Pool Renovation near you

Repairs make sense while the damage is local. A renovation is worth pricing once the same problems keep returning or the whole surface has aged, since each new patch buys less time than the last.

The shell decides the surface. A liner pool gets a new liner, a concrete pool gets a new plaster, aggregate or tile finish, and a fibreglass pool is refinished with a new gel coat or a coating made for pools.

Coping is the cap along the pool edge. It sheds water away from the wall behind it, holds the liner track on many vinyl pools and is where swimmers sit and climb out, so cracked or loose coping lets water and frost into the structure. New coping is usually paired with new waterline tile on a concrete pool and new decking or pavers around it, because all three meet at the same joint.

In a Canadian climate, that joint matters as much as the materials. It should let the deck move with frost without pushing on the pool wall, and it needs a flexible sealant that is renewed as it wears.

With the deck open, it is the easiest time to add or move equipment. Hydro-Québec notes that pool filtration and heating can account for up to 20% of a household's annual electricity costs, which is why an efficient pump, a heat pump or a better cover often joins the renovation plan.

Any new circuit for a pump, heat pump, lights or an automatic cover is installed by a licensed electrical contractor, who in Ontario files a notification of work with the Electrical Safety Authority and in Quebec holds the appropriate licence, typically a CMEQ master electrician. A new gas heater or gas line goes to a TSSA-registered fuels contractor in Ontario or an RBQ-licensed gas contractor in Quebec.

Whether resurfacing alone needs a permit depends on the municipality, but many renovation projects clearly do. The Quebec government's summary of the Residential Pool Safety Regulation says a municipal permit is required to build, install or replace a pool, to install a diving board, and to build an enclosure, platform or deck that opens onto a pool, and municipalities may set stricter rules. Owners of pools installed before November 1, 2010 have until September 30, 2027 to comply, so check an older pool's fence, gates and latches during any renovation.

Newer rules apply to newer work. For pools and enclosures installed since July 1, 2021, a 1 m strip outside the enclosure, or outside the wall of an unenclosed pool, must stay free of fixed structures that could help a child climb over, such as a retaining wall or play structure, and a diving board must meet the BNQ 9461-100 standard. In Toronto, a Pool Fence Enclosure Permit is needed to build and maintain the fence and gates around a pool, the enclosure must be at least 1.2 metres high on a single residential property, and gates must be self-closing, self-latching and locked except when the pool area is in use.

Most liner and resurfacing jobs begin by lowering or emptying the pool, once the contractor has checked groundwater conditions, and end with a controlled refill and start-up. The old water can't simply go to the street: in Toronto, chlorinated water may reach a storm sewer only after it has been dechlorinated, and never on a rainy day, while other municipalities set their own rules.

Refilling has rules too. Montreal prohibits filling a pool between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m., except between April 1 and May 15 or when a new pool is being installed, so outside that spring window a renovated pool there is refilled in the evening and overnight.

Surfaces and adhesives are sensitive to weather. Plaster and coatings don't like hard frost or scorching sun while they cure, a liner fits best when the vinyl is warm and pliable, and concrete and coping work stops once the ground freezes. That leaves spring, before the pool would normally open, and late summer to early fall, after the swim season, as the usual windows, and both book up early.

Design and permit over the winter so work can start as soon as the ground allows, and after a fall renovation, ask how the new surface should be treated through its first winter.