How fast does rust spread?

[kne]

Reading Casey's thread, then posts from the "similar threads" section has got me paranoid.

It looks like my skimmer is leaking, I was able with a scrub brush, toothbrush and some lime away to remove 98% of what I could see. I'm thinking about draining the water down, removing the skimmer, scrub the rust away reinstall, see if leaking stopped. When I mentioned this to SO he was grumpy about doing that. He will help but I want to make sure I'm not in what he likes to call "full blown panic" for nothing. Is this something that could wait 5 months?

Also, contemplating all the above, I'm wondering if I have my skimmer gasket on wrong. Right now it's saddling the pool wall only. I put the gasket on, the liner in, skimmer and faceplate on then cut the liner hole. Done. After cutting the liner should I have actually removed the skimmer, saddled the gasket over the pool AND the liner, then reinstalled the skimmer?

Sorry about the light in the first picture, I didn't realize the glare until after scrubbing everything off.

https://imgur.com/a/c2tCLcF

 

[Casey]

I ignored a slow leak at the skimmer for a couple years. That's what got me into all this trouble.

 

[mariane]

You have a rust problem and your panic will be justified when you look closer at the problem.
We ignored rust at the skimmer and return openings. When we removed the liner and skimmer, the rust was so bad, part of the wall was eaten away. We had to cut out a new piece of sheet metal and bolt it to the wall. A lot of work but we had to do it if we still wanted to salvage the pool wall.

I think doing it now before the season gets well underway is better than waiting 5 months. The rust will only get worse. And the rust you can see in the pic is only a rusty water stain running down the wall. You can't see the real rust under the skimmer that's causing the rusty water. I would not wait.

The gasket needs to be a butterfly gasket (don't separate the pieces) and as per Doughboy instructions, should be installed like building a sandwich. Starting from inside the pool: skimmer plate, gasket, liner, wall, gasket, skimmer.

 

[kne]

Ok, ok. I will pull the skimmer. I've went ahead and ordered a new gasket, mine is only a few years old (used it on the Intex before this pool) but I figure it can't hurt. A couple of the screws in the face plate are definitely not good quality stainless steel and have rusted, so I will replace all those also. Gasket is due to arrive next Saturday, but hopefully Amazon is under promising and will over deliver.

How far down should I drain? Is 2" under the face plate enough? Right now the pool could stand to have a few inches added to the water, but I think I'm going to take the solar cover off during the day and have evaporation help my cause. It means no filtration or SWG because the water will be too low to go in the skimmer but I will add LC, brush and run my rover Jr.. Actually, now that I am thinking, I have the Hayward Aquabug and might be able to run that to get water to the SWG..... I'll have to experiment to see if that works.

(I just realized I have a bunch of questions, sorry!)

Rocks - we have the river rocks surrounding our pool. I pulled the rocks away from one of the sections and didn't see any rust at all, but will this cause issues in the future? There are no tarps or anything under the rocks, so drainage isn't an issue. I would say there is between 2"-6" of rocks at the base of the pool.

What fixing supplies should I have available next week when I do pull the skimmer? My plan is to take off the skimmer, take off the gasket, kinda peek down in the liner to make sure all looks well, then clean it up if needed. It's an overlap liner, I am NOT planning on taking off the top part, etc.

@mariane that is the way I'm going to do the gasket. I've seen other people say the Hayward instructions is to only put them around the pool wall, but I think wall and liner is way better.

I guess it's worth noting that this pool has only been up since July of last year. We bought it used, and there was definitely no rust visible when we put it up. Hopefully it's limited to the skimmer still.

I've told the grumpy SO that I will be fixing the leaking skimmer next weekend and if he is available to help I would accept graciously This gives him a week to get used to the idea. Spoiler alert: He will help.

 

[mariane]

A couple of the screws in the face plate are definitely not good quality stainless steel and have rusted,

How far down should I drain? Is 2" under the face plate enough?

but I will add LC, brush and run my rover Jr..

I guess it's worth noting that this pool has only been up since July of last year. We bought it used, and there was definitely no rust visible when we put it up. Hopefully it's limited to the skimmer still.

You might get lucky and find the rust stain is only from the rusted screws. That would be wonderful! Since the pool has only been up one year, it sounds promising!

You will know for sure once you pull part of the liner away if going 2" below the plate is enough. I think you should plan to go further but see what you have. If you need to do any repair, you will be draining much more.

Keeping the FC up might work but check what's going on with the rust before you do too much. Worse case scenario - you have to drain a lot of water and you've lost a lot of chlorine.

 

[Casey]

You'll only be able to peek down the liner as far as you drain. If you have rust around the skimmer, take a wire brush to it n hit it with rustoleum. Hopefully you're ok n not as bad as mine (I just finished the walls Thank God!)

Those rocks should be ok. Ya know, I lived in front of a river with my ex husband n went down there n carried river rock up to go all the way around my pool. Lol I'm always glutton for punishment. It looked great though.

 

[mariane]

What fixing supplies should I have available next week when I do pull the skimmer? My plan is to take off the skimmer, take off the gasket, kinda peek down in the liner to make sure all looks well, then clean it up if needed. It's an overlap liner, I am NOT planning on taking off the top part, etc.

@mariane that is the way I'm going to do the gasket. I've seen other people say the Hayward instructions is to only put them around the pool wall, but I think wall and liner is way better.

Supplies depend on how much damage to the wall. Easy would be sanding and painting with waterproof paint. Worse case is sheet metal to rebuild the wall. I'm really thinking it might only be sand and paint.

I don't know why Hayward gives those gasket directions. Doughboy rep gave great advice when we were rehabbing our pool in 2018.

Ok, ok. I will pull the skimmer.

I hope I didn't make you panic. It's just good to catch it early. Since we did not and basically had to rebuild the skimmer and return openings.

 

[kne]

Oh Amazon, you saucy little minx. Skimmer gasket was scheduled to arrive on Saturday the 9th and it just was delivered. I guess I will get the sump pump out and head to Ace Hardware at lunch for some stainless steel screws.

 

[kne]

Trusty (but also rusty) pump is a powerhouse and water is being drained down

 

[Newdude]

I too am in that stage of life where i aint pretty but can still get the job done !

 

[kne]

Looks to be confined to the skimmer area. I was only able to get 11 new screws today so I picked out the 7 best original and scrubbed them shiney. I'll use those on the top row and the new for under water. Metal brushed all down and hit with 2 coats of Rust-Oleum. Will make sure I didn't miss anything tomorrow before I reinstall skimmer

https://imgur.com/a/G24qE83

 

[Newdude]

One of us. One of us. (Also sweet job)

 

[mariane]

You'll be so glad you caught that early. It would have only gotten worse.
Make sure you coat those areas really well with that rust proof paint.

 

[stringer77]

Thanks for the write up on this. Looks like lots of rust forming at bolt cutouts. When I install my wall I want to see if the holes have bare metal around them. If so I will get in there with a q-tip, rustoleum primer, and hit it up with some kinda rustoleum enamel.

 

[denhajm]

Curious, do you have salt in your pool or are you just using bleach as your chlorine source?

 

[kne]

Curious, do you have salt in your pool or are you just using bleach as your chlorine source?

I do have salt, but I also had terribly high PH & TA for a year that I didn't control. I'm think it was a bunch of things: Used pool, so the skimmer holes in the wall probably lost some of their coating with the multiple times being set up. Gasket going around only the wall, not the liner. Terrible screws from Hayward. Hard well water, salt and poor chemistry / CSI.

I will be watching the area obsessively and for sure will be posting here if it comes back. I am also most likely going to get a new liner next year so I will be able to see if rust ended up in any other part of the pool.

 

[mariane]

Keeping an eye on it is a great plan.

I wish I had taken before, during and after pictures of our rust repair. It would have been eye opening for y'all.
Here are pics I have of the outside wall after the repair.