Stone waterfall needs repair and sealing

[dawndenise]

Thanks Vinyl Guy. Your cautions and advice are appreciated.

The leaking areas are in a corner and a bit upwards of that, so anything that can't adhere very well to a vertical surface probably won't work. We're lucky, I suppose, in that the area to be repaired will usually be covered with water when the waterfall is on, so perhaps any color difference will not be all that noticeable.

We ARE able to turn the water off, but since we've had the waterfall off, we've noticed that the valve doesn't stop the water completely...there's a moderate trickle that comes thru and goes right over the areas we need to work on. So we either have to find a way to temporarily divert the trickling water, or get at least 1 valve replaced before we start the stone repair.

Our PB installed cheap irrigation valves (from Home Depot or Lowe's) rather than pool valves, so we may need to get them all switched out at some point anyway, hopefully before one of them cracks or breaks.

Under normal circumstances, I don't think we'd even consider doing this DIY. But it's been well over a week since we first talked to someone at the supposed-best-pool-builder-in-town. Their scheduler still has not called us to schedule someone to take a look at our problems, which would be just the very first step. A lot of people in town talk about how it seems all the PBs want to do just the big money builds, but no one wants to do the smaller repairs. Maybe it's just not the lean time of the year for PBs yet...

[Vinyl_Guy]

Thanks Vinyl Guy. Your cautions and advice are appreciated.

We ARE able to turn the water off, but since we've had the waterfall off, we've noticed that the valve doesn't stop the water completely...there's a moderate trickle that comes thru and goes right over the areas we need to work on. So we either have to find a way to temporarily divert the trickling water, or get at least 1 valve replaced before we start the stone repair.

Your welcome,

Is it not possible to turn the water for the entire system off? If your going to use a Thoro , hydraulic cement, or waterplug type product, they do dry extremely fast. 24hrs is way more then adequate for a drying time. In fact many of the products boast that the repairs can be done while water is present. Although not having the pressure of the water during the repair is ideal.

Having owned companies and worked in several different trades and construction related businesses, I can say that swimmingpools have the worst costumer relations and track records. AG being the worst, IG not too far behind. I think it stems from the lack of licensing of most of the trades involved and the lack of regulations and inspection requirements. Make a person, company, or tradesman jump through a certain amount of hoops, and you'll tend to get more ambitious, intelligent, and conscientious people attracted to the business. The fewer hoops to jump through, the more it attracts those who see it as a "quick buck" type opportunity.

It's a shame too, since there are some really good people out there, which I hope I was one of them whenever I was involved .

[dawndenise]

Yes, we are able to turn off the water to the entire system. Doing so definitely stops the trickle so that would certainly be an option. But for right now, the water temp is 87 degrees or higher (naturally) and we're running the pump 10 hours (split into 3 time periods) at 50% on the SWCG, so, of course, I'm very hesitant to have the pump turned off for any period of time. Although maybe the pool could handle a 24-hour period......

Funny thing...if we do the repair now, we can be in the pool, giving us better access to the repair, but we risk the potential of some algae taking hold when we turn off the pump. But if we wait until the water is cooler, we don't risk the algae as much, but I may be too wimpy to get into the cooler water.