Having a pool in your backyard can be a great thing, especially if you live in the part of the country where temperatures remain high throughout the year.
Not only does it improve the visual aspect of your home, but a swimming pool can also provide respite from the heat.
However, not everything is so great and easy with pools, there is a lot of maintenance and day-to-day tasks which you need to take care of in order to keep your pool looking great and in sanitary condition.
Apart from that, there are some common problems which you may expect that your concrete pool will have and develop over time. Experts at Kona Labs share some of these.
Limescale Buildup
Concrete pools have a bit of a rough finish, that is, the surface of the pool is not as smooth as with a plexiglass pool, or one covered in tiles. So, if your pool is a concrete one, you may find that those imperfections can become a source of problems.
Limescale and other minerals can use those imperfections to build up and create deposits which can be in a form of mounds (which are less problematic) and bumps (which may cause some injury if you walk inside the pool barefoot).
Experts suggest brushing your pool regularly to remove any buildup before it can firmly solidify. Additionally, only add diluted acid to your pool, as unbalanced pH value can also promote this kind of buildup.
Structural Cracks
There are a few potential reasons why a pool would suffer a structural crack (where the shell of the pool is cracked and the water can leak out). The most common reason is that the design or the construction of the pool were faulty, especially if the soil is known to be somewhat unstable.
In order to determine if there is a leak, experts use specialized leak detection equipment, but you will probably be able to tell if your pool starts losing more water than usual (due to evaporation and other factors).
Once the leak has been detected, an expert should be able to tell you whether the pool can be repaired and how it can be done.
Discoloration
In a vast majority of cases, the pools are painted light blue. This color reminds us of the ocean, and we want to have this association when we swim in our pools.
However, concrete pools have one disadvantage over other pool types when it comes to color – the surface of such pools is porous, which means that it is more likely to be discolored, or that the paint you put on it will fade.
Even though this is not as big of a problem as some others on this list, it is a problem which is mostly non-existent when it comes to other pool types and is another source of expense and downtime.
Using specialized paints and maintaining your pool well can help prolong the durability of the paint job, but it will fade eventually, forcing you to repaint it.
Plumbing Issues
Most modern pools have a complex network of plumbing pipes and sensors built in. All of those things serve to make our pools better and more efficient, but when something breaks, it can be a nuisance to take care of.
Even though plumbing problems are not unique to concrete pools, the way they are resolved is very specific with these pools. Namely, in order to get to the problem, you may need to break the concrete, which is expensive and time-consuming if nothing else.
In order to keep our pools up to date and in the best conditions, we need to be on a lookout for potential problems, and these are the most common ones with concrete pools.