A rebar stain in a swimming pool or spa is a serious issue.
Rusting rebar will continue to corrode within the pool structure until all corrosion is removed. Although the bleed-through stain may be small in size, the corrosion beneath the plaster (in the gunite) is always larger in scale (see photos for examples).
Left untreated, rusted rebar will eventually rust the entire pool.
There are two methods to properly repair rebar stains:
Rebar stains occur in swimming pools and spas when the rebar is not properly encapsulated in Gunite (aka “Shotcrete”). Lack of gunite coverage over rebar and/or poor workmanship work are common causes of rebar corrosion.
This is an excellent article by pool engineer Ron Lacher about gunite workmanship issues.
Pool owners frequently ask if resurfacing will solve the problem. By itself, no it will not. THE CORROSION HAS TO BE REMOVED WHEN RESURFACING OTHERWISE THE CORROSION WILL COME BACK, BLEEDING THROUGH THE NEW SURFACE.
We no longer repair rebar issues but there is limited information on this serious pool issue and this page draws a lot of out-of-state (and even international ) attention so I’ve left it up in hopes that it can help people. I won’t benefit monetarily but if you want to help me you can Like my Facebook page. Thank you.
See below for videos and photos of rebar bleeds I’ve worked on.
All testimonials are written by actual real-life customers
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