Need Pro & Cons For Fiberglass & Concrete Pools

[maxmuscle]

We Live In N.e. Fl. And Are On The Market For An Inground Pool. Im Looking For Help On Making A Decision On What Kind Of Inground Pool To Shop For. A Concrete Or Fiberglass & Clorine Or Salt? I Have Heard Locally Of Pros And Cons Of Both But Want To Hear From You Guys To See If Its The Same Feedback.
Thanks!!

[waterbear]

Fiberglass and SWG by all means....If you live in my neighborhood you don't want to use the only fiberglass contractor in tmy area, however. He is in serious trouble now and has about 20 customers who are involved in various actions against him. If you are using one from Jax then you should be fine.
Fiberglass is non reactive so you will need less chems for water balancing compared to gunite. You will not have to acid wash or replaster. Algae doesn't stick. Main disadvantage is that you cannot have a custom pool, you are stuck with the premanufactured shapes. However there are quite a few to choose from. The white finish is not a problem since it looks blue in daylight and really shows up the color lights if you install them (I did). The main disadvantage to fiberglass pools has been the cost. They have historically been the most expensive pool you could get. Now with the rising costs of concrete that is changing and in many instances they are actually less expensive than a similar gunite pool.
A SWG really makes pool maintenance much easier.....just ask anyone on the forum that has one if they would go back to manual chlorination! A chlorine feeder and trichlor pucks is not a viable option since you will eventually have stabiliber levels that are too high and will need to drain and refill the pool to dilute them....not an easy chore.

[maxmuscle]

THANKS A LOT, ANY ONE ELSE HAVE ANYTHING TO ADD?
jason

[blue_steel]

We have had a FG pool for 3 years now and love it. Far less hassles than the vinyl pool my parent's had for 24 years.
Cost of 16' x 43' x 6'6" FG installed (no deck) was $17K (in 2004). Quotes for concrete / gunite pools in my area at the same time were >$36K (not including a deck). My brother lives in central Florida and put in a FG pool a few years ago. He said FG pools in his area were about 1/2 the cost of a concrete pool.

[mkelley]

I was going to go FG but ended up with concrete because we did want the custom look. Biggest pros for FG are, as said, less chemicals and (unsaid) no swimsuit or skin scrapes/sticking.

But I'll tell you -- I *love* our concrete pool and am glad we didn't go FG. I've swam in a lot of FG pools and they always seem "hollow" to me -- can't explain it any other way. I don't like they way they sound or feel. Concrete just seems more permanent and more pool like. In any case, our pool is a showpiece and that could not be said for any FG other than a custom design (which is probably out of the question for you or nearly anyone else).

[maxmuscle]

Thats all interesting. I grew up here in N.E. Fl. and have swam in about 9 different pools over my lifetime(here). They are all concrete...and 1 of those was behind a doblewide trailer. None of them have been resurfaced either. I wonder why everyone here appears to chose concrete? My biggest fear with concrete would be what if it cracked,..is it repairable, how often or could it happen? anyone else have answers?

[waterbear]

Thats all interesting. I grew up here in N.E. Fl. and have swam in about 9 different pools over my lifetime(here). They are all concrete...and 1 of those was behind a doblewide trailer. None of them have been resurfaced either. I wonder why everyone here appears to chose concrete?

Until concrete prices started rising like they did concrete was less expensive than fiberglass. There are not a lot of vinyl pools in Fl from my underdstanding. They seem to be better suited to more northern climates from my underdstanding.

My biggest fear with concrete would be what if it cracked,..is it repairable, how often or could it happen? anyone else have answers?

Hope this helps.

[DavidD]

...None of them have been resurfaced either.Yet anyway I wonder why everyone here appears to chose concrete? My biggest fear with concrete would be what if it crackedThis, along with the resurfacing is why I chose Fiberglass,..is it repairableYes, it can be repaired but it will cost $$, how often or could it happenYou will find that no builder will or can gurantee? anyone else have answers?

The only advantage of Concrete, In my opinion, is you can get whatever shape, size and configuration as well as texture, tile etc. you want.

Dave
16,000 gallon inground Fiberglass pool