User Rating: 3 / 5

Having a pool in your house’s yard is a spoil of healthy lifestyle and affluence, that is why everything related to constructing and maintaining a pool costs a lot.

To construct a pool, an ideal place should be chosen where within a few days a ground excavation for the hole is performed, a drainage system and pool technology shafts are set, exterior walls are formed, steel frame is installed and the floor is flooded with concrete, and then with the formwork boards inner walls and steps of the future pool are formed and flooded with concrete. These stages of pool construction are compulsory, and there is no reasonable alternative to it.

After the concrete construction is formed and set, the pool owner faces the issue of waterproofing and finishing. This is the most expensive, laborious and critical part of pool construction, which further will either simplify or complicate the process of keeping and maintaining the pool.

Modern market of personal or commercial pool construction offers two technologies of pool waterproofing and finishing: archaic tiling the pool, or applying a PVC liner.

Tiling the pool with tiles or mosaics

Tiling the pool is a complicated and critical process having some preparatory stages.

1. setting cord for cold joints
2. setting tape for expansion joints
3. priming
4. installing a mesh, furring, applying adhesive with a dented trowel
5. applying leveling compounds, plastering
6. installing membrane waterproofing
7. installing fiberglass mesh
8. applying waterproofing
9. applying water-resistant tile adhesive
10. laying the tiles
11. removing adhesive from tiles and joints
12. applying water-resistant grout into joints between tiles

Twelve point expense list for construction materials and specialists’ work required because of outdated and impractical technologies. The cost of finishing the pool basin with mosaics observing all the rules of pool construction starts at $80 per square meter, 20% of the amount is an overspend on tile cut-offs. Tiling the pool basin may take from two weeks to a month depending on the size and shape complexities of the concrete basin.

Apart from huge cost, a tiled pool shows a list of problems:

• A large number of processes involved when tiling and waterproofing ensure technological mistakes that show themselves over time as cracks, water leakage, freezing and gradual damage of concrete, tile popping off.
• Complicated and costly repair. When the waterproof coating is damaged, moisture penetrates under tile bonding adhesive and peels it off the concrete. When pool water leakage or tile buckling and popping off are identified, it is necessary to completely drain the water, dry the basin, and then thoroughly tap all the tiles around the perimeter in order to find all cavities that appeared between tiles and concrete. In case cavities are found, it is necessary to remove the tiles and underlying substrate down to the concrete, restore the waterproofing and plaster, lay new tiles, grout the joints. To maintain the pool you should keep a few boxes of tiles from the same batch that the one your pool is tiled with. After repair, the pool should be kept dry for no less than a week.
• Difficult maintenance of a tiled pool. Depending on the water hardness, over time some lime scale builds up on the tiles, in which microorganisms, algae and many others develop. Lime strongly adheres to the walls and floor of the pool, especially to the joints between tiles. There are several ways and devices to remove lime from the tiles. Many people try to clean the tiles without draining the water, but because of the porous grout in joints between tiles this is impossible. To achieve the best results in removing lime scale from pool tiles, you should drain the water completely, apply special chemicals after drying and brush the joints until clean. Because of their porous structure, it is very difficult to clean the joints completely.

Installing PVC Liner in a Swimming Pool

Finishing the pool with liner is a modern, practical and cost-efficient variant that requires less preparatory processes, less money, is quicker to install and operate compared to tiling.

1. Plastering concrete basin (the surface of the concrete should be perfectly smooth)
2. Painting with waterproof paint
3. Installing geotextile
4. Installing a coping track
5. Installing cleat angles on the steps
6. Cutting the lining into panels 
7. Welding the seams between the PVC lining panels
8. Heat welding of the liner to a coping track
9. Applying sealant to the seams

Liner is a good variant to waterproof and decorate the pool which back in the day was an innovative technology that replaced classic tiling of the pool, eliminating a number of serious problems in creating and maintaining a pool. For the sake of cost-cutting and simplifying the process of building and maintaining a pool, the owners have to bear with some disadvantages of lining.

• The pool lining is easily damaged with sharp objects.
• When in use, the lining rubs against the concrete basin wearing down quite quickly. To reduce rubbing and increase the useful life of the lining, a geotextile padding is installed along the perimeter of the pool, that adds on costs.
• The seams between plates of liner often separate and lose their leak-tightness. Each seam is additionally treated with sealant, and this procedure should be repeated from time to time.
• Overlapping joints scattered all over the pool are very distinctive under water and spoil the aesthetics.
• Overspend of vinyl lining at installing because of very many cut-offs
• Complexity of installing the liner on rounded shapes and steps, precise work is required to install the coping track and cut the lining
• PVC pool lining color is originally grey, the tiling print or solid color is applied to its surface with a special printer. Depending on the quality of the lining, the cases of fading of the pattern or fill color above water line, or their oxidation under water are not uncommon, resulting in a significant difference between above and under water color of pool lining noticeable already on the second year of use.
• Within 2-3 years PVC liner wears and tears, and fades, reducing pool’s attractiveness.
• With the temperature of lower than -20°С, the lining tends to destroy, thus the need to winterize the pool arises.
• When exposed to chlorine, within the first week the lining color fades, and during the second week irreversible destructive processes start.

If the groundwater is close to the surface in the yard with swimming pool, you will have to reject the PVC lining. The groundwater will saturate through the concrete and fill the space between lining and concrete, and this will quickly destroy the concrete and the pool in general.

Finishing a pool with Aqua polymer

Dempinox Company has been studying the issue of decorative waterproofing for more than 10 years, and it has succeeded a lot. Aqua innovative polymer coating is a step to the future when one person within one day can create a decorative waterproof coating in their pool, without special knowledge, experience, and tools, having only one universal material.

Aqua is a unique coating applied in a liquid form to any surface with a roller or spray gun. When dried, it transforms into a powerful impact-resistant waterproof seamless film following any shape of the surface it is applied to. The dried film is resistant to ultraviolet, chlorine, alkali, salt, antibacterial chemicals, cuts and impacts. Aqua hydrophobicity prevents lime and salt buildups which algae and bacteria flourish in, and that prevents quick pool contamination. Aqua’s wide palette allows bringing any design to life.

Process of applying of Aqua polymer coating when creating a pool:

• Apply Dempinox Aqua to the surface of concrete basin in a few coatings with a roller or spray gun. Recommended consumption is 1 liter per 1 square meter. Flash offs between coatings are about 30 minutes.

Dempinox Aqua has solved the problems of its predecessors, having improved the technologies of finishing, keeping and maintaining a pool, having narrowed the procedure of waterproofing to only one process. There is no need to overpay to specialists for performing dozens of stages any more, for construction materials and their transportation to the site, for operating expensive equipment, and, the most important, there is no need to wait long months until they finish tiling the pool, and it can be finally tried.

• Creating reliable decorative seamless waterproofing in a medium-size pool with the help of one worker takes one day.
• Aqua is applied in a liquid form, when dried it transforms into a unique seamless film that ensures complete waterproofing.
• Dempinox Aqua palette has more than 80 unique colors, including pearl, luminescent, chameleon, metallic and basic colors, as well as a clear one.
• Dempinox Aqua takes any complex shape as well as a plain one, saving time and money at finishing steps, oval curves and corners.
• There is no overspending of the material because the film is created directly on the surface of the pool, producing no cut-offs or remains.
• The elasticity of the coating exceeds 450% which protects from external effects and destruction of the protective film.
• The material penetrates the concrete deeply, polymerizing its surface layer and creating the film inside and outside the concrete. To damage the polymer film you should damage the concrete.
• The polymer film is resistant to extreme temperature swings from - 80°С to +120°С.
• After the pool is coated with Aqua, you can apply lane dividing lines on the floor choosing color from Dempinox palette, e.g., white, as well as any logos, pictures, words using a stencil.
• Aqua is resistant to direct exposure to chlorine, ultraviolet rays, salt, alkali, antibacterial chemicals.
• It is easily fixed, you should just touch a damaged spot up with Aqua, and in ten hours you can use the pool.
• With Dempinox Aqua you can create a pool on your own, saving costs and time.
• If desired, you can change the color of the pool in 5-10 years, applying Aqua of different color onto preceding coating. You should drain the water from the pool, let it dry and apply a few coats with a polymer of the chosen color.
• Old tiled pools can be renovated with this polymer coating. Aqua is applied onto the tiles, restores waterproofing and returns attractiveness to the pool.
• Maintaining the pool coated with Dempinox is very simple, polymer’s hydrophobicity prevents lime and salt buildups which microorganisms and algae develop in. Clients note that any stains are removed in one stroke. You will have to clean the pool coated with Aqua by far less often than tiles or PVC liner.

Dempinox Aqua is an ideal solution for waterproofing and decorating pools, swimming ponds, man-made lakes and streams, landscape objects, fountains. It is also used for waterproofing the house roofs, walls and basements, foundations, bathhouses, saunas, plunge pools, public showers and any types of water facilities.