Filling concrete joints with cement

[scooter]

We have a pool area 20+ years old with a concrete area surrounding it. It has joints that were filled with wood at one time which has rotted. Can we fill it with cement then use something like sika flex on top. Want to avoid sand or backer as it is about 5 inches deep but variable and about 1 inch wide? I would think that the compressions etc would be mimimal now? We are in the south where it never freezes.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Philip.

[Steve]

scooter wrote on 14 Jul 2007 in group alt.home.repair:

If it were my pool deck, I'd install new wood. The Sikaflex is optional, but it will make the wood last a few years longer.

The joints are there to control cracking, and if you fill them with something solid, you might get cracks somewhere besides the bottom of the joint. Hot weather can lead to cracking just as easily as cold weather. Do you remember Texas freeways in the Sixties? The expansion joints squeezed up in the summer heat and drove me crazy every summer. "Ka-thump, ka-thump, ka-thump" for hours without a break. Unfortunately, the expansion/contraction of concrete never stops, so you have to keep the control joints forever.

I haven't used it, but many pools have a plastic spacer that fits the joint. It looks kind of like Sikaflex, and it would be removable to replace the underlying spacer, whatever you use.