To Paint, or not to paint.

[MJCP]

My 30 year old concrete pool has a painted finish. The previous owners painted the pool (probably more than a few times in 30 yrs). And now it is in poor shape. There are calcium deposits - Ugly, which are fertile ground for algae growth. But worse yet - every time I vacuum the pool I find hundreds of small paint flecks in the strainer. When looking at the pool there are many small black spots on the bottom which when examined are places where the paint has chipped off all the way down to the concrete. I "WAS" pretty much convinced that next year I will have to drain the pool and repaint.

Two things worry me about painting the pool - your unbiased opinions will help me make the right decision.

1) This was our first year with a pool, and no heater - not many nice weekends with warm water.
We bought and installed a heater, but too late to enjoy this year.
---- Therefore - my wife will hate me if I drain the pool- paint it and wait for it to dry right when she could be enjoying it most.

2) I keep seeing terrible warnings that if I empty my pool it may float up and destroy it structurally. (I'm not even sure if I have hydrostatic relief valves)

Should I paint or not?
Will chipping paint lead to disaster? (Small chips not gouges) or just look terrible until I paint it?

Thanks for your input

 

[Guest]

well, if you go through the trouble of draining, i would replaster and then paint or even go to pebble tec or somthing cool. Im no expert on this, i think its cosmetic.

one good thing is you could start using clorine with out going through the painful conversion.

 

[duraleigh]

Painting a pool is problematic. Paint simply does not do as well as plaster so not only (to most folks) is it less appealing on the eye, it is also certainly less functional.

Painting an existing pool that's already been painted will multiply the problems even more. Unquestionably, I would bite the bullet and (assuming your pool is structurally sound) opt for a new plaster finish. You'll probably get 12-15 good years out of plaster and maybe just a few if you overpaint.

The horror stories of pools popping out of the ground are great stuff but the instances are pretty rare....nevertheless, it can happen. It all depends on how high the ground water is around your pool. You can get info from other neighbors with a pool or PB's in your area but your pool will most likely stay in the ground when you start the repairs.

 

[Butterfly]

MJCP, we bought a house with a pool that had been painted, too. We decided to have it 're-painted' and got an estimate. Our pb estimate was $2600 to repaint and $3240 to replaster. He also said that the paint is very expensive and that it would probably need to be repainted every couple of years . So, naturally we had it replastered. Plain white plaster and it looks great. Hope this helps.

Joyce

 

[MJCP]

Thanks to all - Still dreading this decision