Swimming Pools - Dream or a Nightmare

The idea of having a swimming pool is a common dream of people purchasing a home in Spain. Whilst the dream is beautiful the reality can quickly turn into a living nightmare.

One of the most common issues affecting the correct running of a swimming pool is the tile grouting dissolving. The reason for this is usually due to the PH levels not being correct over a sustained period of time. In Southern Spain the PH levels are usually extremely high, this makes the water acidic and this will eat away at the grouting.

The loosening of grouting not only disfigures the look of the pool but will also encourage algae to form in the recesses turning your blue pool to a vivid pond green, there is no more depressing sight than this.

The other side effect of missing grouting is the need to use an excessive amount of expensive pool chemicals to try and keep the water in a balanced state, plus the additional work and time commitment of the additional cleaning required.

Leaching of the water due to substandard grouting will result in substantial loose of water. The concrete will absorb the water and the metal rebars in the concrete can rust meaning that the structural integrity of the pool can be undermined.

The solution is to re-grout the pool. This requires manually removing the old grout by raking out between the tiles, and applying new grouting. If standard pool grouting is used it will not adhere to the shallow groves between the tiles as there will be not enough purchase and may lift after a short period of time. Re-grouting should be done using a grout manufactured especially for this purpose.

In the worst case scenario the pool tiles will require removing, the walls screeded and very importantly painted with an impermeable silicon sealant prior to applying the new pool tiles.