Marin]

If you have a cantilever deck (bullnose) instead of coping, you should have a control joint around the beam of the pool. Typically that's ~12" from the inside edge of the deck's tip. If the builder didn't put one in there, you'll see cracks exactly like what you are experiencing.

You can use a RotoZip type tool with a diamond wheel. Smooth each side of the crack til you are satisfied. Fill the crack with dry sand within 3/4"-1/2" of the top of the deck.

You can then use a self leveling seam sealant (Home Depot sells SikaFlex) to fill the joint. Be careful, it has the consistency of syrup and is very difficult to clean.

We use a commercial grade product called BOSS by Steigmeier, not sure if it's available in retail.

Good luck!