40 Year Old Pool

[Cards Fan]

I have a pool that is turning 40 years old this year and I've been working the last several years to keep her on life support. I need some advice on how I might do a fix that could keep us up and running for awhile longer.

First the details of the pool. 20 x 40 inground with a concrete bottom, appears to have been coated with thoroughseal at some point in its life. Bottom is ok, no leaks on the drain or where the bottom meets the fiberglass walls. The issue is the fiberglass walls themselves, in certain areas they have bowed inward from the rock and sediment settling below the concrete that was poured for the deck. Certain slabs have pulled away from the coping edge creating a gap that has allowed rain water to penetrate and erode away the under layer even more.

There was also a hole in the skimmer line so I have recently removed an 8 foot section of the decking to repair the hole that was located by a leak detection company. I now need to refill this section of the decking but am uncertain as to how to proceed. In the process of sledging out the 8 foot section, I discovered that the concrete slab had two pieces of rybar running parallel with the length of the pool, attached to those pieces of rybar were strips of metal every 6-8 inches that were welded to the rybar and reached towards to the pool wall, they were used as "hooks" over the edge of the pool wall I guess to hold it in place. The coping edge was then placed over that section on the inside of the pool. This was not particularly effective as time has allowed rain and winter precip. to penetrate between the coping edge and the concrete deck causing these to rust away and in some cases release from the wall creating an even larger gap. My plan was to fill these smaller areas of separation with vulcum to provide some flexibitlity and stop the water from penetrating.

My main problem is replacing this section of decking that I have removed. Do I try to duplicate what was done before even though it wasn't that effective? I realize the easiest would be to hire a professional and knock it down to the bottom and start over but I am not sure that is in the budget right now. Any advice from those with past experience would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[MKuz14]

I do not have an answer for question but I do recommend packing that new stretch of pipe in sand because you backfill to prevent that leak happening again. Best of luck to you! I hope someone here can answer your question.