what kind of paint on old concrete painted pool

[summerbracey]

We bought a house with a 50 year old concrete pool with chalking, bubbling, and peeling paint. We opened it last summer, but were not able to use it because of its condition. We had estimates from pool restoration for coping, tile, and plaster from 13,00- 30,000. We would like to try to paint it (ourselves) to give ourselves some time to make sure it will be worth the investment for us.

Ive been researching (alot) on here and elsewhere on the process, types of paint, etc. I was told by one of the restoration companies that we could just power wash all of the old paint off and leave it. I would like to try to powerwash old paint to bare concrete then paint.

Does anyone know if painting on bare (old) concrete would require the same process of acid washing as I am reading for all previously painted surfaces?

Are there recommendations for types of paint. I have been leaning toward epoxy because of the claimed life span. Is there an epoxy that anyone can recommend (or NOT) from personal experience.

Thank you so much in advance for your help! I am looking forward to getting started.

[PoolDoc]

1. Regardless of the type of refinishing you do, the new surface is only as good as the bond to what it's touching. It's it's bonded to old flaking paint, then it will be a crummy refinish, no matter what material you use. Thus . . .

2. The #1 factor in the quality of ANY refinish job is surface prep!

3. Epoxy is absolutely the most durable paint, but it will NOT bond securely to old rubber based paint. It's also finicky to apply (but so are some of the other surface finishes!)

4. If you get that far along, and do have rubber base paint to remove, this is the tool:
http://www.aurand.net/aurandweb/site/images/k7-1.jpg

It's sort of funny -- the Aurand grinder is an un-modernized (except for the grounded cord) WWII tool, originally used for paint stripping on naval ships. I actually have one I bought 25 years ago, when I had to remove the paint in a 45 x 75 commercial pool. You can't grind or blast blistered rubber base paint off with much of anything else because it's, well, rubber. It's definitely a one-trick tool, but it's very, very good at that trick. I'd be happy to sell you mine, at 1/2 of list price, since I'll never use it again . . . but ONLY if you really need it.

As far as paint and prep go, read the tech bulletins here: http://www.kelleytech.com/olympic/olympic-tech-bulletins.asp

It's good info, that you need to know, whether you use Kelley's Olympic brand, or something else.

[PoolDoc]

Oops, failed to move this out of the "Getting Started" section.

. . . done now.