Choosing the Right Paint to Protect and Beautify Your Swimming Pool

For 50 years, Kelley Technical Coatings has produced high quality swimming pool paints, coatings and other related products designed to make pool maintenance a snap. All Olympic pool coatings from Kelley Technical Coatings are user friendly, such that your facility’s staff can apply and maintain the coating without professional help, so long as you make sure to read the label.

Olympic swimming pool paints come in three different material types, each with its own benefits and requirements.

Epoxy Pool Paint

The longest lasting of all coatings, epoxies based pool paints offer long-range protection and cure into a hard, non-porous finish resistant to the usual stress swimming pools undergo. Epoxy pool coatings can be used on any surface, including aluminum and steel (with the proper primer). All other coating types can only be used on plaster or concrete swimming pools. Kelley Technical produces two epoxy swimming pool paints; Zeron and Poxolon 2.

• Zeron epoxy pool coating is the longest lasting with an 8-year lifespan. This high solids pool paint requires only one coat, but, being heavier bodied than the Poxolon 2, it does require more effort and more product to apply. Each gallon of Zeron pool paint will cover approximately 125 to 150 square feet. However, once applied, the long lifespan of the Zeron offers the lowest cost per year. It is available in the four Kelley Olympic standard colors: white, blue ice, bikini blue, and blue mist.
• Poxolon 2 pool paint is similar to Zeron, except that it is less-viscous and requires two coats on initial application. However, the fluidity of Poxolon 2 makes it easier to apply. One gallon of Poxolon 2 pool paint will cover approximately 225-250 square feet and requires two full coats of the material to finish. Poxolon 2 pool paint is available in all four standard colors and is the only Kelley Olympic epoxy coating that also comes in the six accent colors: Spanish blue, sunshine yellow, red pepper, black, and clear.

The epoxy coatings are special for their high durability and long lifespan. For an unfinished swimming pool surfaces it is required to first coat with a primer to insure best adhesion. For concrete and plaster pools Kelley Technical Coatings produces two types of epoxy primers designed to seal these highly porous surfaces. Poxoprime II covers 200-250 square feet per gallon and is compatible with a wet concrete or plaster surface. Gunzite is a two-part primer for application on unusually rough plaster or concrete, or on fiberglass pools. It will cover approximately 100-150 square feet per gallon. These primers are only for use with epoxy pool paints and should not be used with either any other type of coating.

Rubber-Base Enamel Pool Paint

Rubber-base swimming pool paints continue to be one of the most popular types of coatings used to refinish swimming pools, due largely to the fact that most pools were originally coated with a chlorinated rubber paint prior to the development of epoxy coatings. For previously coated pools, it is highly recommended that the same type of coating is used to assure best performance. If you are unsure what type of coating is already on your swimming pool send a 1”x1” chip into Kelley Technical for analysis.

A rubber base enamel can be converted to an epoxy coating with the help of Kelley Technical’s Olympic Fusion Plus pool paint converter, which acts as a primer that will allow the new epoxy paint to adhere to the old rubber coating. However, this requires an extra step and more material since you would need to purchase and apply both the Fusion Plus and your choice of epoxy coating. Kelley’s Olympic rubber pool paint comes in two forms: chlorinated and synthetic.

• Paralon 2 is a premium grade, high-gloss chlorinated rubber pool paint that is extremely resistant to chemicals. Applying Paralon 2 requires two coats, with a possible third for porous surfaces like concrete and plaster. One gallon of Paralon 2 covers approximately 250 to 270 square feet and it comes in all four of the standard colors plus black.
• Optilon synthetic rubber pool paint meets all the high-performance expectations of chlorinated rubber coating. It can be applied to bare concrete and plaster as well as pool surfaces previously coated with rubber-base paints. Optilon, like the Paralon 2, is chemical resistant and retains its color well throughout its two to three-year lifespan. Optilon is available in all standard and accent colors.

Acrylic Pool Paint

Kelley Technical produces one acrylic based pool swimming paint – Hydrolon. Hydrolon is water reducible and designed for easy application on bare concrete or plaster and over older rubber based pool finishes. Hydrolon can be applied over damp surfaces, so you don’t have to wait for the pool to be completely dry.

Even though rubber based enamel and acrylic swimming pool paints do not need to be primed like the epoxies coatings, all require the pool surface to be properly prepared. Before applying any new coating or primer, you must first remove all loose pieces of the exist pool paint. Then the surface must be cleaned following the three-step process of wash, etch, wash. For the easiest cleaning, use Olympic Prep Magic which combines all three processes into one formula. Do not use soap and water to clean the pool as this leaves residues. For fiberglass swimming pools sanding instead of etching is required.