By Rob Cox, July 22, 2011. How to repair swimming pool tile in 5 easy steps. Sooner or later, the tile in your inground gunite pool will begin to loosen, and fall off. California dont let heavy rains and storms ruin your pool, follow these tips to avoid flooding and damage by heavy rains and storms How To Acid Wash, Repair And Paint An Inground Swimming Pool HowTo Video PoolAndSpa. Learn how to make concrete, mortar, plaster and other cement mixes working with concrete explained by a swimming pool expert. Pool surface repair. How to fix pool cracks patch vinyl liners and repair pool plaster. Concrete Swimming Pool Repair. As a gunite or concrete pool begins to age, the plaster will require occasional repair. Cracking, hollow spots, sometimes called pop offs, and chipping are not uncommon. Plastered pools also experience worn areas that can become severe, with the gunite below the plaster is showing. Pool plaster is not structural, but is the waterproofing membrane over top of the porous concrete pool shell. Most pool plaster repairs can be done by the homeowner. With the right tools, the right materials, and a little know how, you can repair most small cracks and chips without too much effort. The following is a step by step guide to making typical pool plaster repairs. Swimming Pool Crack Repair empty pool. Cut the crack out 12 deep and extend the length of the crack one inch on both ends. You will need a 4 or 7 grinder or concrete saw with a diamond blade. Cut the crack with a dovetail fashion. Be sure to wear ear and eye protection, heavy gloves and long pants. Rinse the crack, and allow it to dry, then wipe away any dust or debris. On large and deep cracks, apply a bead of sealer along the length of the crack leaving 38 space to allow for plaster to cover the caulk. Mix pool patch and bonding additive to the consistency of peanut butter. Lightly moisten the concrete edges of the crack. With a flat trowel or putty knife, apply your pool patching mixture to the crack. Gently push the mix into the crack to remove all air. Scrape off any excess material, and gently use a wet sponge to match the consistency of the existing surface. If the pool plaster repair wont be under water for more than a few hours, cover it with a moist towel or blanket to keep the patch from drying out before the pool repair is covered with water. This will prevent shrink cracking of the plaster patch from drying too fast. Fill the pool as soon as possible and go swimming It cures best underwater. Wet Swimming Pool Crack Repair Full Pool or Underwater. If you dont wish to drain the pool, you can still patch small cracks or chips in the plaster. Use a mask or goggles to see clearly underwater. First, open the crack a bit by raking a flathead screwdriver down the crack or around the edge of the area to be patched. Use a wire brush next to remove any algae, dirt or loose material. If there is algae or dirt that cant be removed, use a 2 pipe with a 9. Choose your underwater pool patch material. For a pool putty patch, just mix equal parts of A B, using some pool water to help mix the resin and hardener. For a plaster chip or pop off, roll into a ball and push into the area and smooth out the edges. Swimming Pool Cement Patch' title='Swimming Pool Cement Patch' />Farming Schedules lt How To Make Ground Level For Swimming Pool Free Diy Jewelry Box Plans 8 X 14 Shed Design. Welcome to PoolAndSpa. We Bring The World Of Pools And Spas Right To Your Front Door Swimming Pool And Hot Tub Parts Supplies, HowTo Articles Videos. How To Paint Acid Wash A Swimming Pool Part 2 of 3 How To Repair Swimming Pool Cement Steps, Walls Decks Host Dan Harrison explains how to use E. A true Florida Man wont put down his beer for any ol reason. Not to drive a fourwheeler through the house. Not to drive the fourwheeler into the backyard pool. For a plaster crack, or around skimmers, roll into a snake, and push into the crack, smoothing out the edges with your fingers. For a Fast Set plaster mix patch, mix the material on the dry side, and roll into a ball shape. E-Z-Patch-2-Sand-Buff-Pool-Deck-Repair-Kit-3-lbs-0.jpg' alt='Swimming Pool Cement Patch' title='Swimming Pool Cement Patch' />Quickly take the patch ball underwater and push into place with a trowel. Smooth out the edges with trowel or fingers. Swimming Pool Plaster Patching. P/EZ-Patch-01.jpg' alt='Swimming Pool Cement Patch' title='Swimming Pool Cement Patch' />With a hammer and chisel, remove any loose plaster that is not bonded to the pool surface. Drag the floor of the pool with a heavy chain and listen for hollow spots, or tap the pool floor with a wooden pole, or listen for a hollow sound while spraying the pool with a strong stream of water. Chip up any delaminated areas, wearing gloves and eye protection. Chisel some divots and pock marks into the surface that will be patched to help your new plaster patch bond to the existing surface. Acid wash the surface to be repaired. Figure out the surface area to be patched. Mix your pool patch to a peanut butter consistency. Swimming Pool Cement Patch' title='Swimming Pool Cement Patch' />If the plaster is a custom color grey, black you can add cement dyes or pigments. Mix the plaster mix and the acrylic bonding agent together with water. Mix to the consistency of peanut butter. The best way to apply the mix is with a pool trowel, a stainless steel trowel with rounded ends. Moisten the surface with your sponge or a fine mist, or apply bonding additive like Acryl 6. Apply the plaster mix with your trowel. Push the mixture into the corners and divots. Trowel it to push out air bubbles and smooth the patch, feathering the edges. Wait 1. 5 minutes and trowel the patch smooth again, with light pressure. If weather is hot, or the patch looks excessively dry, spray a mist of water and smooth it into the plaster patch. Keep the pool repair moist until it is under water. Cover the patch with wet burlap or an old bed sheet, if the pool water wont cover the patch within 4 6 hours, or during hot temperatures. Fill your newly patched swimming pool immediately, or as soon as possible, as plaster cures best when underwater, but cures too rapidly if left uncovered. Repair your plaster as a last step, if you have other repairs to make to the pool before refilling with water. Swimming Pool Plaster Replacement. There comes a time in every plastered pools life, where it becomes necessary to Replaster, or replace the whitecoat, aka marcite finish. Its often an aesthetic decision, done to improve the appearance or reduce roughness of the plaster. New pool plaster will also hide cracks or chips, or cover rough and stained plaster with a soft new coat of plaster, about 38 thick, right on top of the old plaster. Here are the steps involved in inground pool plaster replacement but I do not recommend this as a DIY project. Small plaster repairs yes, but plastering the entire pool is best left to the experts a crew of 5 6 guys that get the job done in 3 hours, and begin refilling the pool immediately. If you want to help or save money, you can offer to provide them with a prepped pool steps 1 4, ready for new plaster. But let a pool plastering company apply the new whitecoat, Trust me on this one. Drain pool, and open hydrostatic relief plugs. Cut and chip underneath perimeter tile, trim tiles, around wall fittings, lights and floor drains. This is often done with pneumatic hammers, to chip away existing plaster, so the new plaster can be applied flush to tile and fittings set into the plaster. Chip out any delaminated areas on the walls or floors. Acid wash the pool surface aggressively to etch and roughen the surface. Apply a scratch coat primer to assist in bonding new plaster to old this step may be omitted by some plasterers. Apply new plaster from a truck mounted hopper and pump, through a large hose, spraying on the plaster. Wearing spiked shoes, 4 6 workers begin troweling the plaster smooth over the walls and floors. After one pass over the entire pool, the plasterers replace the spiked shoes with sponge shoes, and make another pass over the entire pool, gently troweling smooth the surface, and feathering the edges. Wrap a sock around one or two garden hose ends, and begin filling the pool immediately. Leave instructions for the homeowner or pool operator, for new plaster start up procedures. Fiberglass Pool Repairs. You can repair small cracks in your fiberglass pool without too much trouble. Follow the step by step guide below for simple crack repair. You will need a fiberglass repair kit from your local paint supply, or marine supply store. How To Install Archicad 12 Crack. Automotive kits can also be used. Fiberglass blisters and bubbles can be repaired the same way. Please remember, you will never get a perfect color match and you will always see the repair. The only way to avoid this would be to resurface the entire swimming pool with a new gelcoat finish. Common Pool Plaster Issues Pool. Chlor AZIn our opinion, the best customer is an informed customer. There comes a time when you want accurate information about specific pool problems or questions. Although these issues dont always deal specifically with our chemical treatment of the pool, we feel it is important to be your resource for all possible aspects of pool ownership and maintenance. Listed below are some photos with a brief explanation of common pool plaster issues found mainly in white and colored plastered pools. For more extensive explanations regarding these phenomenoms, please go towww. White Soft Spotting What Is It White spotting occasionally develops in new white and dark colored plaster pools. The smooth, but unsightly white spots generally begin to show up within the first year after plastering. This problem was given the name of spot etching by pool plasterers who incorrectly believed aggressive pool water caused the spotting. In 1. 99. 9, a professional cement research lab, R. J. Lee Group, studied plaster samples cores from pools that had developed the spotting problem. The lab determined that improper plastering practices are what cause the spotting problem. The main contributory issues are adding calcium chloride to the plaster mix, applying excessive water onto the plaster surface while troweling, and overly late troweling. These improper practices create a weak, porous, and softened surface in localized areas. R J Lee also determined that the spots and the surrounding areas had not been etched by aggressive water. When water is troweled back into the plaster surface, a watery cement mixture known as laitance is created, and results in porosity, shrinkage, and micro cracking. The addition of calcium chloride to the plaster mix also contributes to shrinkage and micro cracking. This has also been documented by the American Concrete Institute and the Portland Cement Association. When specific areas of a plaster surface become porous and become carbonated, the spots become lighter white in color than the surrounding denser plaster surface. Another factor that makes white soft spots become readily visible is due to the overall smooth graying of plaster which is caused by the addition of calcium chloride to the plaster mix. This contrast in color between the random white spotting and the larger gray areas surrounding the spots makes this problem more unsightly. When pool plaster is properly mixed and properly troweled, a hard, dense non porous, homogenous, and durable surface is created that can withstand the fluctuation of water balance for many years. The time it takes for spotting to appear depends on how weak, soft, and porous these areas are to start with. How Do You Fix It This problem cannot be fixed. The pool will have to be completely resurfaced. These white spots have absolutely nothing to do with the balance of the water. Rebar Stains What Are They Rebar is short for reinforcement bar that is used for structural integrity anytime concrete is used. This steel rod is used in combination with shotcrete, or gunnite, to create a solid foundation in the beginning stages of building a pool. This shotcrete is approximately 6 inches thick throughout the pool. Many times in the process of pouring the shotcrete the rebar may not get fully covered by the cement and remain exposed. If the rebar remains exposed while the new plaster surface is applied, then water will penetrate through the surface after the pool is filled up with water, and begin to rust the rebar. The rust from the rebar then bleeds upward toward the surface and generally creates a black spot first. Eventually as more rust bleeds through, the black spot gets larger and then you will begin to see an orange rust color appearing in the center of the spot. How Do You Fix ItThere are two options for this problem. One is to chip out the entire pool, cut out the exposed rebar, and then resurface. The other option is to cut or chip out the contaminated area, cut out the exposed rebar, and then patch over it. Rebar stains have absolutely nothing to do with water chemistry or the balance of the water. Mottling What Is It Gray or grey mottling discoloration is due to high amounts of calcium chloride added to a plaster mix, and or late, hard and dry troweling. This issue has nothing to do with the water chemistry or the way the pool was originally started up with chemicals when initially filled with water. How Do You Fix It Some in the plaster industry will use high heat using a blow torch applied to the mottled area, which basically means they will apply heat in an effort to remove any trapped moisture that could be causing the dark color. Sometimes it may lighten it a little bit, but never completely. The dark coloring may also lighten in time, but again not completely. This process only makes the plaster weaker and causes more harm than good. The only way to completely fix it is to resurface, and dont do the things listed above while resurfacing. Nodules                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     What Are They Nodules are small white growths of hard calcium mineral deposits. They are generally round, mound or volcano shaped, and usually located on fine and sometimes almost invisible cracks in the plaster. If they are located on walls or a vertical surface, they generally drip down the plaster surface, somewhat in the shape of an icicle. Nodules can range in size from very small pencil tip to very large 5 or 6 inches, but the average is in the dime size range or smaller. It happens when there is delamination bond failure of the plaster surface with the gunnite substructure, excessive craze cracking, or other similar defects, which allows water to penetrate either behind or into the interior of the plaster surface and dissolve calcium hydroxide, which then hardens and grows back up toward the surface of the plaster, thus evolving into volcano shaped mounds. Its more common in replastered pools where the new plaster surface sometimes has difficulty bonding to the chipped out underlying surface, and bond failures can cause a void which can lead to the surface nodule formation. Smaller nodules may form on craze cracking that can result from an overly wet mix, an accelerated drying of the new plaster, such as from excess calcium chloride a set accelerant, or from environmental factors such as excessive heat, low humidity, wind, or excessive sun exposure before the pool is filled. How Do You Fix ItNodules can be sanded off to make the pool cosmetically pleasant. But they will begin to return within several months of the pool being refilled with water. To completely solve the problem the pool will have to be replastered. Nodules are not the result of poor water chemistry or anything that might suggest that the water has been out of balance. Acid Washing This pool not only had dirt stains but also had hundreds of nodules growing on the walls and the floor. Once the pool was hosed down all the nodules had to be sanded off before the acid wash took place. You will notice the areas in the photos where some had been sanded and others waiting to be sanded. Why acid wash a pool The purpose for acid washing pools is to remove stains that are caused by minerals in the water.