Bee Cave man waits over a year to get pool repairs for 'concrete cancer'

BEE CAVE, Texas - Concrete cancer plagues pools all across the Central Texas area. It is something most people don't know about when they start construction. 

What is concrete cancer?

Local perspective:

Randy Patterson is a homeowner in the Lake Pointe neighborhood of Bee Cave who is dealing with an unfortunate situation in his backyard. 

"We started noticing a couple of years ago that cracks were forming on the outside of the pool," said Randy Patterson. 

Patterson patched the problem and resurfaced his pool, initially thinking it was natural surface splitting. However, those lines returned within a year, forming fractures in the exact same spots. 

"It's been an issue that's taking years to resolve," said Patterson. "I don't think many people did the research to understand how a pool is built." 

He soon realized it was an alkali-silica reaction, or ASR for short, often called concrete cancer. 

"I guess you'd call it gunite. It's underneath the core of all the pools, that concrete's what supports the structure of the pool," said Patterson. "So it holds everything together, and if that's not strong enough, over time, it'll loosen up, and eventually, the water will start running out of your pool." 

Dig deeper:

The bad concrete mix was sold to several Austin-area pool companies, draining dreams for homeowners who had swimming pools installed in their backyards between 2017 and 2023. 

"We have currently been waiting about a year to get this entire process resolved," said Patterson. "I think because of the number of pools in the Austin area that were built with this defective concrete, there is a line of people waiting for resolution." 

It is not an easy fix, and it costs more than double the price of installing it in the first place. 

"It requires not only the cost of deconstructing the pool but then reconstructing it from scratch all over again," said Patterson. "It's a significant expense."

His advice to anyone considering building a pool is to do your homework. 

"There are a number of pool companies that don't exist anymore, mainly perhaps because of this issue," said Patterson. "I think going with a builder that has a trusted reputation, a national presence that can help service your pool."