They are going to remove the water to winterize it? I thought you were never supposed to remove the water in a fiberglass pool.......

Gel coat cracks do happen. If they are on the bottom, the pool will require emptying. Viking is very good about honoring the gel coat warranty and the repair guys are very, very good.. Make sure the PB pays to truck new water in if you need more than a few thousand gallons.

Hair lines in the decking are not unusual.especially in high heat conditions. Frequent misting after the 1st eight hours following the pour usually helps prevent it. Mid summer pours are the hardest to do. Minor hairlines in the deck are not a defect. If they grow wider, say more than an 1/8",then there is an underlying problem and that section will need to be addressed.

Scott

they aren't going to entirely remove the water, just down to a certain level, but they will have to go a little deeper in order to make the necessary repairs, it sounds like. thanks for helping to allay my fears, poolguynj. the pb did say that he would pay for the water. what would have caused cracks on either side of the deep end immediately following installation? could it have been because they weren't backfilling at the same time they were filling pool with water? thanks for any feedback.

They didn't backfill and fill the pool at the same time? Stupid mistake. Yes, that will contribute. Be glad it was a Viking. Its walls are thicker and stronger than most other fiberglass shells. A lesser pool would have had far worse results.

Water should not exceed, as I recall, more than a foot from the backfill level.

Scott

The PB I am considering is in a well publicized fight with Viking Pools. He dropped them from his line because he had too many new pools being delivered with spider cracks in the gel coat. He showed me a picture of a pool with a huge crack in the deep end, and the fiberglass measured 1/8" in that spot. He also mentioned that a fellow PB got a Viking pool delivered and it was about 1,000 pounds too light, meaning it wasn't thick enough. These stories and your story have pushed my decision away from Viking despite their nice designs. He did mention that Viking fixed all the cracked pools, but the repairs are all very visible as the gel coat is almost impossible to match during a repair.

Also, their 7 year partially prorated gel coat warranty pales in comparison to some of the other manufacturer's warranties on the gel coat.

Good luck with you repair, don't settle for anything less than a perfect repair. I'm sure you paid a lot of money for your new pool, make sure you are completely satisfied with how it looks when done.

poolguy--no, they did not. unfortunately, the pb was building a house and getting his own pool built at the same time, so he was out here MAYBE 3 times during entire install. at the time, he was jacking us around and playing phone games. water was supposed to be here one day, but he said they didn't come through for him. i called the water place and they said it was because he hadn't given them a credit card number. so water showed up the next day and nobody was here to backfill. i called him immediately because he had said before that they needed to do those things at the same time, and he said, well, it depended on the situation and that we should be fine. as they filled it, it started to look like it was bowing out, so we stopped them. obviously, by that time, it was too late. do you think the integrity of the pool has been jeopardized? we still owe on the pool, should we keep this back until the cracks are fixed to our satisfaction?

I wouldn't pay the remainder until it is fixed. Given your description of the events, you may run into an issue with Viking. If the installation was the issue, not the pool, they may put it back on the installer. The backfill and the water fill are to be done at the same time not varying in difference of more than 6-12 inches at any given time. Don't pay the remainder until you are completely satisfied.

I have a concern , I purchased a Viking pool , 4 monthes ago , it was unloaded and hasnt been touched or moved since we went to install it this month , when getting ready to start the digging we noticed the pool is covered with cracks in the clear coat every few inches , we purchased the crystallite finish , thinking it was the best way to go , my concern now ,is what to do , should we go ahead and have it installed or not

Look for a local company that specializes in fiberglass pool crack repair.