A cracking or sinking swimming pool patio is always easy to overlook until you are jolted by the pain of hitting your toe on the raised slab. A cracking patio not only looks ugly but also provides room for the growth of moss, weeds, and piling up of dirt. There are many reasons for the cracking, sinking, or lifting of a swimming pool deck. An example is the growth of trees that extend their roots under the concrete slabs. Shifting soils and the freeze-thaw events are also responsible for raising the slab and widening existing smaller cracks. Follow these steps to repair your swimming pool deck.
How to fix the cracks
1. Clean Out the Crack
Start by widening the crack. Hold a concrete chisel and tap it lightly with a hammer. Widen to about 1/4 inch width. The V shape will help the filler material stick better for a long time. Brush the crack thoroughly with a wire brush to remove any bits of loose concrete. Impurities such as debris, dry leaves, and even dust will prevent the filler from sticking to the healthy concrete. Vacuum the crack with a shop vac as well as you can.
2. Fill The Crack With Repair Cement
Start by putting solid crack filler into the crack if the crack extends a depth of 1/4 inch.
Trowel a fair amount of the concrete mortar into the crack. Use the sharp edges to push the cement as far as possible into the gap. Put more concrete mortar until it forms a mound on top of the crack. Scrape excess concrete and use a trowel to level the repaired surface. Leave the concrete to dry.
3. Coat with Epoxy Sealant
An epoxy-based sealant will protect the concrete mortar repair as well as make the surface watertight. Spread a thin coat of an epoxy sealant over the surface. Be sure to cover the joint in between the pool deck and the repair area. You should fill any remaining gaps using the epoxy. Leave the epoxy sealant coat to dry.
4.Inspect the Seal
The epoxy seal is meant to prevent water from soaking into the repair surface. It is time to test the Seal. Pour water on the sealant and leave it for some time. Observe. If the water remains on the surface, then the Seal is good. If the water seeps into the concrete, you’ll have to seal the surface again when the water has dried. Leave the patch to cure.
How to Repair Sinking Concrete
1. Inspection
The first step is inspecting the deck to determine how to best approach the repairs.
2. Install a three-pier system
Install the three-pier system under the slab to lift it. The pier system below the slab will allow for smaller holes to be drilled in your concrete slab. A slab bracket also reaches across a large area of the floor, which allows for even weight distribution so that the slab will not crack.
3.Install Steel Tubes
Drive steel tubes down through the slab bracket into the firm souls beneath. Hydraulics will be helpful in this step. You should choose steel tubes made up of galvanized steel since they’re resistant to corrosion, which ensures the slab pier system’s quality and longevity. These steel tubes transfer the home weight to the firm soils below, which is the pier system’s real strength.
4.Move the slab weight to the soil
The piers will transfer the concrete slab weight to the firm material under your swimming pool deck. The concrete patio’s sinking movement will permanently stop as the system lifts the concrete slab.
5.Inject Grout Filling
Lifting the slab will leave a void underneath the deck. If the deck has been sinking due to washout or compacted soil, a gap was present before the installation. You should pump grout carefully under the slab to fill all the voids present.
6.Finishing
Finishing is the final step. It involves all the finalizing operations. Now, fill the holes you drilled into the concrete slab with cement. Level it properly so that the patches look uniform with the rest of the slab. Sweep all the dirt and debris generated by the process.
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