Pool Plan - Background on our swimming pool repairs

Uncle D tells us he's had to come back over for more pool measurements and confirmations while the new liner is being fabricated. This reminded me that I should post on the current condition of the pool while we are waiting for repair materials.

I was searching through some of the cabin documentation to make sense of all the projects we've already gone through out there and came across the original realtor photos of the place.

Here is one of the pool, before Britt and Lori undertook to repair it. I'd estimate that the photo was taken last March as they prepared to put the house on the market - despite the condition shown here, the do-it-yourself approach to fixing that pool was a disaster.


Here is a more recent picture of the pool as it is today, not quite the same view but giving an idea of its current appearance. While the "now" photo looks like an overall improvement, we've learned that so many mistakes were made during the attempt to repair the pool, that we seriously considered filling it in.


Among the errors: draining the pool and sandblasting the plaster finish. This single activity was the most damaging. Since the pool was hand built - it is a concrete masonry box, basically, with plaster covering the concrete masonry units (CMUs) - the effect of this activities was to cause the plaster to pull away from the CMU walls, embedding cracks in them so that the pool no longer holds water. The plaster skin is like the shell on a hard boiled egg after you roll it on a table now.

Our diagnositc continues. After the sandblasting, a layer of latex UGL was painted on - this is a hydrolic paint that we use in the basement on foundation walls - some roof patch (leftover from an ill-fated, do-it-yourself attempt to repair the roof), and a layer of waterproof roof paint over that.

Each of the steps above, from the first wrong one of sandblasting, only made the situation worse. The first estimate we had for repairs involved chipping away the old plaster and replacing it with new - an idea that was just too expensive to contemplate. A second person we contacted wouldn't even consider working on a pool built in this manner.

Finally, there's Uncle D, who recently opened the store in Luray...he proposed a liner solution that has really made a repair and renovation economically possible. We have a couple of small preparatory actions to get done - pouring a footer for the pool equipment and getting new power out there to run it, but all said, the job is going to come in for significantly less than the first estimate.

We really were that close to filling it in.