No, the water bond does not bond the conductive shell. Where the shell has non-conductive rebar, it must be bonded per 680.26(B)(1)(b). There are no exceptions or short cuts....if the pool was constructed without installing a bonding grid, the shell must be removed and a grounding grid installed.
I've done several concrete shell pools with fiberglass rebar. At least that's what they called it. All I know is it isn't conductive.
Owens Corning does make a fiberglass rebar. I'm not sure how one would deal with specific bends as it's needed on any of mine or anyone building gunite pools. Would be a tough sell to me and my structural engineer.
What did you do to bond the shell?
These pools were concrete with a vinyl liner. The vinyl liner makes them non-conductive. However, I had to bond the metal track for the liner. It was in several pieces and each section had to be bonded together. I used #8 encircling the pool and a jumper from the metal liner track. I don't think that was necessary since the track was covered with pavers. But I didn't win that argument.
If an engineer wants to design an alternative to the prescriptive code requirement is it theoretically possible to use water bonding as a solution since the conductive concrete pool shell is porous? If they want to design an equivalent and test it, is it possible? Currently Section 680.26 (1) allows for protecting the water through the conductive porous pool shell with a shell bonding grid. If that works, would it be possible to reverse engineer that connectivity by bonding the water to achieve the same result?
If he wants to put his stamp on it, fine, but even with a PE stamp on that design I would not be the contractor working on that pool, and if I was the AHJ, I would red tag the installation.
Trying to understand the meaning and intent of 680.26(B)(1)(b). Is the bonding required in the walls of the pool, the bottom of the pool, or both? (2) and (4) refer to the "contours of the pool" but I find that term ambiguous.
In my opinion the part of the pool that holds the water is the shell and that will include both the bottom and the walls.
Certainly I agree with that, but I'm trying to figure out the meaning of the term "contour of the pool (shell)" used in (B)(2). If they used the term "full surface of the pool shell" that would be clear; is "contour" necessarily the same thing as that? In other contexts (say a contour map), a contour would be just the horizontal boundary, so it's not clear to me the language includes the bottom of the pool.
Contour only refers to the shape. The bonding must follow the exterior contour (shape or surface) of the pool shell.
I understand. I was just mentioning a different for use fiberglass in relation to concrete. Fibers added to concrete are supposed to replace the use of rebar or concrete wire mesh. I'm old school. I even use rebar when we form and pour our equipment pads.
