Looking for builder/artisan who can screed

I’m having difficulty in finding someone to complete a stage in the installation of our self-install below-ground swimming pool project. We need someone who can lay down a layer of low-moisture cement that will form the floor of the pool. It’s a bit like a screed. We have the full technical manual from the pool manufacturer. If you know anyone who could be interested in this work in South Vienne (86) near Lusignan, please get in touch, many thanks.

Try asking a floor tiler as they often screed then tile.
alternatively search out a person who does chappe

In ground pool, unless its in a basement.
Really just get concrete pumped in and level it best you can. Add a self levelling compund if its not that smooth.

The requirement is very specific. A 5cm layer of very smoothly finished ‘dry’ cement needs to be applied to form the surface onto which the bottom of the liner rests. The surface has some contours. It’s a pool construction specific to the manufacturer we went with.

A 5cm layer of pumped in liquid screed will do just as well.

A pumped liquid screed will not cope with any contours/difference in surface level. We had a pool installed a few years ago which had a spoon shaped base and the installer layed a screen to that shape using a semi dry screed. No problem for an experienced artisan.

True, I was thinking it was just a flat bottomed pool, which it may not be.

That sounds familiar, it’s a Waterair pool - a very big French company. The first half of the pool is flat and then it drops to almost a point half a metre lower. The shape of the deep end is like in inverted four sided roof, for want of a better description! There are also curved corners. Our problem is finding someone confident to do the job.

Presumably the liner will be measured to fit the size and shape of the pool after the base has been completed or are you required to create the shape/contours of the base in accordance with the companys company’s measurements?
It should be the former.
Unfortunately this situation is often where DIY jobs come unstuck when an expert is required to complete just one part of the project.
Any mason should be able to fulfill the task and perhaps your best move is to find an English (french registered) mason would be perhaps more likely to take on an individual task that is part of a larger project.
Sorry if I am not sounding positive and I hope you do find a trademan soon.

look for a chappiste

Silly question, I suppose the pool manufacturer can’t recommend someone?

Can’t Waterair supply a list of contractors to do the job? Seeing as they are such a large national concern.
I hope you havent opted for one of Waterair’s all in one filtration setups, go with a proper filtration setup.

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Not a silly question at all, we wait for the reply, I have my thoughts already.

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Ah.
You have the same pool as I do. Mine was put in 35+ years ago by a dentist and a friend of his who is a wine merchant. It is possibly even less well built than you might imagine, nothing is properly vertical or horizontal or level. It has been ok but finally died last year, I am thinking about what I’m going to replace it with. The water air cartridge filter system in the steps is in my view a fausse bonne idée and if I had put the pool in I’d have done it differently (I’d have put in a very trad one like the one I grew up with or ideally a natural one). That said it survived well considering and kept everyone happy for years so I shouldn’t carp.

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Iam not sure what that is but sounds bad. Yes traditional but better with Dryden Aqua’s AFM ng filter media, the best you can get.

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We would have used Waterair to install the pool originally but they were fully booked for a year. We have tried speaking to their local partner companies but no luck so far.

The manufacturer visits to inspect the site after the building work has been completed and then they schedule their own people to fit the liner.

Waterair were only 15 years old when your pool was installed - they are celebrating their 50th year in 2022. I’m advised by an independent pool specialist, who is managing the installation, that the filter pump unit in our kit is probably not going to last for ever but we’ll use it until it needs replacing. It’s separate from the pool and is in our adjacent outbuilding, which is serving as our pump and accessories room, with space for swimmers to change clothes. There are fittings for a heat pump but as the pool is unshaded for almost the whole day in summer, we’re going to see if a thermal summer cover is enough.

Thermal covers keep the heat in when heated from a heater. Solar covers heat via the sun but also reduce evaporation and so some heat loss.
It sounds like you havent got the poolside all in one Waterair unit thank goodness.

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There were times in really hot summers when I wanted to lower the temperature in my pool. 28, 29, 30 degrees not very refreshing.