Options for Resurfacing Concrete Pool

[Rene Gnam]

I have a roughly 10,000-gal in-ground concrete pool about 30 years old. The marcite has worn off in many places and you can see the rough concrete where marsite used to be.

What are the options in resurfacing? Costs? Longevity?

I'm not a pool contractor. Just an old fart in Florida. Any basic info you can provide will be appreciated.

[PoolDoc]

The only options I know of are
1. re-plaster (or similar methods, such as DiamondBrite)
2. paint with epoxy.

Epoxy is the only DIY method. It's not hard, but it's very, very icky-picky. I've often joked that -- unless your prep work is by the book and very careful -- "epoxy paint sticks to everything you don't want it to, and nothing that you do"! But, it's more true than not.

Years ago, a high school teacher who'd been working for me, got married with a series of cuts and scrapes all over his hands and his arms, where he'd used a knife to pick off tiny "Viking Blue" epoxy splatters from the pool we'd painted 2 weeks before his wedding. His fiance was NOT happy with me!

If you want to pursue that route, I'd recommend Zeron paint from this company: http://www.kelleytech.com/olympic/ Read the instructions carefully, before you decide to buy, and make sure you're willing to follow through.

Epoxy paint is probably NOT a good choice for a contractor -- most of them will go ahead and paint even if it's too damp, so they can get on to the next job. However it can be done very adequately with closely supervised day laborers. There are other epoxies beside Zeron, but Zeron is the only one I've used and know will work. With the other products, I don't know if the 'horror stories' are due to the product, or due to installation errors. But, I've never wanted to risk a failure in order to find out.

[TheGoose]

FWIW I paid about $2500 to have my pool replastered with standard white marcite in 2010. I think if you get it done during the off-season you can get it cheaper. I had mine done in March.

I wouldn't do paint. You'll spend over $1000 and it won't be as good as real plaster. I did mine myself and it peeled after one season. It cost me about $600 and it was cheap paint.

[PoolDoc]

Hi Goose,

I started to post and say, "it's not that much" but it probably is. Paint & primer alone for a 20x40 (about 1,000 sft) run right at $1,100 at Amazon prices which are fairly good. Add in tools, tarps and a gallon of epoxy cleaner and you're looking at $1200. Pressure washer rental for a day would add another $75. For smaller pools, it would scale down, of course. But it's still a chunk of change.

And, the OP is in Florida, where plastering costs less than in Texas, and WAY less than in Chattanooga.

Sorry about the peeling -- that's pretty consistent with the stories I've heard. I've used epoxy successfully many times, but I've only use Zeron and I've been VERY picky. However, I've heard contractors turn the air blue, talking about it. It's not at all forgiving of shortcuts . . . and they tried to take some.

[TheGoose]

It was my own fault. I looked into the good "paint"...it was expensive. I went cheap and got cheap results. I'm sure if it had been done professionally it would have turned out better. After I got bids to put real plaster in I found out it was going to cost me more money to have the plaster put in due to the peeling paint. I can't remember the details, something about a "bond coat". I don't know if they were fullobull or not. A bunch of guys spent one day with hatchets in the pool and an acid wash (scary). They did the plaster on day 2. I wish I had done the plaster years before. IIRC I spent about $600-800 in paint, but only $2500 for a total replaster by the pros. The painting costs of course didn't include my labor.

[Rene Gnam]

Thank you, Ben.

DIY with Epoxy is not for me, and I do understand why you issue cautions about it! Thanks!

DiamondBrite? I see it referred to as plaster, concrete, quartz, or polymer...depending on which web site you visit. So I'll have to do further research. Since it comes in a variety of colors, I imagine it's more costly than straight plaster.

Which leads to the next questions:

1. Cost comparison...plaster vs DiamondBrite?

2. Durability or longevity...plaster vs DiamondBrite?

I greatly appreciate your attention and response.

[PoolDoc]

In all of those sorts of products, the quality and experience of your local contractor tends to be at least as important as the surface material selected -- all are very dependent on the skill and integrity of the contractor. Even if DiamondBrite is a superior product (and I don't know that!), it would be better to have plaster with a good contractor, then DiamondBrite with a poor one.

But, for obvious reasons, local evaluations have to be made locally, not here.

Sorry.

[Rene Gnam]

3. Go "Paid Subscriptions", here:
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/payments.php


Thanks, Ben...FYI, the above instructions do not work for me because the "check me out" option does not appear. I've updated my profile as you requested, but am stymied on going further.

[Rene Gnam]

Oops...PF now tells me I do not have the authority to edit My Profile. I also am forbidden from viewing My Profile.

So, please add Hayward NavigatorPro, Model 925ADVUHB.

[PoolDoc]

Sorry; I need to update some messages that appear. The CheckMeOut option was an test of a method to let folks in, but keep spammers out, without taking up too much of my time. However the response was too low to make it worthwhile.

I'll try to get those messages updates shortly.

[Rene Gnam]

Sorry; I need to update some messages that appear. The CheckMeOut option was an test of a method to let folks in, but keep spammers out, without taking up too much of my time. However the response was too low to make it worthwhile.

I'll try to get those messages updates shortly.

Okay, I'll be patient.

Want to update you on resurfacing my pool...

I called two contractors and hired one of them. He'll use a PreMix product called Marquis BlueStone. Depending on weather, he and his crew of 5 guys will be done in 4 - 5 days, so I figure a week. His payment plan is 1/3 in advance, 1/3 midway through the work, 1/3 on completion. Pretty fair, I believe. Licensed and insured (gave me the ins doc). Recommended by an independent swimming pool maintenance pro I respect, so all should go well.

Thank you, Ben, for your input. It's good to have a resource like you!

[TheGoose]

How much is he charging? 4-5 days sounds like a long time. I hope everything turns out well for you.

[Rene Gnam]

How much is he charging? 4-5 days sounds like a long time. I hope everything turns out well for you.

Thanks for your concern.

You've heard of Hurricane Beryl? Well, the good-looking but not so accurate weather gals had it coming towards us, and the contractor didn't want to guarantee work during a big storm.

The Hurricane, which really became a Tropical Storm, went further north, so we just got a lot of rain in Central Florida, and the contractor got the job done in 3 days: Day One, waiting for the pool to drain; Day Two, prep and cutting a ridge under the in-pool tile border we retained; Day Three, applying Diamond Brite Marquis Blue Stone, leveling and smoothing. Beautiful job.

I don't know that Ben wants us to quotes fees on this forum. But my swimming pool maintenance guy told me it was a fair price. And I'd be happy to recommend the contractor who did my job to any Central Florida pool owners.

[PoolDoc]

I don't know that Ben wants us to quotes fees on this forum. But my swimming pool maintenance guy told me it was a fair price. And I'd be happy to recommend the contractor who did my job to any Central Florida pool owners.

At the user's end of this issue, there's less benefit than you'd think, because PF users are so widely scattered. For example, there are only about 10 PF users, and maybe 100 lurkers, in the entire Chattanooga metro area (300,000+ people). The chance that one of those will need a Diamond Brite resurface in the next year is small. There are more in central Florida, but still the odds that someone will be looking for that contractor, in your area is low.

But, more significantly to me, there are a variety of problems associated with doing so. At a minimum, as soon as I do that regularly, I'll have to have a lawyer on retainer, because I WILL get legal threats. Use search link in my signature, and look up "SpectraLight" to see what I mean.

[Rene Gnam]

At the user's end of this issue, there's less benefit than you'd think, because PF users are so widely scattered. For example, there are only about 10 PF users, and maybe 100 lurkers, in the entire Chattanooga metro area (300,000+ people). The chance that one of those will need a Diamond Brite resurface in the next year is small. There are more in central Florida, but still the odds that someone will be looking for that contractor, in your area is low.

But, more significantly to me, there are a variety of problems associated with doing so. At a minimum, as soon as I do that regularly, I'll have to have a lawyer on retainer, because I WILL get legal threats. Use search link in my signature, and look up "SpectraLight" to see what I mean.

Gotcha! We'll leave the price out. Anyone who really wants it can easily find my website and then contact me by phone or email. But, I do thank you for helping me clarify my thinking and helping me finally get the job underway. Now that it's done, wow!...why didn't I do it earlier?

On another issue, the message I will add at the bottom of this post has been on the top of the PF pages I access for many weeks, but the system doesn't allow me: (1) to upgrade to registered, (2) to post a response to certain threads (open), or (3) to access certain threads.

I guess it just doesn't like us transplanted Yanks.

Good forum, Ben...congrats!

[PoolDoc]

You can see the threads in "Getting Started" but can no longer post there. That's by design.

What's not by design is the fact that we are way behind, and that there are still lots of active threads there that haven't been processed. We've just been hammered with new traffic. I've very thankful that I was NOT able to get around to some of the things that would have increased traffic!

[Rene Gnam]

You can see the threads in "Getting Started" but can no longer post there. That's by design.

What's not by design is the fact that we are way behind, and that there are still lots of active threads there that haven't been processed. We've just been hammered with new traffic. I've very thankful that I was NOT able to get around to some of the things that would have increased traffic!

Seems to be working now. Thanks, Ben.


But...

a moderator still has to approve my posts.

Not a major item on your To-Do List.