Can Plaster Be Patched In Small Areas?

[GregG]

After doing a thorough search of this forum I couldn't find an answer to one question that I have. Can the existing plaster that is in a pool be patched in small areas?

What has happened over the years is that in a few places the rebar in my gunnite pool was too close to the surface that meets the water. It must have taken some time for rust to form and work it's way through the existing gunnite and plaster and stain the surface that we can see. This leaves a less than pleasing orange stain that we haven't been able to remove. Through the grapevine it has been mentioned to me that this can be remedied by chipping away a small hole in the plaster and gunnite to cut out a small piece of the offending rebar. Sounds kind of drastic, doen't it?

Anyway, if this were to be done, what can one patch the hole up with and where do I get it? Can one product do everything or does this need to be done with a plaster patch over a gunnite patch?

[yes]

Yes you can patch, there is a good product called Epoxy Putty. In the box it contains two separate containers, each with a material that feels and looks like plasteline-playdo. You cut equal quantity of each of the two and you mix them together, just like children play with playdo.

The final mixture is very flexible and can be molded into anything. The most important think is that you can do this work underwater and it cures underwater. Also you can take your time as it does not cure within minutes like other products sold at home depot.

I have boulder rocks around my pool. These rocks separated from the pool edge and created cracks. The problem was that the water level of my pool was/is above the point where the rocks met the pool. As a result, I was having major leak issues. This product saved me a lot of money. I would have had to slightly empty the pool and call for a contractor to re-set the rocks and fill the cracks with cement or something. Instead this epoxy putty was cheap and a child can do it.

Usually one 15.5 oz is plently, but of course it depends how deep and how many holes you will need to do.

Here is a page on the internet which carries this product.

After doing a thorough search of this forum I couldn't find an answer to one question that I have. Can the existing plaster that is in a pool be patched in small areas?

What has happened over the years is that in a few places the rebar in my gunnite pool was too close to the surface that meets the water. It must have taken some time for rust to form and work it's way through the existing gunnite and plaster and stain the surface that we can see. This leaves a less than pleasing orange stain that we haven't been able to remove. Through the grapevine it has been mentioned to me that this can be remedied by chipping away a small hole in the plaster and gunnite to cut out a small piece of the offending rebar. Sounds kind of drastic, doen't it?

Anyway, if this were to be done, what can one patch the hole up with and where do I get it? Can one product do everything or does this need to be done with a plaster patch over a gunnite patch?

[GregG]

It has been 4 years since I started this thread. The problems have long ago been taken care of but the whole process was exhausting to say the least. (It probably didn't help that all of the physical work was done in the summer heat!)

I think that one of the biggest peaves that I have about it is NO ONE around my locale had any helpful advice except to pay a contractor to do the job. I had quotes from pool contractors that ranged between $8000-$15000 for this job! Hell I'd empty the water and fill it with dirt before I was going to pay that kind of money.

After talking to as many people as I could find I hit upon the idea of going to a pool contractors supply warehouse, there are two in my area. The 1st warehouse said they would only sell to a licensed contractor. Being that I am a licensed contractor and showed them a copy of my license they still refused to sell to me because I wasn't a pool contractor. The second warehouse told me the same thing but when I explained to them that I only wanted to do my own work on my own pool they agreed to sell me the materials.

The only problem here was, I didn't have any idea what materials to use! I explained to the salesman what I was doing and he walked me back into the area where they stored everything. We got to talking a bit and he showed me a few things that others had bought, but he could not recommend anything. As I walked out to the sales room I'm thinking to myself, I've seen a lot of these products at Home Depot, hmmmm.

So the next step is to go to Home Depot and look at the bags of materials and get the manufactures phone numbers. After several phone calls one guy says he did the same thing I'm doing on his painted pool and he used a tile thinset that was safe to use under water. He then repainted the pool and it worked great!

Once I had that info I set to work draining the pool. It turns out there was more rusty rebar and small cracks that I had at 1st thought that there was but at least I could do something to move along. In the process we decided to ad a tile mosaic of a Marlin to the shallow end. It measures about 4' X 5' and actually covers some of the repairs so it does double duty. I also repaired the steps where the plaster had chipped off the edges and comepletely reformed the edges. All of the repair work was done with thinset.

After a months drying time we acid washed everything and then epoxy painted the bottom after careful masking around all the tile. 3 of us rolled the epoxy in one evening. Let that sit a few days and then added water. The pool has never looked this good as long as we have been here. I was wondering how long all of the repairs would last and so far there has been no sign of failure so far. We're keeping our fingers crossed on that one.

I called one of the original contractors to ask why his prices were so high and explained how much it cost me. He asked if he could see the work that we did and I agreed to let him inspect our work. When he looked it over he asked me if I wanted to do any side jobs for him!

I suppose that was a compliment. Total cost of repairs including the new tile mosaic and the epoxy paint was $1400!

[Tobuildapool]

Generally a pool is replastered when the original plaster has lost integrity where water loss is possible. Gunite performs like a sponge when it comes in contact with water, however sometimes the water loss in not noticable. Depending on your area, there are varying problems that this can cause.

Caliche swells when it is exposed to water and can beging to crack the shell of a pool, but this process sometimes takes weeks or months to detect; in extreme cases there can be new cracks daily. Although the pool looks aesthetically sound, these are issues to keep an eye out for. Long-term issues that can arise from consistant leaking is (as you have noticed) the tie wire and rebar rust which degrades over time. Once the composite construction integrity begins to deteriorate, the shell can start to weaken. Oftentimes water will follow the outside wall where, depending on the depth and age of the pool, surcharge can be affected. This area is where a substantial amount of force is placed on the structure, which is why during the course of pool construction over the years, steel engineering has incorporated surcharge into pools where the depth exceeds six feet. In short, the entire underside of the pool is being submerged as the gunite is attempting to absorb water. Properties of concrete enable it to consistanty harden over time which continues for years; ironically, water is what cures plaster. Exposing concrete to water does not allow the process to occur and can weaken the structure.

[GregG]

Fast forward 7 years after initially doing the work. All of the patches over some dozen or so rust treatments have held up quite well, no evidence of any of them! My epoxy paint has finally lost most of it's luster and needs recoating. I also found one more new rust spot that is starting to show coming through but not a biggie.

I'm also going to fill a couple of hollow spots that I discovered. You can only see them at night with the pool light on or if we neglect the cleaner for a week such as when we go on vacation. The spots look like foot prints and are only in a few areas. As soon as the drought gets over I'll be emptying and doing these repairs and recoating the entire pool with a fresh layer of epoxy paint!