from liner to concrete pool

[Diver]

I recently had my liner changed. While that was not without a problem, it made me think of something.

My pool is all around concrete. Concrete bottom, concrete walls. The shell is solid and aside from few hairline cracks seems almost water tight.

I asked the installer if this could be converted to concrete pool. He said it's for sure could be, but it would cost as much as it costed to build the pool in first place and also that the lifespan would be the same as of the liner.

To me both of those statements seem strange. I might be oversimplifying it in my thinking, but it seems if structurally the shell is as good as it needs to be (which, seems to be the case), it only needs to be water proofed and then had a layer of shotcrete or gunite done. Which shouldn't be overly expensive.

And once that is done, it should last a long time without any problems.

Am I seeing this wrong? Are there downsides to converting? I'm not planning on doing this right as I got a new liner, but I'm just curious and I want to know in advance in case my liner gives up on me (there were some problems with installation).

 

[Newdude]

if structurally the shell is as good as it needs to be (which, seems to be the case), it only needs to be water proofed and then had a layer of shotcrete or gunite done. Which shouldn't be overly expensive.

The walls are structural and ready for plaster. The floor is probably much thinner and more for being smooth as opposed to vermiculite and sand which can get bumpy as time goes on, sometimes even from day 1. They could pour a new floor on the existing one and tie it into the walls, then plaster/pebble/quartz etc the whole thing but you’d only be saving the materials on the walls and the retrofit labor would probably come close in the end. @jimmythegreek thoughts ?

 

[borjis]

There have been some conversions from full concrete shell with liner to no liner using Auquabrite.
The pool does have to be plastered first so the aquabrite has something to adhere to. It's expensive, but I'm considering having it done to mine eventually.

 

[jimmythegreek]

I never see it as worth it. A liner change on average is 4k. Usually 8 to 10 years. That's 8k for 15+ years. The plaster would be alot more for same lifespan and just by looking at the pool you cannot tell if it is structurally sound at the floor wall meeting. Any movement will crack plaster. Concrete pools are a monolithic pour with rebar. If the pool was originally built for a liner the floor is not structural and that would be a huge expense to retrofit amd the damage to repair rest of pool to do so

 

[Diver]

it might be my area, but the cheapest liner change i found was $5100, with prices above $7k not uncommon. but now i understand a little bit more about the trade offs and the price of conversation. thank you.

 

[Newdude]

it might be my area, but the cheapest liner change i found was $5100, with prices above $7k not uncommon

If you have a standard shape/size pool then your area may be high, or its just high at the moment due to shortages of supplies and/or workers while demand is through the roof.

If you have a custom shaped pool, thats about what they charge by me for the same. The same goes for safety covers. $3500-$7000 depending on how custom it is.