Interior Pool Surface

The most common interior pool surface is still plaster, even if it is not the best option. Pool owners often select plaster because it’s the least expensive of the three pool surfaces, and they’re already familiar with it.

Traditionally, white cement is mixed with marble sand or limestone to form most plaster. However, because of it’s composition, plaster has certain limitations.

Plaster’s surface is porous, which makes it the most susceptible to breakdown from the chemicals in the pool, bacteria growth, and staining. Plaster pools require more chemicals to maintain a balanced water chemistry due to the plaster constantly reacting to the water and chemicals. In addition, it typically doesn’t last as long as pebble or quartz for these reasons. With proper care, a new plaster surface will give you about 7 to 10 years of good service.

A quartz interior pool surface is composed of quartz aggregate mixed into a plaster surface. Two benefits of using quartz for your pool’s interior are as follows:

First, quartz is a very hard substance. Due to a large percentage of your pool’s interior surface being covered with a hard, stain-resistant, non-porous material–quartz, your pool will have a more durable, stain-resistant, and longer-lasting surface than if using plaster alone. Second, many people choose quartz because you can introduce colors into your pool’s interior. Here at LaGasse Pools and Service, we use 3M Colorquartz in our quartz pools, which is generally regarded as the best color quartz available.

Quartz is chosen by many people for it’s beauty (colors) and durability. On a hardness scale, quartz is a “7” compared to marble sand (which it replaces) at a “3.” Just for a reference, diamonds are considered a “10.” Quartz does cost about 50% more than traditional plaster, however. With proper care though, a new quartz surface will give you about 10 to 15 years of good service.

PEBBLE

A “pebble” interior pool surface is composed of mixing pebble aggregate into a plaster surface. The majority of the pool’s surface is actually comprised of pebbles, which provides many advantages.

The pebbles/plaster combination provides the most durable and stain-resistant surface available. From a beauty perspective, there are a variety of interesting colors. However, it is a rough surface, which is hard on feet and on automatic pool cleaners due to parts that come in constant contact with the pebbles will wear out much quicker. We also offer a “mini” pebble surface, which uses small pebbles resulting in a much smoother surface.

Pebble surfaces are about twice the cost of traditional plaster, but with proper care, a new pebble surface will give you about 12 to 20 years of good service.