Resurfacing pool-fiberglass

[Danjones0212]

Hello everyone. Im not sure if this is the right place to post this so if not please direct me to the appropriate area. With that being said, let me dive in (pun intended)

I have an in-ground pool approx. 7000 gallons. (kidney shaped) I live in SW Florida so I know the water table plays a big role in pools popping out of the ground. It has been a couple months since it has rained here. We are in our dry season. My pool is looking very bad. The previouus owners "doctored up" the pool to make it look good. What happens is when you get in the pool and play around a while all is good until you get out. THats when you notice that the bottom of your feet look lite a smurfs! Apparently they did not use enough of the top coat. Now I have many areas with white showing through where it should be blue. So let me get to my main question...

I am planning on repainting the pool but I am worried about the pool "popping " out of the ground. As I am a first time homeowner and first time pool owner, what do I need to do to prepare?

 

[kimkats]

When you say "paint" do you mean paint like you buy at Lowes or such? I am not real up on how to recoat a fiberglass surface but can tell you that paint will not last as you are seeing with the last job. I will do some searches to see what I find on how to properly "fixing" a fiberglass surface.

Kim (note I add the word fiberglass to your title to get more eyes that know on it)

 

[Jimrahbe]

Dan,

One of the guys I used to work with redid his fiberglass pool a couple of years ago... I'm not sure of the exact process, but it seems like the old top coat was dull and that they applied a new topcoat (Gel coat???) and it looked as good as new. I asked him and he said it cost $1,800 for the recoat by a company called "Fibre Tech". I am not sure if that is a local company or a chain.

As Kim points out "painting" a pool is never a good idea.

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.

 

[kimkats]

Here are some threads I found when I did a search:

22k gallon Fiberglass Resurfacing

Pool Contaractor coming out tomorrow Gel Coat Pool Resurfacing Question

Fiberglass pool resurfacing issue

Fiberglass pool resurfacing issue

Fiberglass resurfacing?

Please note these are mostly older threads so the OP might not answer if you ask questions on their threads. I am sharing them to show you what can happen with some of the different ways.

I would LOVE for you to look into the AquaBright option. Here is a link to a thread about it:

ecoFINISH aquaBRIGHT longterm review

There are some other threads about it as well.

Let us know what you decide to do. Once you get the pool fixed up we can help you maintain it in an easy and much cheaper way than before! The Trouble Free Pool way!

Kim

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Paint, even brands that are labeled pool paint and promise a 10 year customer satisfaction guarantee, will not last more than 2 seasons before it starts to breakdown and sheds particulates.

The only viable option for fiberglass is grinding off the old paint and gel coat, patching cracks and holes and the resurfacing with a new gelcoat. It’s a labor intensive process that requires a skilled crew to do it right. Look up contractors that do it and get quotes.

And, as an added feature, the contractor is then responsible for bracing the pool and ensuring it doesn’t float.

As to your question - if you drain the pool you MUST brace the walls with lumber and jacks to keep the pool shell from collapsing. You also need to dig well-points around the pool and use submersible pumps to keep the ground water out. Digging the well points will tell you how far away the ground water is. In some extreme cases, you would need to intentionally punch a hole in the shell to equalize the water pressure.

As you can see, it can be a complicated task and you want to be very careful about doing it on your own lest you incur all the risks of a damaged pool.

 

[keithw]

Can you post some additional details on what is going on and perhaps some pictures too? Normally a fiberglass pool will not leach the coloring in the gelcoat onto one's skin. That sounds weird. I am wondering if perhaps you are not experiencing some issue with scale and are misinterpreting it as a problem with the gelcoat.

 

[Danjones0212]

Thanks for all the feedback. To clarify, I was looking at "smart seal" pool and deck coating to redo the pool.

 

[kimkats]

Paint is paint no matter the brand name. That is why I shared some of the links I did. To give you some "real life" dealing with painting a pool.

Let us know what you end up doing so we can learn as you go.

Kim

 

[JoyfulNoise]

This is one technical bulletin I found online -

http://smartsealco.com/_bulletins/SS%20Tech%20Bulletin_911.pdf

They don’t give much information on product coverage specs but it looks like the most conservative estimate would be 125 sq ft per gallon. Take your pool water’s surface area and multiply it by 1.6 for a conservative estimate of total surface area. That should give you a rough estimate of how much primer and paint you’ll need. If you look at the maintenance section you’ll see that they inform you that the product will only last 5-6 years (at best) and the chalky residue that develops must be acid cleaned every 2-3 years, again that’s likely a very optimistic estimate.

If his is not a permanent home for you, then painting is a cheap way to keep the pool looking ok while you wait to move on. However, if you plan to be there long term, it’s not the right solution and I would bet that painting the pool is going to cost you more in time and aggravation than just saving up the cash and getting the pool properly resurfaced.

It’s entirely up to you and TFP will be able to help as much as it can but don’t expect good long term results from paint. As Kim pointed to, TFP users’ experiences with painted pools is rather dismal...

Good luck and keep this thread updated as you decide what to do.