Stone waterfall needs repair and sealing
Our waterfall was built with soft, porous stone (I'll skip the story) and was not sealed in any way. Some of the mortar (concrete?) near the edges of where the water falls, has come loose and/or developed fine cracks. This has allowed the water to find its way outside the stones and onto the deck. The water on the deck appears within just a few minutes of turning on the waterfall. It's not gallons and gallons, but definitely noticeable, creating a puddle. Based on where the deck first starts to get wet, it appears the "leak" is from one or two specific places.
We have some deterioration of the stamped concrete deck, about 8"x10", where the top layer of the concrete is gone and the aggregate is exposed. I blame it on the leak of pool water (saltwater) collecting there, especially during freeze/thaw cycles in winter...we don't close the pool and the waterfall runs as part of the freeze protection cycle for the pool. It's gotten worse each winter (just 2) and I'd like to get this repaired before another winter makes things even worse.
While the longterm solution to the waterfall issue is probably to demolish the existing waterfall and have it done right with the proper stones, that's not in the realm of possibility for us right now. I'd like to just seal up the cracks and voids as best we can and perhaps put a penetrating type sealer on the stones as well, at least the interior portions where the water is supposed to be falling.
Any advice on products and/or techniques to use??? Please don't advise us to contact our PB...that's NOT an option.
I've also posted this on troublefreepools, so no need to respond in 2 places.
Last edited by dawndenise; 08-28-2008 at 10:00 AM.
Reason: modified description
Sandy
15,600 gallon, screened 15x30 IG plaster sport pool with 6x8 tanning area, Aquarite SWCG, Hayward cartridge filter, Polaris 280 cleaner
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