How much maintenance does a polyurea coating need?

The difference lies in the surface. A mosaic or tiled pool is made up of thousands of small faces with grout lines between them, and it is precisely in those lines that limescale, dirt and algae settle. A polyurea coating is one closed skin without a seam or a joint, from the floor to the edge and right up to the flange of the skimmer, the lights and the inlets. Dirt has nothing to hold on to and comes away with a soft brush.

That removes a whole series of jobs that come back every year with other finishes. There are no grout lines to scrape out and re-grout, no acid wash to lift the lime haze from mosaic tiles, and no liner that needs extra attention at the seams and the waterline. What remains is keeping the surface clean and keeping the water in balance.

That last point deserves an honest word: the coating changes nothing about the chemistry of the water. A polyurea pool needs the same water balance as any other pool, with the same weekly test of pH and chlorine. The difference is that the shell itself no longer needs maintenance, not that the water looks after itself.

The values are the same as for any healthy pool: a pH between 7.2 and 7.6 and a free chlorine level of one to three milligrams per litre. Within those limits the water does not stress the top coat, and your filtration system and the metal parts in the pool are not troubled by it either. Test weekly, and in summer, when the pool is used heavily, preferably twice a week.

Salt water is perfectly fine for the coating. With a salt pool, however, keep a closer eye on the pH: an electrolysis cell raises it gradually, so correcting with a pH reducer is the most common task with salt pools. If you are away for a few weeks, have a property manager or an automatic dosing system take care of it, because a pH that sits outside the limits for weeks is something you only notice when you are back.

A pH that is too low is not a harmless deviation. Water that stays too acidic for weeks takes the sheen off the top coat and eats into metal parts such as the ladder and the light rings. For the same reason, acid washing the shell, which is common practice with mosaic tiles to remove limescale, is neither necessary nor sensible with a coating: there are no joints or pores for lime to lodge in, and the acid attacks exactly the layer you want to protect.

This is the most important rule in this article, and the one most easily broken in practice. Chlorine tablets, chlorine granules and other concentrated products never go directly onto the coating and are never thrown loose into the pool. That also applies while filling, when the water is not yet circulating and a tablet dropped in early will sit in the same spot for hours.

What happens then is easy to recognise. A tablet lying on the floor dissolves slowly and creates an extremely high chlorine concentration right around it. That dissolves the top coat locally and leaves a round grey or matt patch in the shape of the tablet. It is damage to the top coat that remains permanently visible, and it falls outside the guarantee.

The solution costs no extra effort. Tablets go into the skimmer basket, into a floating dispenser or into a dosing system on the installation, so that the chlorine enters the water diluted while the pump is running. Granules for a shock treatment are first dissolved in a bucket of water; the shock treatment itself is no problem as long as the product dissolves and the pump runs. Repairing a chlorine patch is specialist work that we assess on site, and a repaired spot may differ slightly in sheen or colour.

For everyday work you need very little: water, a mild cleaning product that is marked as compatible with the coating, and a soft brush on a telescopic pole. A pool robot is fine as long as it has soft brushes; a robot with hard or steel brushes stays out of the pool. On a terrace, a soft broom and a garden hose do the same job.

What damages the top coat is anything that scours or bites. Wire brushes and scouring pads scratch away the sheen, aggressive or unknown products can attack or discolour the top coat, and a pressure washer set above the recommended values can damage the top coat locally. Such damage remains permanently visible and falls outside the guarantee.

If you are unsure about a product, say an algaecide or a stain remover from the pool shop, ask us first. That is not a formality: the guarantee conditions only allow recommended products or products marked as compatible, and a photo of the label is usually enough for us to give you a quick answer. Keep the maintenance instructions that come with your guarantee certificate with the pool equipment, so that a property manager or a tenant can find them too.

The waterline is where most of the work is, because sun, evaporation and everything that floats on the water meet there. Lime and salt are deposited as the water evaporates, and sunscreen, skin oils and pollen form a greasy ring. On a closed surface that deposit stays on the outside, and you wipe it off with a soft sponge and a mild, compatible product, as long as you do so before it sets.

Rhythm matters more than force. A short wipe every few weeks during the swimming season takes a few minutes; a ring that has been allowed to harden all summer takes far more patience and tempts you to scrub or use acid, which is exactly what the top coat does not tolerate. Rinse the edges and the steps with fresh water after hot days, especially with a salt pool, so that salt and sunscreen do not dry onto the edge.

Discolouration from algae almost always has the same cause: water that has been out of balance for too long or a filter that was not running, often during an absence. On a closed surface algae get far less of a grip than in grout lines; restore the water balance first and then brush with a soft brush. Cosmetic algae or mould growth caused by neglected maintenance does fall outside the guarantee, and a stubborn or unfamiliar stain is something you report with a photo before trying a product on it yourself.

In spring you get the pool ready for the season. Remove leaves and sand from the floor and the skimmer basket before they set, clean the filtration system and bring the water balance into order before you start chlorinating. This is also the moment for the yearly check of the coating; its six steps are set out in the article on the service life of a polyurea pool.

In summer the work consists mainly of testing and adjusting. Heavy use, heat and evaporation change the water balance faster than in the rest of the year, so you test weekly or more often, wipe the waterline regularly and rinse the edges after hot days. If you are away for weeks in summer, make sure someone keeps an eye on the pump, the chlorine and the pH, because that is exactly when algae and deposits appear.

In autumn leaves and needles fall into the pool and onto the terraces, and storms bring sand. Remove it before it sets in the corners and around the drain. In winter the pool stays full: an empty pool in full sun or in frost puts far more strain on the coating than a filled one, and frost, prolonged standing empty and an empty shell lifting all fall outside the guarantee. Keep the filtration system clean and running in winter too and test the water balance every few weeks; a winter pool asks little, but not nothing.

A roof or terrace with polyurea needs even less than a pool, because there is no water balance to watch. Maintenance comes down to one thing: water must be able to get away. Keep the drains, spouts and gutters free of leaves, sand and needles, and sweep the roof or terrace clean after storms and in autumn. Leaves left lying in a puddle leave deposits behind and eventually block the drain.

You clean the top coat, with or without anti-slip, with water and a soft brush or broom; a mild, compatible product helps with grease from the barbecue or residue from planters. Pressure washing above the recommended values and scouring products are left out here too. Do not drag sharp or heavy objects across the coating: planters, parasol bases and furniture are lifted rather than pushed, so that edges and legs do not score the top coat.

Once a year, walk along the upstands, the connections to walls, skylights and penetrations, and the edges. That is where the sealant, edge and connection work sits, and that is where you see a developing problem first: a sealant joint coming loose, a piece of render from a wall above that has fallen onto the coating, a spot where something has been shifted. If you see damage, take a photo and send it to us; repair is specialist work that we assess on site, and a repaired spot may differ slightly in sheen or colour.

The SealCraft Iberia guarantee is a commercial guarantee on top of your statutory rights: 10 years on watertightness, 10 years on adhesion, 5 years on the UV colour stability of the top coat and 3 years on finishing details such as sealant, edge and connection work, each from the handover date. Every project comes with a guarantee certificate and maintenance instructions. That document is not small print: it describes what this article describes too, and it is what you put next to the photos when you report something.

The guarantee asks four things of your maintenance. The water stays within the limits for pH, chlorine or other disinfection and salt; the pool does not stand empty in full sun for long periods; you use only recommended products or products marked as compatible and ask first about anything else; and you report a defect in good time, with a photo, before doing anything about it yourself. Work by third parties without our written consent falls outside the cover, even when it is well meant. After the first seasonal cycle we come round for a check-up inspection as a service, so that you know what to look out for.

Everything to do with incorrect water management or wrong cleaning falls outside the guarantee: a pH that stayed outside the limits for a long time, overdosing of chlorine or salt, aggressive products or products used without asking, chlorine tablets or granules on the coating, wire brushes and scouring pads, pressure washing above the recommended values and mechanical damage. Frost, prolonged standing empty or an empty pool lifting, and cosmetic algae or mould growth through poor maintenance are also excluded. Normal wear and the gradual change in colour and sheen are not a defect but the normal ageing of a top coat that lies outside in the sun.

Below is everything in this article in one overview. The rhythm is a guideline: a heavily used pool in August asks more than the same pool in November, and a terrace under a pine tree more than a roof with no trees nearby. If you are not here all year round, this overview is best passed on to your property manager or your tenant.

Two things to remember. If you see something unusual, a patch, a stain or a ring that will not go away, take a photo first and send it to us before putting a product on it yourself; often it is already clear from the photo what is going on and what the right next step is. And the top coat is the layer that does the work and ages: in many cases it can be renewed after years without replacing the membrane, so your maintenance now mainly determines how long that first top coat stays looking good.