Swimming Pools

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Choosing

Choosing a Swimming Pool Professional

Signing the Contract with the Builder

Guide to Swimming Pool Construction

Swimming Pool Site Preparation and Excavation

Swimming Pool on Problem Soils

Swimming Pool Special Soil Conditions

Swimming Pool on Fill and Rock

How a Contractor Build a Swimming Pool

Swimming Pool Finishes and Trims

Swimming Pool Accessories

Pool Finishes and Trims

Depending on the type of swimming pool you're building, you can choose the materials and colors for swimming pool finishes and trims – paint or plaster, tile, and coping.

Interior Swimming Pool Finishes

Vinyl-lined and fiberglass swimming pools need no interior finish. All others must be plastered or painted (tile is another type of finish, but seldom used for residential swimming pools because of the high cost of materials and labor). Paint can be applied by the homeowner; plastering is a professional job. Consult a reliable paint manufacturer before deciding whether to paint your pool yourself. Paint applied to a surface that will be underwater must be handled very carefully.

In most parts of Thailand, it's less expensive to paint than to plaster a pool, but in mild climates a carefully maintained plaster finish may last indefinitely; a painted swimming pool requires additional coats every few years.

Plaster

Plaster is the most common finish used on concrete swimming pools; it gives a smooth waterproof skin to the pool, and provides a nonskid walking surface on the bottom of the swimming pool.

Though most concrete swimming pools are finished in white plaster, a mixture of white cement and white marble dust, other colors are increasing in popularity.

To avoid gouging the plaster when the swimming pool is filled, most builders recommend using a garden hose with the nozzle placed on the main drain. When the water is about 1 meter deep, several hoses can be used, providing the incoming flow falls on water rather than plaster.

Coping

Coping gives the swimming pool a good finish – it covers the round concrete edges of the bond beam, conceals the steel projecting from pool walls into the deck, integrates the interior finish and tile of the swimming pool, and emphasizes the lines of the swimming pool.

Coping also serves as a nonskid surface for walking and diving, a hand hold for swimmers, and a smooth sitting bench or shove-off point into the water. When coping is correctly installed, water splashed out of the swimming pool or carried out by dripping swimmers should flow away from the pool and into drainage channels in the deck.

Precast coping stones in straight lengths, corners, and curved sections are the most economical type of coping. The stones are usually made from colored concrete with a porous finish.

Instead of using coping stones, you can simply extend a concrete of wood deck to the edge of the swimming pool and even slightly over the edge.

Or you can use flagstone, brick, or other masonry materials. Be sure to trim and buff the edges of any naturally rough stone to a smooth finish. Make the overhanging portion thin enough for a convenient hand hold.