Pool Contaractor coming out tomorrow Gel Coat Pool Resurfacing Question

[jewilki1]

I have a pool that needs to be resurfaced because of cracks in the bottom and the seams of the fiberglass walls are showing now. My entire pool has been painted in sherwin williams epoxy paint. I have a pool contractor coming out tomorrow and he said that he does not need to water blast the pool first to get the epoxy paint off. He said he just needs to repair the existing cracks and then spray the gel coat on. He said he needed to put fiberglass in the cracks of the fiberglass walls and at the seams in the bottom.


I talked to another contractor that said that was a lie that the pool needs to be blasted because the gelcoat will not adhere to epoxy.


My pool is an early 80's pool and the walls are fiberglass and bottom is concrete.

My first question is who is telling the truth does the epoxy need to be blasted off or not first?

I also thought it would be better to just convert the pool over to a vinyl liner pool. I asked the pool contractor and he said it would cost more because of my skimmer baskets are original to the pool and do not work with a vinyl liner. He said he would have to put new skimmer baskets in and change the coping as well and all the fittings around my returns and pool lights. Wouldn't a vinyl liner be cheaper in the long run?

My thought is the initial conversion may be expensive, but would it not be cheaper in the long run? I mean a gel coat will only last 10 to 15 years and it is about $10,000 or so. To replace a pool liner is only $2000 to $3000 every time it needs to be replaced.

No pool contractor I talk to wants to really do the conversion they for some reason always want to gel coat the pool instead. Are there any reasons why?

Any help would be appreciated before the contractor comes out tomorrow.

Thanks,

Josh

 

[duraleigh]

Very few fiberglass applicators on this forum.

 

[jewilki1]

Very few fiberglass applicators on this forum.

Thanks, I wish I could find someone who new about fiberglass applicators.

I may ask the guy to give me a quote for a vinyl liner conversion as well. I am starting to lean towards getting a vinyl liner put in instead. That way I do not have to deal with whether the gel coat is being applied properly or not. Also my skimmer baskets are original to the pool from 1980 so even though they are going to have to be replaced if a vinyl liner is put in that is probably not a bad thing. That way I will be starting with new across the board and things should last longer down the road.

I am having a real problem wanting to spend 10k-12k for a gelcoat every 10 to 15 years when I can replace the liner every 10 to 15 years for around 3k. I can put in a liner 3 to 4 times for the same amount of money as 1 gelcoat.

 

[swimcmp]

Not an expert in anyway after 30+ years in the business. My experience with paint and applying any coating over it depends entirely on preparation. I wouldn't think that a gel coat would attach onto epoxy. Never done it, don't mess with gel coat so I can't say. Look for ecoFinnish that would be a permanent fix to the finish. A vinyl liner would be pretty tricky to get it to fit the vinyl shape. To do that you are talking about removing at least part of the deck and replacing every return fitting and any skimmers and light niche. Probably the initial cost would be prohibitive.

 

[jewilki1]

Not an expert in anyway after 30+ years in the business. My experience with paint and applying any coating over it depends entirely on preparation. I wouldn't think that a gel coat would attach onto epoxy. Never done it, don't mess with gel coat so I can't say. Look for ecoFinnish that would be a permanent fix to the finish. A vinyl liner would be pretty tricky to get it to fit the vinyl shape. To do that you are talking about removing at least part of the deck and replacing every return fitting and any skimmers and light niche. Probably the initial cost would be prohibitive.

Thanks for the suggestion on the pool coating. Believe it or not most of the quotes I have gotten on the liner have been cheaper or the same price for some reason that the gel coating costs.

I would have thought the liner would have been more expensive but I have talked to 3 different pool contractors and all of them said it would be around 10K or less for the conversion.

 

[jewilki1]

So, I finally got some good news yay! The pool contractor I am using got the people that I am sure he subcontracts to do the gelcoating and resurfacing on pools to give an exact quote. He originally thought it was going to run in the 8k to 10k range. However, he said after they looked at it they said they would be able to do it for 5k and he was giving me a major discount! He said normally a project of this size would always be 10K for the size of pool I have.

I believe it may be because I had already purchased a tension cover for my pool that is $2500 from him before I figured out the bad pool leak and my pool needed to be resurfaced before the pool cover could be put on. Obviously you cannot put on a tension cover when the pool continuously leaks.

Anyway I am in the process of draining the pool tonight and tomorrow at the request of the contractor as they are going to start working on it Tuesday of this week. I will post before and after pictures. I am hoping the gelcoat will be a major improvement over the current epoxy paint I have on it.

That is always that paranoia of the pool floating with it empty, but the pool is up on top of a hill and the water drains down hill. I have no hydrostatic relief valve because the pool is from like 1980. I know the previous owner had drained it every 3 to 5 years himself and painted it with epoxy.

Also, my pool is about 40,000 gallons I am curious if I should fill it up afterwards myself or just have a water delivery truck come or pay the fire department to possibly do it? 40,000 gallons is a lot of water and would take probably a week to fill it up myself.

Josh