Ask anyone who has built or renovated a pool what they’d change about the process, and a surprising number land on the same answer: the interior decision came too late. By the time it came up, the coping was chosen, the tiles were locked in and the decking was planned. The interior had to fit around decisions that should, in fact, have been made around it.
Why Does the Interior Shape Every Other Decision?
The colour of the pool, which is seen by the naked eye, results from a mixture of reflected light from the interior, the absorption of light from the interior, and passage through the interior. As a rule, the lighter the interior, the bluer the water is going to look. As the interior gets darker, the colours will become richer and more saturated. Deeper into the pool, the colour becomes navy or blackish due to deeper absorption of light from the interior.
The effect of depth also plays its part. The shallow part of the pool will always have more reflected light and as a result, even the darker interior will not affect the colour of the water significantly, resulting in a lighter colour next to the steps and in the shallow parts. With increasing depth, the interior will make the water look much richer in colour.
Any other part of the design will appear totally differently depending on the water colour.
The Components That Build a Render-Based Finish
Render-based pool interiors can include one, two or all three distinct elements, depending on the finish you choose. Natural pebble makes up the textured base, and even in high-end finishes, the pebble used is usually only 1 to 3 millimetres in diameter. That’s a lot smaller than the big gold and brown aggregate that was common in pools built years ago. The smaller particles give you a smoother, more compact surface that’s far more comfortable to walk on and a heck of a lot easier to keep clean.
Rounded glass beads are the second possibility, added to make the water colour and sparkle of the pool look extra good in the sunlight. The colour of the beads plays a specific role in the end result:
- Clear glass just adds brightness without changing the basic hue much.
- Blue glass makes the water tones much deeper and more intense.
- Black glass creates some pretty interesting effects when you combine it with lighter aggregate, like turning the water green or aqua, which can be a bit counterintuitive until you see it in the water under the sun.
The third component is oxide or pigment, which colours the cement that holds all the other materials together. Because the cement can change colour a bit while the aggregate stays the same, oxide gives you fine control over the overall interior tone without having to change the pebble or glass you’re using.
Moving Beyond the Usual Ol’ Blue
The default Australian backyard pool is blue, which is just about the only colour you ever see, but it’s not the only one you can have. Aquamarine and teal water colours have really taken off, and they’re made by combining black glass beads with white or light-coloured aggregate. When you combine black glass with lighter materials, it reflects the green wavelengths in the sunlight and produces a water colour that’s aqua or teal, which is not what most people would expect from a dark glass component.
If you’re going to have a pool that’s surrounded by a dense garden, natural tropical green water is probably the way to go; it combines gold, white and grey pebble with clear and green glass to produce a warm, organic water colour that blends in with the garden, rather than overwhelming it as a bright blue would.
Deep navy interiors on the other hand are perfect for pools that have a serious, modern look going on, and where the designer wants to create a strong contrast between the water and the surrounding hard surfaces. For general guidance on pool safety requirements, the NSW Fair Trading website covers the obligations that apply to pool owners across the state.
How On-Site Mixing Can Change Everything?
Pool interiors that are mixed on site on the day they’re applied can be adjusted to exactly the light conditions and orientation of your property. A finish that’s been pre-made in a factory has a fixed formula that can’t account for things like sun exposure, the colours in the garden or the exact water colour you actually want. Mixing the interior on site, right where it’s going to be, brings all those variables into the pot before you apply the finish, and that’s one of the things that makes a pool get exactly the colour you want, rather than just a colour that kind of looks the same as a swatch.
