I’ve been dealing with this myself. My story is my pool was built in 2019, cracks developed in 2021, pool builder got a claim filed with his insurance company then went out of business. Insurance company paid for core sample, ASR was the culprit and talking to the engineering company who performed the tests this is impacting hundred’s of pools in central TX due to the geographic nature of how aggregate is sourced locally and fly ash was hard to source around that time due to supply chain issues. Apparently this was an issue in CA back in the 70’s or 80’s and laws were passed to require more testing of the aggregate before application (just word of mouth from engineers I’ve talked to). In TX the testing requirements do not exist. Multiple large concrete/shot-crete companies in Austin are dealing with lawsuits or will be.
Luckily we got a settlement from the insurance company earlier this year and are currently rebuilding, hopefully water back in the pool next month. Took a few months to get the pool builder to create the claim initially (I think we were one of the early ones) then another 18+ months dealing with the insurance company (core testing, getting report back, submitting rebuild estimates and finally getting the check). Settlement should cover complete demo and rebuild, including re-landscaping due to yard being torn back up. I’m hearing from some owners that insurance companies are not settling now and instead waiting to settle the claim until after their lawsuit(s) with the concrete companies due to the high numbers. I know of at least 1 attorney who is planning a class-action against the concrete companies.
Went with gunite this time around. From what I understand gunite doesn’t have the same issue and the gunite company we used to shoot the new pool hasn’t had any failures related to ASR.
I’ve recapped at a high-level my experience. I have the engineering report for my pool along with personal conversations with pool builders, engineers, insurance company and lawyers to back up what I have stated. I know a lot of people are dealing with this and may not have a similar outcome. Many have been left high and dry by their pool builder to deal with on their own. I hope my story can help some of those currently in the process.
