Fiberglass spa repair

[ozshots]

Hi,

I beleive my plumber and carpenter has damaged my fiberglass spa while installing it on the frame. :~

I now have a tiny hairline cracks on the spa 2cm long. The manufacturer says you can only have this damage from impact outside of the shell.

I've got recommended repairer and he quoted me 150-180 dollars for this fix, including painting damaged area with the airbrush.

I saw instructions here:
How to Mend a Crack in a Jacuzzi Tub | eHow.com (http://www.ehow.com/how_7907904_mend-crack-jacuzzi-tub.html)

I wonder if I can fix this myself - must be quite hard to do a nice smooth work without the experience...

Any ideas on this topic? Is that a fair quote for the job?

[Godzilla73]

G'day,

That price range seems pretty reasonable to me, do you have to pay or have you fronted the tradies about stumping up for the damage? By the time you get all the stuff and then actually try the repair you'll be out a few dollars anyway. I've had chips fixed on my car by a pro and i can appreciate the difference. Just a thought...

[Oldsaltoz]

The method described in your link includes paint, this is not a proper repair in my book. Contact a boat repairer and get a proper gel-coat repair.

Gel-coat is the hard surface material on your tub and on boat hulls/decks.
There will be gel-coat repair specialists in your area, or you purchase a kit.

An alternative material would be flow-coat, much the same as gel-coat but has wax added so will cure without the cover it.

Good luck. :)

[Master Splinter]

In my opinion, eHow (Demand Media) is one of the leading useless content farms (http://flipthemedia.com/index.php/2011/07/down-on-the-farm-demand-media-and-googles-attempts-to-make-search-more-valuable/) of teh intarwebz; articles are written by inexpert experts for a few dollars apiece in response to trending search queries which are farmed out to freelance writers. It has earned a well deserved place in my 'never show search results from this site' preferences...I'd place close but not equal to the cesspit of stupidity that is the 'Yahoo Answers (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080820174408AAZkbcG)' kind of terrible.

[Geno62]

Unless you can get a perfect Gelcoat colour match I wouldn't hesitate to pay the $180, to DIY you remove a small amount of material along the crack, mask around the scrapped out area and fill with gelcoat. Once hard sand back to the masking. Then remove and do a final sand with very fine grit, get it wrong and it will look like a dogs breakfast and without experience it is very easy to get wrong. The paint suggestion will not work because it will not hold properly, and will show as a bodgy repair before to long.

[ozshots]

Unless you can get a perfect Gelcoat colour match I wouldn't hesitate to pay the $180, to DIY you remove a small amount of material along the crack, mask around the scrapped out area and fill with gelcoat. Once hard sand back to the masking. Then remove and do a final sand with very fine grit, get it wrong and it will look like a dogs breakfast and without experience it is very easy to get wrong. The paint suggestion will not work because it will not hold properly, and will show as a bodgy repair before to long.

The professional recommended by the spa company did not mentioned Gelcoat and said he will paint it with airbrush.

You think it won't be a good way to repair it?

I could not find any gelcoat spa repairer in Melbourne, gelcoat usually used in boat repairs...

[China]

Is this a new spa? I would telling those who were obviously not competent to install it, and therefore damaged it that you want it replaced, and they should claim on their insurance

[johnc]

I would contact the manufacturer (who I assume is different to the spa company) and see what they recommend for repair, paint will be a cosmetic cover that could be ideal for scratches, I wouldn't have thought it was suitable for covering a crack. Are you sure the spa is fibreglass?