Rusty walls

[shadowman]

While I was enjoying our extended pool season, I swam around and ran my hands over the vertical walls of my IG vinyl pool. I felt several areas where the steel walls were rusting and if I pushed on the spots that were like little bubbles they would crunch and flatten out. A few places though, I found very tiny sharp protrusions among the rounder ones. I was afraid to push on them for fear they would puncture the liner. Is there anything preventative I can do? These would be tiny holes if they came through but they would certainly exacerbate the rusting problem then. I suppose it is inevitable that these 30 yr old walls would rust but I want to make them last as long as possible.

[Poconos]

Have a similar situation with my 30+ year old Foxxx pool walls only without the sharp thingies and my rust doesn't seem as bad as yours. I don't know of anything to do except wait until the liner needs replacing and then evaluate the situation and fix it. My liner is 11 years old and that's my plan. I think mine is just surface rust and maybe a good sandblasting and epoxy coating or something like that would be the fix. I'm curious to hear suggestions too.
Al

[waste]

I don't know of anything that can be done with the liner in

As Al said, just wait until you need to replace the liner and then address the rust issues.

When we're replacing a liner and the walls have rust, we scrape the rust off and clean the area, Then we put Rustolium on the effected areas (the company I worked for in Va. used spray on galvanizer - which for all I know was just gray spray paint ) The final protective measure is to put wallfoam on the walls - even if they rust out again, you've got an 1/8" barrier between the rust and the new liner.

HTH - Ted

[Vinyl_Guy]

You guys are basically right on the money. There's not much you can do, other then leave it alone till the liner gets replaced. It could be a calcium or oxidation build up too, if the walls are galvanized. I may be wrong on the chemical terms though. It could "more" material rather then the wall rusting away to less material.

You could drain water out of the pool , leaving enough on the shallow end to keep the liner in place (approx 4 inches), unzip the liner and do repair work.

But that's rarely viable for many reason.

A: The repairs can't be done all the way to the bottom of the pool wall.

B: It's extremely dangerous and hard to work over open water.

C: It's a task to keep the remainder of the liner above the water while it's flopping around.

D. Most of the time you can't do the entire wall because of fittings for skimmers and returns. It's highly recommended you don't remove a liner from these fittings, getting the openings, and screw holes back in place is a task in itself.

E: If it's hot the liner can stretch and you can end up with more "bead" then track.

F: The chances of the liner being damaged are great. And dropped tools or debris can be horror show.

G: Everything you do scrape or grind wants to fall down further behind the liner.

How do I know? I've had to do it on rare occasions. Unfortunately on one of my own replacements where bottom material gravitated up the from the shallow end and into the bottom area of the wall. Not a lot of fun, and that was with a new and very malleable liner. And once from a disgruntled home owner who's liner was replaced but the repairs weren't made. He was suing that company for our costs. He wanted it repaired at any cost since he was adding it to the law suite.

So what to do when the liner gets replaced? Even if you don't "hang" the liner yourselves you can cut the costs greatly by doing the prep.

Essentially it's like working with any metal. But there is a savior. Foam. 1/8" or 1/4" foam can hide a lot. It's spraytacked to the wall and comes in the proper widths. Think of tarpaper but for the walls (and foam). It buries everything and protects the liner from any future rust or other problems. But before that a good repair should be done. I have had customers ask that nothing be done but the foam when the rust and oxidation were only on the very surface, for a reduced price. But I still give them a good scraping so the spray glue adheres better.

Scrape, sand/grind, prime. An long handled ice chopper works awesome, your trying to cover a large area so getting out there with your paint scraper can be daunting. A good steel brush, or a brush attachment for a grinder, and a lot of elbow grease after that. Even a surface sander or palm sander for small places with a heavy grit. Anything to get back down to the metal. Then a primer. And let it dry well because some react with the vinyl poorly (if there's no foam installed), in fact I'd check with the vinyl manufacturer. We used a product our liner manufacturer supplied. But the can contents didn't look any different then a Krylon or other similar product. So I think it was a sort of "money maker" for them. But they'd warrantee the liner if it affected anything.

If the rust has rotted right through, a thin steel plate and rivets does the trick. Although with out the foam can be visible depending on how far down the wall it's located (water pressure being the determining factor).

The foam is the key though. It won't take out a "dip" that occurs over the lenght of a panel for instance. But all the little nerts (as we used to call them), can never come through.

If you doing the the whole job yourself here's a big tip:

Cut the foam a good 3" from the bottom of the track (where the liner bead goes gets attached). Although it may seem more uniform and more protecting to cut it just below the track it can cause problems. Mainly that the liner won't be going into the track at the exact angle recommended. Foam put too high can cause the bead (hook thingy) to lift up and out of the track more easily. On new pool builds I would purposely hang the track out over the wall a bit to compensate so I could foam all the way up the wall. Because there's no foam on either of your walls that means the track probably isn't set up this way. By cutting the foam lower you'll allow the liner to drop away from the track the correct and most "binding way". It's this perpendicular drop from the track that allows the liner to "lock" in the best.

Cut it straight as an arrow though, for it may show under certain conditions. The water shouldn't push in and show it because 3" down from the track is the very top of the water level (with normal skimmer height locations). So there's no pressure. But sometimes depending on the tile pattern and sunlight, the line where the foam stops can be seen. If it's straight as an arrow, it's imperceptible, but if it's all over the place like a drunken sailor it can show.

[shadowman]

Thanks for all the input. My liner is only 9 years old so I think I have a while before I can do any repair. I assume there are underwater patches if I do detect any tiny spots that have poked through. For now I will take a wait-and-see attitude.