Owning a swimming pool can easily transform your home into a luxurious property. It also provides you with a great opportunity to stay cool during hot summer days, as well as engage in some recreational swimming (depending on the size). Still, the majority of pools are made of concrete, and concrete is known to crack. These cracks appear seemingly out of nowhere and are a major reason for one to be concerned. In order to understand what you’re dealing with, here are a couple of reasons why these cracks appear in your pool, as well as a couple of tips on how to fix them.
Soil Moisture
Even though the pool may be made out of concrete, its surrounding is what matters just as much. Sure, on the inside, there’s pool water but the soil outside of the pool is pressing o the concrete from the other side. If the soil surrounding the pool becomes oversaturated, it will expand, thus pressing your pool’s concrete structure from the outside. Seeing as how it’s already pressed by the water from the inside, it won’t be long until the first cracks start appearing. A change in the groundwater level can also have a similar effect.
Not Enough Curing Time
Water is the main component of concrete and when made right, concrete is so saturated with water that it becomes virtually water-proof. Just keep in mind that in order to reach this stage, your concrete needs to be made right. According to pool renovation experts, one of the most common reasons why pool cracks is because the pool-making process was rushed. Curing takes time, time that some construction companies try to cut short. In the end, this attempt to finish as quickly backfires. So, to avoid this, while your pool is being made, do some research on how much the process is supposed to take.
Mistake in Expansion Joints
Concrete swells and shrinks, depending on the weather (extreme shifts), which is why it needs to be built with expansion joints. Their task is to compensate for these changes. Without them, the pool will start cracking. Another, similar, reason why these things happen is due to the fact that the pool shape is wrong from the very start. Sharp corners and extreme angles will cause too much pressure onto a single point, which is why it’s quite likely that a crack will appear there. To prevent this, you should consider hiring a pool designer. For example, search “pool designer in Orange County“, to find an expert who can create a more suitable pool shape for your space.
Prevention and Repair
It goes without saying that making the right pool shape, properly curing concrete, installing pool coping tiles, and analyzing the soil is the best way to prevent pool cracks. The problem is that you won’t always have this option. First, a lot of people don’t even think about poolside cracks before they actually see them. It’s only in the aftermath of this unfortunate turn of events that they start googling what went wrong. Moreover, chances are that you’ll move into a place with a pre-built pool. In this case, even if you did know what to do you never had an option.
Fortunately, there are a couple of options for fixing this problem. The first thing you can do is use a concrete sealant. The best thing about this method is that it’s inexpensive and simple. Moreover, it’s a universal solution, which means that whenever you see a crack in the pool, you can just go for it. Pool putty is another potential solution, as well as going for a fresh caulk sealant. Just keep in mind that different solutions work best with different crack types. This is why hiring professionals might be the way to go.
In conclusion
At the end of the day, being a homeowner implies that you either know how to fix the problem or know who to call in order to fix it. Property damage is not necessarily your fault (especially with bought property) but it’s an inevitability that you’ll have to face. Figuring out the cause will help you prevent further such instances in the future but it may also contain a key to solving this problem, to begin with. Cracks in your pool may look horrifying but, fortunately, they’re not impossible to fix.
