'Concrete cancer' testing costs Central Texas families thousands 

Ancient Roman concrete lasts 1000s of years... but modern concrete sucks.

That couple went into debt for a pool. A pool! Silly Humans.

I test concrete for a living, and its unfortunate these homeowners are taking core samples after the concrete has been set. If homeowners pay for it to be tested WHEN the concrete is originally poured you cast a minimum of 5 4x8 cylinders and those get strength tested at 7 days, 28 days and/or even 56 days. If you are already paying thousands for the cost of a swimming pool, the cost of paying a materials tester to be on site to test not only the compacting of the soils beneath the pool before the pour, but testing the concrete for air, weight, theoretical max density, temp during the curing process and slump is such a small percentage of what you are already paying. Most homeowners should be having this done on all foundations, interior and exterior slabs but don't want to pay for the tests - and this is the sad story to saving money.

$130,000 for a pool... 😮

We live in San Diego County. We filled our pool with dirt and turned it into a dry streambed with plants about 15 years ago. It sure saves a lot of water! And electricity and chemicals and we don't have to clean it every week.

This tester guy is making bank

Cause contractors use the cheapest concrete they can get…

How about the foundations of big complexes and high rises that were recently built?

Using a company called California Pools in Texas? What did you expect?

If customers knew the type of people that are hired to work at these pool companies, you wouldnt even dream of paying or installing one

Fly ash is very cheap but as they stated the supply is dwindling. But there are numerous and even better alternatives than fly ash for concrete. Silicas and calcined pumice can be used. Because they are natural products, they are abundant. It will drive up the cost per yard, but it will be far cheaper in the long run.

Obviously there was no testing of the concrete during the construction process. While the concrete supplier bears the most responsibility, the contractor probably knew the supplier but still should have performed the testing. Somebody didn’t know what they were doing or they DID know and is trying to get away with subpar work.

Fiberglass or vinyl liner pools won’t have this problem and are less expensive.

If you spend $130 k on a pool,why wouldn’t you hire an engineer to do testing as it’s being installed??

Why can't they drain the pool, apply a durable liner, and refill?

That should be on the concrete supplier... the contractor cannot control the batch and what goes in the concrete.. Concrete supplier is at fault..

Shortcuts, create long delays.

Same thing happened to my newly poured back patio. Huge cracks and some go all the way through the entire depth of the cement. The city decided it was "normal". I had to get 14 piers put in by a foundation company but it is still cracking. The areas around the posts are particularly affected. The foundation guy said the pour was too thin. Sickening that the city said it was normal and added that that company always gets approved!

We see examples of poor quality all the time in our industry. So many times, clients will see our estimate but opt to go with a CHEAPer competitor . It ends up costing them more because the unskilled cheaper repairs have to be corrected.

I love my fiberglass pool that cost less than 1/4 what these people paid

The gunite company warranties the gunite. Not the pool builder.

There is a reason not to buy a house with a pool, and a reason they can cost you 20% sales price. You can remove it to get that value back, sometimes it is less money just to fill it in and re-landscape.

Lots of these small businesses close down and avoid liability. They need to pierce the veil and go after the owners. All kinds of contractors swindle homeowners repeatedly

So there are 2 topics here that are getting intertwined. One is concrete porosity and another is ASR, reactivity of the concrete or aggregates. Most concrete companies use aggregates approved for use in their local DOT and ASR testing of those aggregate are saved by the DOT. If there are problems restricted uses are put in place in the comments. DOT work is a significant portion of business for the concrete industry so adhering to DOT standards are very common. Then in any region there are usually 2-3 cement producer. The concrete company should test reactivity of aggregates with the cement. In wet conditions with corrosive chemicals it will accelerates ASR if your concrete is reactive. Concrete over time (not a couple of years) in wet conditions where chlorides are present will slowly deteriorate concrete even when concrete is designated as not reactive. To mitigate this, decreasing the porosity of concrete is a great tool. Slag, silica fume, fly ash, and waterproofing admixtures are all tools to increase the performance of concrete in wet corrosive environments. Most likely the aggregates used are reactive and not purposed for an appropriate use, and no preventative measures (i.e. - slag) was used in the concrete mixes. It will be interesting to see the contract the concrete vendor and pool company had. Did the concrete company disclose the risk of not following the standard practice to meet a price point?

A violent reaction from exposure to a mild acid would determine if the alkali levels are too high. I feel like a cheap kitchen ingredient could perform these tests.

E-mail bounce back is second leading cause of missed communications behind e-mail ignoring.

Concrete cancer is an extremely unsuitable name...

So I read an article by gilson company that recommended testing the aggregate mix in the concrete in a lab to assure ASR doesnot occur prior to using. Fly ash has been used to stop the aggregate chemical reaction ( swelling) that causes the cracks. If an ingredient of the concrete mix is changed or left out the mix should be bench tested. Similar to a bakery changing the ingredients of a populate cake. Make a cake with the revised ingredients before baking 100 of them for sale. Very little can be done if aggregate leads to a chemical reaction with the mix.

Key words "we took out a LOAN" ...for a pool? Maybe you should have thought about not tying to live above your means and it wouldnt have backfired

Do you think this is crazy? I watched CBS Saturday AM earlier, that showed the use of concrete silica dust to cover crops on this Central Illinois farmer's land in Buckingham. This dust was from recycled concrete. It's an experiment where they spread 50T of this concrete dust over a 23 acre field of newly planted corn. This was supposed to be a way of disposing used concrete and remove carbon monoxide from the atmosphere. They claimed that this would also help the crops and the soil while eliminating greenhouse gasses. And the whole time watching this, I'm thinking ''B.S.'', this can't be safe. But who am I to say?

It’s not the pool builders fault it’s the concrete companies fault

Some people have more money than sense I guess. 130k for a pool?! Pools are tremendous headaches. Everyone that I know that has one complains about the time, maintenance and costs associated. You have a pool built and it just doesn't end there. Be ready to fork over more cash as the years roll by. And these saps got conned by a pool company. The name should have been warning enough. California pools of Texas? That guy made a fortune in the course of a few years and bailed. Like many contractors

You could get a lifetime permier membership at a community pool for a tiny fraction of that cost with absolutely zero risk.

It's not the contractor fault. It's the Concrete Plant responsible to sell the contractor the mix that has the right ingredients in it.

That’s why I don’t even mess with pools. Annually it’s just too costly

We have this issue. Used Cody Pools and have a claim but no sample and timeline for demo and replacement yet. Sucks big time as it's the pool along with a lot more damage it will cause to replace.

The Roman’s did a fantastic job of construction . However there are many fantastic improvements of concrete over the years. Please donot judge current technologies on an incompetent contractor/mixer of concrete.

How long did these people want the warranty to last? They got 3 years out of the pool.

I was following this story closely to understand ASR better (It's been a severe problem in the UK as well) right up to the point Don came into the picture, then I found myself extraordinarily distracted... 😍💪😋

They legally should be allowed to sew them and have it be replaced and fixed properly.

The fly ash hasn't necessarily went down. The plant in my area hired a company to take it to the landfill. 4 tankers run it and each run 3x a day.

Sue the cement company!

If look in youtube there is a civil case from a pool builder in Austin..He stated he sold his company and not liable, but the contract was not wrote correctly...The pool builder stated there are thousands of pools in Austin area that have concrete cancer...

So this is just a problem with recent pools? Ours was put in 2009 or so.

Concrete sucks now. There's a housing developer near me and the entire brand new neighborhood failed their testing resulting in a fight over who had to pay to have every single street and curb torn out and replaced. And they can do their little sample test, but they can't really test it until after it's poured and set up.

In Texas having a pool put in requires a permit and before the completed pool can be filled with water and used it’s supposed to be inspected. Perhaps inspection requirements need to be improved or current requirements enforced more stringently.

Alright now... Pool contractors buy their concrete from a vendor a concrete company so I'm not sure how people see this as solely the pool companies fault. It's made a cement plant and trucked to job site per vendor request.

The "experts" literally circles cracks with a chewed up chalk. I definitely ain't hating though if people are willing to pay it's all game.

Rich people problems! while others wonder where they will lay thier heads, or eat 😂 poor babies gotta spend $$$

So dose the pool actually cause cancer in humans or is it just the pool cracking all over?

No fly ash, no concrete pours. Simple! I would use an epoxy sealer to fill in the cracks to make it last longer.

I would always choose a company that is an LLC. It assures me that they will be able to cover negligence. Not

Fly ash is HIGHLY TOXIC

Why are the contractors getting sued it should be the ready mix provider

130000 for a 50k pool

This is why we haven’t renovated our home despite wanting to do so. Where is quality work from these “professionals”? We even had a handyman mess up putting up a small railing in the front porch. He didn’t use that balance thing to make sure it was even and it came out crooked. If you want something done you have to do it yourself or just forget about it.

It is just another case of make more money, cut back on materials and sell to the public

Fly ash is a cheap additive "super fine filler" used in place of graded fines. It's only purpose is to make the material more workable by filling in the voids.

Ok so let’s leave some coal plants open. The byproduct will just have to start getting manufactured anyway so why not get energy from it too?

Can this affect the foundation of your home!?

Is the concrete allowed to fully cure before it’s filled? Does this make a difference?

Well, apparently, the people that have the swimming pool should’ve been more research of the company sorry bro

What about home foundations?

Uuum with those 130k you should have invested in some wisdom instead. Who in their right mind pays 130k for a POOL??? If you had some ounce of wisdom you wouldn't be going through this headache! This is the price you pay for trying to keep up with the Joneses!!!

Pool = A hole in the ground to throw money into.

“Make sure you have a clause…” That’s no guarantee! Watching the video shows a pattern of starting corporations, bankruptcy of those corporations, all the while doing business doing business under a new name. A pool is too much money to gamble on. Don’t do it!

Get a fiberglass tub pool.

These are the same business owners who snitch and throw anybody under the bus who’s doing anything under the right regulations and yet they do it first

Well theres your problem...."California" pools

Unsellable on the housing market.

It is easier to use the city pools. So much less headache.

Anyway pools in the drought zone should be limited to small dipping pool..

but how can you be sure that the testing co is telling u the truth as well. they have nothing to lose. the test is not cheap. so how can we really know???

Fly ash from burning coal? Guess Austin does want to have more coal power plants, win, win...

Guess who should have been insured for the pool

The concrete provider is ultimately responsible given they provided a material unfit for purpose . Given the outbreak and scale of the issue , it would seem some concrete producer changed the source of their aggregate . Don't blame it on a fly ash shortage, blame it on the quarry .

Hmmmm who says you can't use flyash? Epa

You're better off with an above ground pool these days.

130000$!!!!

It's because the idiots pouring the concrete didn't add fly ash.

So it’s not causing human cancer..just crazy debt load.

California pools of Texas doesn't sound like the best company just from the name choice

lol ran off with 100k

1st world issues. Sucks for the owner

You hired a company called California Pools… enough said.

Ah, the typical unintended consequences as a result of the war on fossil fuels.

All concrete cracks 😂

And what about the Cement co. who mixed the concrete what do they Pay out for faulty material?

Sorry isn’t moving away from coal. Get a grip

"Investment" ?!? Really?!? lol Like was said earlier...."silly humans."

So this is not cancer ! Click bait !

Y'all stop shaming the concrete guy for concrete cracking no one can stop it

This is the problem with Americans. You will never get you money back for what you paid for that pool and you went into debt over something you did not need. Guess what. You need a retirement. But I would never buy a home with a pool. To much work and to many headaches with liabilty issues.

Epoxy injection

They can't find fly ash and yet they are literally dumping it in a whole here in middle Missouri 🤦‍♂️

A pool is not an investment. Money spent adding a pool does not cause a proportional increase in home value. A pool is a conveinience and a luxury.

Pools should be outlawed. Miss use of water.

It’s the aggregate.

Planned obsolescence.

Suing the pool company is likely a waste of time and money. Going after the supplier maybe, but may be a dead end too. Often work contracted by companies and government will require a surety bond. That's about the only real legal protection one has. Other than that, it's buyer beware.