This is a question we are asked daily by both professionals and homeowners. My answer is a question for a question!
Is this the original finish or has it been refinished? Do you have high dissolved solids in your water? How old is your pool? What color is your pool?
Gelcoat is primarily made up of resin, titanium dioxide, pigment, and U.V inhibitors. The water in the pool is constantly moving and there are microscopic minerals and dissolved solids in the water. The movement combined with the abrasiveness of tiny particles slowly grind down the finish of the pool. As it wears away at the resin, tiny particles of titanium dioxide are broken off and released into the water. In a perfect world the filtration system would quickly scoop these particles of preventing them from returning to the pool. Unfortunately most of these particles are smaller than the capability of the filter has a filtering them out. Often these particles continually circulate in the water, and the balance in nature of poor chemistry causes them to attract to the walls.
There really is no way to prevent this from happening, it is a normal occurrence in water movement. Your pool service will not necessarily have the ability to shorten or lengthen your pools finish and we believe in a normal environment a mil or so of the material is worn off annually in normal use. Chalking is often misdiagnosed as the requirement for the pool to be refinished.
Manufactures gelcoat layer vary in thickness from pool to pool from 20 mils minimum to about 32 mils maximum( under 20 mils is usually causes curing issues and over 32 mils will risky gelcoat cracking during transportation and installation). With that being said, we usually see the gelcoat on a fiberglass pool last in 15 to 25 years before the water will wear through areas exposing the fiberglass layer behind. It is important that if your pool is resurfaced at any point it is resurfaced with gelcoat and the installer follows the same methods used in manufacturing. The variable in with what and how a pool is refinished will determine if it will hold up to a swimming pool’s environment.
This is another sub-header (h3) -- a little smaller than an h2
You could include lists, like this...
- Fiberglass pools are better
- Fiberglass pools last longer
- Fiberglass pools are easier to maintain
- Fiberglass pools are more affordable in the long run
- Fiberglass pools don't hurt your feet
And you can add quotes...
Fiberglass pools are YUGE and BEAUTIFUL!
- Donald Trump
And lastly, you might add photos into the article...
That's basically it! Let me know if you have any questions.