Can anyone help me with my Gunite swimming pool?
Question:I have a 30 year old gunite pool, and I am getting quotes of 9 to 12 thousand dollars to resurface the pool. My wife and I thought to patch the bad areas and repaint the surface. I live in St. Louis Missouri and it gets pretty hot. Any comments or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Answers:
You can do it yourself.. dig out the old and replace it with the new.. gunite is easy to work with but it is not like patching plaster material.. All of the catalytic facilities at oil refineries are insulated with gunite.. those vessels are commonly called catcrakers.. it actually is a huge round dome shaped structure where pipes are placed inside the dome in a round configuration.. like a giant whisky still.. the oil is piped through the tubes and heated to a trememdous temperature.. this process cooks the oil and seperates the various chemicals.. the outer wall of the vessel is steel (about 4 inches thick) and would become white hot if not for the gunite.. when the vessel begins to develop hot spots.. the old gunite is chiseled out and replaced.. I am telling you this because you need to repair the pool the same way.. you want to make sure that your clean out is complete.. so if you have a crack that you estimate should be dug out to two inches.. do yourself a favor and dig it out to four.. make sure that the new gunite will have something good to bond to on either side.. also.. remember.. gunite has no tinsel strength.. it has shear strength.. so create enough of a gap so that you can line the hole with some kind of mesh anchoring material.. chances are that the mesh material behind the crack is bad also.. so make sure that you put some good stuff behind it.. also..you want to bevel your gouge.. so that the bottom is wider than the top.. in other words.. when you dig out the old.. bevel the sides in a somewhat downward angle.. no straight sides.. slope the angle so that the bottom of the gouge is wider than the top.. this will enable you to preserve the support mesh at the bottom.. you can then attach the new mesh by using something like a curved needle with wire thread.. make sure the support mesh is held together with the old and then fill the gouge.. by gouging the hole with a bevel creating a wider bottom, you are creating a wedge that will stay in place and not pop up.. you are insuring its shear strength .. fill it flush and a little more.. then let it dry and cure..(shouldn't take long) smooth the surface to the level of the face..electric sander will do.. use coarse grit.. and then either paint or use a clear sealer... and this.. if your pool is white.. you can clean the surface of any stains with a solution of muriatic acid and water.. but be careful not to make it too strong.. it can remove the surface.. all you want to do is bleach the stain.. you can do this.. just follow instructions on mixing on the side of the product bag.. good luck
You are right on with your repair plan. Go to Lowes, or Home Depot and tell them you need to repair you in ground pool ( don't mention Gunite, you will confuse them). Patch and then paint the whole pool.
Here is a web site you might want to look at;
http://sangerssilo.com/gunnite.html...
You know why they givin you those high quotes---they don't want to do a small job--its not worth their while.
Listen to the guys above there and do this yourself.
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