Marbelite (pool plaster) problems

[cleblanc]

HI there... hope for some help as I have no idea where to even start.
some background..
We purchase our house 3 years ago.. it came with a MASSIVE marbelite pool in the back yard that was put in about 20 years ago...
Everything was fine the first year... but during year 2 the pool wasn't opened as we started a massive reno project on the house (you can imagine the mass we had when we opened the pool this year).

We had algae, leaves and brown water galore. ... so we drained and cleaned the pool.. (gave it a full pressure wash and chlorine wash) ... we hadn't filled the pool back up as we had a new fence going in and some grading issues had to be taken care of. so the pool has been empty for 3 weeks except for a decent down poor of rain 2 days ago...

I looked today and there seam to be spider veins throughout the marbelite. I can't say I've seen them before but they are exaggerated by darkening around them.. my guess water penetrated the cracks.

Any suggestions on what to do? is this normal? do i just fill the pool? do I have to repair it?... Someone mentioned epoxy painting the pool, is this an option?
Photo's uploaded here ...





(enhanced contrast - Admin)

[PoolDoc]

That sort of fine cracking is typical of most plaster I've seen, and is usually not visible when the pool is full.

I think when plaster is done perfectly such cracks may not be present . . . but very, very few plaster jobs are perfect.

[cleblanc]

Thanks so much for the reply! So is the pool ok to fill?

[PoolDoc]

Yes, I think so.

[Marin]

As Ben said, that's pretty common. Word of advice though. If you can help it, never let your plaster dry out. You really shorten its life by doing so.

Nice tile by the way.

[cleblanc]

thanks both ... big help!