Paint advice? Also, hydrostatic valve?

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tj__r

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Jul 6, 2012
63
Way north of Chicago
Hi, all, I'm thinking about painting the bottom of our hybrid concrete/fiberglass pool this spring. It's currently painted white and hasn't been painted in about 10 years. It doesn't look really terrible yet. There are some worn areas where grey concrete is beginning to be visible plus a few small rust stains. I'm thinking DIY as I've talked with some of the local pool companies and they aren't interested. Here are a few questions:

Paint brands? Supreme Paint & Coatings? Olympic? Others?
Coverage? For those who've done this, is the manufacturer's coverage spec about right?
Color? Are there durability advantages to going blue vs white? Would it be more difficult to switch colors than stick with white?
Preparation?
Temperature when painting? I'd prefer to do this before we open the pool, so next few weeks. But it's usually pretty cool at night.
,
Also, another question: I've read some advice that one should have a hydrostatic relief valve if planning to leave the pool empty for a while. Looks like we'd have a week or so before refilling. Our main drain has two holes, one where the drain pipe connects. The other one might be a plug or a relief valve. Will it be obvious if it's a valve? If it's a plug, and there's a pipe going into the ground, can I just screw in a relief valve?

Thanks much for any advice!
 
While your aesthetic concerns are totally understandable, you won’t find much support for painting a pool on this forum. Simply put, the “pool paints” that are available nowadays are horrible in terms of their longevity and durability. You’ll be lucky to get 2 seasons out of the paint surface before it begins to get chalky and creates cloudiness in the pool from shedded paint particulates. They just don’t make them durable enough anymore to be worth wasting your time and money on.

The proper way to resurface the pool bottom is to have it redone with a plaster finish, either white or colored. Plaster is a smooth, hard and durable surface and, if treated properly, can last 10+ years or more. It will certainly be much more expensive than paint but, as the old saying goes, “Cheap is never quality and quality is never cheap.”

Good luck to you ...
 
Yeah, we looked at plastering and it was gonna be more money than we want to spend. Also, there seemed to be some issues with how to handle the transition between the bottom and the fiberglass walls when adding a layer of plaster. Ours is a little unusual in having a right-angle ledge at the walls.

Why haven't pool paints improved like other coatings have? Today's paints for other applications are superior to what was available even 10 years ago.
 
30 years ago you could find a pool paint that would last because it was actually more like a rubberized material that was dissolved in some pretty nasty solvents (xylene, methyl chloride, etc). You’d get an impervious coating that would last a decade or more BUT nothing about the material, the way it was made and it’s application was environmentally benign or safe for workers to apply. And, as with all end-of-life requirements, removing old coatings would put materials in landfills that would never degrade. So, in order to satisfy environmental regulations, most of those old school paint materials were phased out. Same was true for plaster - old plaster coatings used to routinely contain asbestos as a component of the plaster. The asbestos would greatly enhance the strength of the plaster and old plaster coatings routinely lasted 20+ years....Nowadays, not so much.
 
To comply with low VOC rules, the manufacturers removed the strong solvents.

The new formulas just don't work under water.

When you have a problem and call the manufacturer, they act surprised, shocked and baffled.

They say that you're the first person to ever have a problem.

They blame the application or the water chemistry and run you around in circles until you give up and go away.

If you're one of the 1% of complainers that won't go away, they will give you replacement paint and tell you that that's all you get.
 
tj__r said:
Yeah, we looked at plastering and it was gonna be more money than we want to spend. Also, there seemed to be some issues with how to handle the transition between the bottom and the fiberglass walls when adding a layer of plaster. Ours is a little unusual in having a right-angle ledge at the walls.
Click to expand...

This shouldn't be a problem. Most hybrid pools were built with this ledge. You can plaster over the concrete surface right up to the fiberglass (that's how it was done originally). A bigger problem is what to do with the fiberglass sides. Hopefully they are still in good condition.
 
Well, if you must paint, epoxy paints are your best bet but I still have yet to see anyone come on here with a painted pool that doesn’t have spalling issues. As you can read from the various vendors’ technical data sheets, surface prep is the key and most recommend mechanical grinding as the preferred option. If you do that, you should see if you can hire someone with a bead blaster OR rent something. Trying to grind by hand, even with a decent sized (7”) angle grinder is going to wear you out fast. You’ll also need a dust mask, preferably a full face mask like a P-100 style (good luck finding one of those with all the corona-hoarding going on) because you’re going to be in the bottom of a big pit with fine dust everywhere and you don’t want any of that stuff in your lungs. Like I said, if you can hire someone to do the surface prep, it will be worth every penny spent.

And, to answer your other question, yes you should absolutely open the hydrostatic valve if it’s there. If the ground is even marginally wet around the pool, the hydrostatic forces can easily collapse the walls or lift the bottom up. If there is no hydrostatic valve, then you may need to consider cutting a couple of three inch holes in the floor for safety. They can be patched with hydraulic cement right before you paint.
 
Another option would be to drop a liner in there, then choice of design and colors are plentiful with a pretty pool in the end. Had this done to a 25k gallon pool 3 years back. The customer couldn't be happier. That pool had fiberglass walls and concrete floor that was loosing water. A few years of patching and money was all waste. They probably spent 3X the liner cost doing repairs.
 

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