We have been advised that our pool (approx. 15 years old and concrete) needs repainting. How easy would it be to do ourselves? Or does anyone have any recommendations of someone who could do it in the Beziers area without charging an arm and a leg.
Many thanks.
There's that acid washing again! acid attacks the concrete surface, it will damage the hardened cured concrete so no wonder there were issues. Gerard, care to say what product was used that flaked off?
There are polished waterproof renders available for under water use but careful chemical balance needs to be maintained and proper curing which I doubt based on what I have seen that the proper expertise for this exists in many places. Other coating are polyeurea which give a liner type finish and another called Ecofinish but I know of one company who still won't use this in the actual pool only on pool walkways etc.
Whoever does it will charge a lot of money as they have to guarantee their work for 10 years.
It's not a simple job. You need to sand blast the old paint off, and then acid wash the walls before repainting with a specialist paint.
It was done badly in our pool 3 years ago and as soon as the water hit the paint, the new layer started flaking off. We were fishing paint flakes out all summer long. The pool is now lined with 150/100.
I toyed with the idea of a polished waterproof coloured concrete. Doing away with a lining all together.
This comes in white:
Simon there are rules on what you can and cannot do with pool water, generally these are ignored by customers who just want the job done. The general idea is there is to be no chlorine in the water discharged so the rules say 14 days since any treatment was last used but it's also possible to de chlorinate the water if required. If metal based systems have been used then special attention to the disposal of the water as it can end up in rivers and poison the aquatic life.
Salt based chlorine pools also have regulations but the salt level is usually quite low and even watering the plants or grass doesn't seem to do much if any damage, probably not best to use it of prize blooms/rare orchids etc.
Caution on using well water, get it tested first! it can contain all manner of things from metal deposits to arsenic, it may be free to start with but the cost of putting it right could b higher and generally not worth the effort.
There are several paint coatings that have been used on concrete pools and the two most common are Chlorinated rubber paints (horrible coating that has to be re applied every few years) and epoxy paint, there are good epoxy coating and bad. One Lady contacted me last year about one she had used and she was able to get a refund as it didn't do what it said on the tin but she had to agree to a gagging order so the Company doesn't appear to look bad when searching the net. I have the name somewhere but will have to look it up as it's on my old PC.
There is no calcaire in Chlorine unless you have been using Calcium Hypochlorite as the sanitiser. What hydrochloric acid does do is dissolve some of the calcium from the cement/concrete surface, it will soften the surface.
Depending on what the previous coating is depends on whether you should do the whole pool as trying to bond to old coatings can be an issue. It's generally better to sand or sand blast the old coating off.
"the paint isn't bubbling or cracking but some flaked off" So it's not worn off, that means a potential problem area which should be looked at properly first, Is the concrete porous, should a sealing coat be applied before any paint coating is applied?
Epoxy coatings are not normally thinned but as I said previously there are some companies products which may differ in application and result.
I did wonder if we could get away with just the steps. Thanks very much
Thank you that is really helpful
Yes if re-painting an acid wash is always a good idea. You could as a trial clean the steps and paint with epoxy to see if it adheres. If the paint in the main body of the pool is not flaking or cracking it probably is not necessary to do a full repaint.
Pump the water out and refill from mains water ...
The person who maintains the pool while we are in UK. No the paint isn't bubbling or cracking but some has flaked off on the steps. He said something about acid washing it first before painting maybe that takes off the old paint...
what do you do with the water that's in the pool, do you pump it out and down the drain. and what do you do when refilling buy water by the tankerful or connect to the mains water and fill up from there.
asking because i am looking at getting a pool installed .
Who advised you? Is there an obvious problem ie bubbling or cracking or does the paint colour just look faded? Painting is not a problem just use the right paint . Epoxy paints are the best but will not adhere if an alternative paint is already there. It is a DIY job but takes time and patience.