We have an older pool that has paint in areas and is missing in other places (been about 10 years maybe since it was painted by the previous owners). It's an overwhelming opinion that the pool needs resurfaced. Exactly what is that? Will the paint be removed beforehand and do they add paint afterwards? If no paint after a resurface, then what do they do? My husband would like to know the options with resurfacing.
What goes into resurfacing?
- Thread starter MickeyB23
- Start date
A true resurfacing would involve chipping out the old plaster finish, and putting in a new one. If you repaint, I think these are sometimes sandblasted for new paint coatings, but this is a very poor choice compared to re plaster.
Our plaster surface had seen better days...likely before I came along and not knowing what I was doing and causing a mess in the pool.
Anyway, fast forward to this year and we decided to get it resurfaced and after researching quite a bit, we decided to go with a Pebble Sheen resurfacing. It is basically, kinda, sorta plaster but with small pebbles embedded and it is supposed to last 2-3x of a straight plaster job.
I've never heard of 'paint' for a pool surface so YMMV from my experience. Anyway, the pool company thought that a sandblasting of the plaster would likely suffice and then they could apply the pebble to that. After getting into it, they found my plaster flaking off in large chunks and decided that they would need to jack-hammer all the plaster off and get it down to the gunite (concrete) surface. Of course, that was more money ($1.4k) but I guess it was necessary...I dunno.
We are at day 28 since the pebble was done and the pool filled and are quite happy and thrilled with the new look and feel of our pool!
Anyway, fast forward to this year and we decided to get it resurfaced and after researching quite a bit, we decided to go with a Pebble Sheen resurfacing. It is basically, kinda, sorta plaster but with small pebbles embedded and it is supposed to last 2-3x of a straight plaster job.
I've never heard of 'paint' for a pool surface so YMMV from my experience. Anyway, the pool company thought that a sandblasting of the plaster would likely suffice and then they could apply the pebble to that. After getting into it, they found my plaster flaking off in large chunks and decided that they would need to jack-hammer all the plaster off and get it down to the gunite (concrete) surface. Of course, that was more money ($1.4k) but I guess it was necessary...I dunno.
We are at day 28 since the pebble was done and the pool filled and are quite happy and thrilled with the new look and feel of our pool!
Thank you both! I guess when I look at the pool surface, I really have no idea what I am looking at. I know it's been painted, but I don't know the difference between the plaster surface and the gunite when I look at it, so I'd say what I see is the plaster then. I can see areas of white (paint) and then areas of dark brown with stones that are easy to see. Just below the tile there is an area that looks like light brown plaster and then below that is a very rough edge which I'm not sure if from the paint chipping or if it's bad plaster. I read a little on the other coatings, but wasn't sure what the difference was. I'd much rather do this once, the correct way, and have it last longer - than do it a cheap way.
Chris - it was 1.4K total for the resurfacing, or was that just for the addition of the Pebble Sheen? We need a resurface and some tile and coping work done. I was quoted around $8,000-9,000 just to resurface and another $3,500 to do the tile and coping. It's not that large of a pool!
Chris - it was 1.4K total for the resurfacing, or was that just for the addition of the Pebble Sheen? We need a resurface and some tile and coping work done. I was quoted around $8,000-9,000 just to resurface and another $3,500 to do the tile and coping. It's not that large of a pool!
Mickey,
We are on different sides of the US of A so our numbers could be quite different. The $1.4k was an additional charge to everything else to jack-hammer the plaster off down to gunite. Your resurfacing charge actually sounds about right, perhaps a tad high compared to me. I think my Pebble Sheen charge was around $8k. All new tile and coping was around $5kish. In the end after everything (pressure testing, new skimmer, gas line, permits, auto-fill, mastic, drain change, spa spill-over rebuild) I wrote the pool company a check for $20.5k and the company I used was the lowest bid of the 5 who submitted bids!
We are on different sides of the US of A so our numbers could be quite different. The $1.4k was an additional charge to everything else to jack-hammer the plaster off down to gunite. Your resurfacing charge actually sounds about right, perhaps a tad high compared to me. I think my Pebble Sheen charge was around $8k. All new tile and coping was around $5kish. In the end after everything (pressure testing, new skimmer, gas line, permits, auto-fill, mastic, drain change, spa spill-over rebuild) I wrote the pool company a check for $20.5k and the company I used was the lowest bid of the 5 who submitted bids!
Thanks Chris! Your pool was built the same year as ours was. It's been neglected for a while, so we have a lot to try and come back from. That gives me a comparison and an idea of the whole process. The Pebble Sheen seems like a great option, especially since this is our first year with the pool. I'd like to have it be good for a long time. That was an expensive renovation! I checked out your link - it looks nice! I'll have to see if anyone in our area does that type of surface.
Blue Granite was the Pebble Sheen color we used for our pool. I see you read my Fake Main Drain diatribe! LOL! Crazy stuff.... My bids came in 20k to 30k, FYI. Before I even started, I was hoping to do it for under 15k but that was a pipe dream. 
Thank you, that at least gives me so more feedback. My husband and I are not sure we have plaster over the gunite in our pool. It looks like it could just be the gunite and then paint. The paint is chipping off, but the surface under that looks good. So much to learn. Still trying to find a recommended and trustworthy pro to check things out in person.
DaninFLA
0
when I was house shopping, one of the houses had a plaster pool in need of replacement, it was around 15,000 gallons and I was quoted $5k to have it refinished. your pool is about twice that size so the $8k seems about right.
You might have a painted surface over your plaster as possibly a 'quicker, cheaper' way to get things looking nicer. Just a guess. I suppose you could have straight concrete...wouldn't surprise me a bit.