Plaster over painted stainless steel walls

[RecurveArcher]

Our stainless steel walls are deteriorating and I'm trying to figure out how to repair them. They've been painted over, had a rust converter applied, and then primed. I was looking to glue sheets of plexiglass over the entire walls, which was successful at spot patching in the past, but the walls are so uneven and bowed that I'm not able to get a good seal with larger sheets.

Is plaster an option? The floor is probably fine, the walls are the concern, but would it adhere okay? Would prior coats of paint and everything need to be stripped off?

The picture shows patched and freshly painted, but then after a year the rust bleeding through and more holes forming. The drawing is the profile, I'm wondering if we can plaster just the walls to help seal/protect them.

PoolWallRepair.jpg

• RecurveArcher
• Mar 27, 2022

If not plaster, are there any other options other than a custom retrofit liner (or would that even work)?

 

[ajw22]

I do not see how plaster would adhere to your walls. Plaster has no structural integrity by itself.

A liner would just cover your rotting walls.

I think your pool walls are towards the end of their useful life and require replacement eventually.

 

[RecurveArcher]

I think your pool walls are towards the end of their useful life and require replacement eventually.

What would that entail given it's a thin metal, painted, with pea gravel behind it? Pulling it out completely (to replace it with what/how) would mean redoing coping and basically rebuilding the top half of the pool I'd think.

Could something be screwed into the walls to attach something (mesh?) for plaster to adhere to?

How about tile, or same issue, need something for it to adhere to?

We've dumped a lot of money into the pool and equipment in the 6 years we've lived here and ultimately just need to know what a long term fix will cost so that we can decide whether to do that or fill it in.

 

[jimmythegreek]

You can't really just replace the walls. Depending on the pools age it likely has a concrete collar at the base. It would basically be installing another pool with demo added but less the excavation. You can skim the walls with sheet metal but if they are bowing the framing members of U channel are rusted out and that is the integrity of the frame.

And that pool should have a liner it's never a good idea to paint a galvanized pool wall. The rust happens very fast that way

 

[RecurveArcher]

I'll clarify that the walls are not bowed in terms of structural integrity, the plexiglass is bowed a little but mostly there's old Permaseal caulk along the bottom. That, combined with the ledge where the wall meets the concrete bottom is uneven, makes it really difficult to get the plexiglass flat against the wall and watertight. The rust is mostly visual, but occasionally spots will get bad and big enough to pop little holes, and we'll only get more of those over time. I don't know that it'll last forever, but the walls seem structurally stable for now, so I feel like if we can put something over them to seal them, it'll greatly slow any decay; still some moisture hitting the walls from behind, but not like being underwater all the time.

 

[MAPR-Austin]

I would have a gunite crew shoot new walls inside the existing pool. Should be easy enough to extend plumbing and dowel sufficient rebar into the pool floor to make everything structurally sound. You will need new coping and tile. I would guess minimum $40k, possibly more.

 

[jimmythegreek]

If you want to buy time on the cheap skin the walls with galvanized sheet metal and hand a liner in it. That pool was never meant to be watertight it's just a skeleton. I've never seen anyone attempt to seal a pool kit up with the exception of a polymer pool that was done in ecofinish. This was a bad idea by the originator

 

[RecurveArcher]

skin the walls with galvanized sheet metal and hand a liner in it

Can you elaborate on this? Are you saying weld or glue a new layer of sheet metal over the walls (same idea as what I was originally going for with the plexiglass, just with metal)? And then convert the whole thing to a liner or just the walls?

 

[sktn77a]

I had a similar issue only with fiberglass panel walls. I did basically what MAPR-Austin said. See post 79 in this thread. I think his cost estimate is probably accurate in today's crazy market (but a lot less expensive that a new pool)!

EcoFinish Pool wall questions

Great advice to stay with a solid vinyl liner. I do worry about fading. As to overall take-aways to this entire ordeal: 1) When looking to renovate your pool ALWAYS ask the Pool renovator if they are doing the work themselves and not using a 3rd party sub-contractor. ONLY deal directly with...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[jimmythegreek]

That pool was as never made to hold water. Somebody had a bad idea to paint it. That is a bad idea. It's a liner pool meant for a liner. You get sheet metal like 20 gauge and skin the walls over using flat head tap screws. Then foam the walls and use a liner. There's probably liner track there. Show us pics of the pool wall under or at the coping

 

[RecurveArcher]

That pool was as never made to hold water. Somebody had a bad idea to paint it. That is a bad idea. It's a liner pool meant for a liner. You get sheet metal like 20 gauge and skin the walls over using flat head tap screws. Then foam the walls and use a liner. There's probably liner track there. Show us pics of the pool wall under or at the coping

The walls are perfectly flat (at least before the rusting, plexiglass patches, and permaseal caulk that was done along the bottom edge). It's a Clayton & Lambert pool, who do stainless steel walls; per the website "Stainless Steel Provides the Best Long Term Value of Any Pool Wall Material – It will not require painting, patching or replacing." So I don't know if it just didn't hold up like intended, or if the prior owners painted over it because they didn't like the stainless steel look anymore and that ruined the non-rust coating, or unbalanced chemicals, or what. The pool is probably 55 years old, so it held for a long time. Regardless, the flat metal wall that meets up to concrete bottom. At the top of the wall it's the flat metal right up to the mortar for the coping. Under the mortar, the wall is attached to an upside down & squared U type bracket at the top (like the sheet wall is welded to it right at the top), I believe that bracket is connected to periodic bars behind the pool walls that support the wall, attached to a concrete pad at the bottom, filled with pea gravel, and then topped with concrete again that the u-bracket is seated in for additional support.

The pool is very much a non-standard shape, even per the examples on the Clayton Lambert website, but it indicates their pools are very customizeable. I assume it'd need a custom made liner, I contacted a couple places to see if they thought that was an option but did not hear back. I also contacted a place that does plaster and they said they can't help, not that it wouldn't work, but like most places, it's not worth their effort to deviate from their normal work. It's been nearly impossible to get anybody to look at it (the company that did the work last year was the only one that would respond out of about a dozen), which is why I was trying to do these latest repairs myself.

I saw sktn77a's post and that would likely work, except I'm not willing to put that much into it. The main kicker is we just had the coping replaced last year, which was the main issue, the old was crumbling and falling out, left sharp mortar underneath. That was about $13K to replace, so I really need an option that doesn't involve destroying the coping.

 

[ajw22]

; per the website "Stainless Steel Provides the Best Long Term Value of Any Pool Wall Material – It will not require painting, patching or replacing." So I don't know if it just didn't hold up like intended, or if the prior owners painted over it because they didn't like the stainless steel look anymore and that ruined the non-rust coating, or unbalanced chemicals, or what.

Or it is marketing puffery.

 

[KayBee39000]

The walls are perfectly flat (at least before the rusting, plexiglass patches, and permaseal caulk that was done along the bottom edge). It's a Clayton & Lambert pool, who do stainless steel walls; per the website "Stainless Steel Provides the Best Long Term Value of Any Pool Wall Material – It will not require painting, patching or replacing." So I don't know if it just didn't hold up like intended, or if the prior owners painted over it because they didn't like the stainless steel look anymore and that ruined the non-rust coating, or unbalanced chemicals, or what. The pool is probably 55 years old, so it held for a long time. Regardless, the flat metal wall that meets up to concrete bottom. At the top of the wall it's the flat metal right up to the mortar for the coping. Under the mortar, the wall is attached to an upside down & squared U type bracket at the top (like the sheet wall is welded to it right at the top), I believe that bracket is connected to periodic bars behind the pool walls that support the wall, attached to a concrete pad at the bottom, filled with pea gravel, and then topped with concrete again that the u-bracket is seated in for additional support.

The pool is very much a non-standard shape, even per the examples on the Clayton Lambert website, but it indicates their pools are very customizeable. I assume it'd need a custom made liner, I contacted a couple places to see if they thought that was an option but did not hear back. I also contacted a place that does plaster and they said they can't help, not that it wouldn't work, but like most places, it's not worth their effort to deviate from their normal work. It's been nearly impossible to get anybody to look at it (the company that did the work last year was the only one that would respond out of about a dozen), which is why I was trying to do these latest repairs myself.

I saw sktn77a's post and that would likely work, except I'm not willing to put that much into it. The main kicker is we just had the coping replaced last year, which was the main issue, the old was crumbling and falling out, left sharp mortar underneath. That was about $13K to replace, so I really need an option that doesn't involve destroying the coping.

We also have a Clayton and Lambert in central Indiana. I hear they only installed these residentially for about five years. Ours is in great shape and was never painted over.

 

[duraleigh]

I haven't followed this thread..............Did you consider a vinyl liner?