10490 A Tale of Swimming Pool Woes!

If you cant get rid of the stain - which I assume is around the water line - there is an adhesive strip that you can apply. You have to drain the pool a few inches below the tide line and clean it as best you can. After the area is completely dry, you simply peel and stick the new adhesive 'border' over the faded area of your pool liner and allow it to cure for 24 hours. Use a window 'squidgy' to smooth it out and get rid of air bubbles. It's called "Borderline" and there are quite a few different colours, shades and designs available. Works very well.

Thanks for your comment Juliancoll....I would really like to have a go at getting rid of the stain before I resort to this. It doesn't seem right that this has happened after only two seasons. Has anyone else had this experience?

Thanks

If, as you say, ths staining is only on three sides of the pool I can't imagine it is a sun-tan oil problem. You also say it is worse nearer the waterline, and less bad under the coping stones, so my first thoughts are that it is a problem of the liner being affected by light. I agree with you that (if the colour is really noticeably different from the liner colour) you should argue it with the pool suppliers. The suggestion of a 'stick on' border is probably the best solution - (they can enhance the look of the pool) - but get the original pool builder to pay for it!

Hi

It was suggested that this staining not being even all the way around the pool was likely to be as a result of the water being pumped around the pool in a certain way. I think that the worst area - the steps is likely to be so because this is probably the area where the kids are playing while being covered in factor 50! Has no one else had this problem?! Come on fellow Marchigiani!

Thanks

We get a residue of suntan oil - worst affected at the steps, where children sit. Luckily ours is a resin pool and a sponge with cleaning product (even washing up liquid) soon removes the offending staining. Not sure about the liner though - resin is obviously much tougher than plastic.

We have a liner in our pool in Umbria and Gianni (our precious pool man)'s wife cleans it every week with ordinary washing up liquid and a kitchen sponge. The staining, which had begun in Year 1, is now under control (Year 4) and has been so since we started this cleaning system.

This is interesting. I don't suppose you have any pictures of the staining so I could compare. I have spoken to a pool guy over here, and from the pictures he felt it was unlikely to be suntan lotion caused. He suggested that a chemical reaction had taken place within the liner.... but didn't know what caused it. The product I used previously had hydrochloric acid in it and apparently if it was an oil problem this would have removed it. So I am confused again now!

Any chance you could upload a snap of your staining, strawberrystar? It would be interesting to see it. I don't agree that a product with acid in it would get rid of sun-tan oil - a washing up liquid is much more adapted to tackle oil deposits, (the acid products get rid of a hard water stain).

One thing about using washing-up liquid; go easy with it, otherwise you'll end up with a pool-full of bubbles. The specialist cleaning products have some kind of anti-foaming ingredient.

I don't know if this'll work. It's the closest I have of the pool - my pictures are generally taken to maximise the nostalgia for Italy when I'm here in Brussels in the dark and dank!

Looks like a Koi carp in the pool .............lol

Do you live near a vineyard?
last year the one near us used a copper based pesticide and it blew into our pool, liner is blue and had pale green all round more noticeable in side that gets less sun, Andrea, sirplast said it could only be removed by his men using a chlorine and calcium stain remover mix wearing brething masks etc. we left it for six months and it faded slightly!
this year we have had purple rain! yes a load of purple sand deposited in the pool which stuck to the bottom and took two weeks to hoover out
we await next years colour!
ps the chemical which i presume is blue that you got from sirplast will remove all suntan etc.

It happened to a friend and it was caused by fake tan creams. Basically they had a tanned swimming pool!:wideeyed:

Hi
Sorry for the delay. I have been to Italy to meet my pool installer. He said it is a problem with British high factor sun creams containing zinc. The zinc has a chemical reaction with the liner and causes this staining. I cannot believe that they sell these pools to Brits for holiday homes and don't even mention this. He offered us the chance to buy a new liner though! As a last ditch attempt at saving this he is going to try a lake cleaning product but he doesn't hold out much hope. I have attached some pics. Comments please!
Thanks

[quote=strawberrystar;98703]Hi
........... He offered us the chance to buy a new liner ................. I have attached some pics. Comments please!
Thanks[/quote]

I'd go for Juliancoll's cover strip suggestion - seems a reasonably cheap and effectice option

.

We have had our pool for three seasons now - now we have the same problem, for the first time this year. It is exactly as you have described. I have tried various hard surface (pool products) but to no avail. It seems the chlorine does gradually fade the colour as with the water level raised the stain below has gradually got less. We do live near vineyards and as this is the first year this has happened I'm leaning towards vineyard chemical / fertiliser cause.

I'd be interested to know more about the adhesive strip solution, has anyone tried it. We were told by one pool supplier that it had to be put on before the pool was fiilled and could not be applied afterwards so we had given up on that idea

It's called "Borderline" and there are quite a few different colours, shades and designs available. Works very well.

[quote=strawberrystar;98703]Hi
Sorry for the delay. I have been to Italy to meet my pool installer. He said it is a problem with British high factor sun creams containing zinc. The zinc has a chemical reaction with the liner and causes this staining. I cannot believe that they sell these pools to Brits for holiday homes and don't even mention this. He offered us the chance to buy a new liner though! As a last ditch attempt at saving this he is going to try a lake cleaning product but he doesn't hold out much hope. I have attached some pics. Comments please!
Thanks[/quote]

Surely, rather then replacing the liner or masking the problem with the Borderline strip, both of which are purely cosmetic solutions you also need to find out how to stop the staining in the first place? Easier said than done I know! Otherwise, you risk ending up with a 'Forth Road Bridge' type situation where it is an ongoing year in year out problem! If the zinc in the sun cream is really guilty why does it not cause problems with every single pool used by Brits in their high factor creams? Could it be the particular chemicals you use in the pool that could be reacting with the liner &/or the sun creams? Maybe worth trying different chemicals as recommended by a pool owner who has high factor creamed up Brits in their pool but who does not have this staining? We don't have a pool so sadly can't offer any firm solutions but it did occur to me that the solutions offered are a quick fix & cosmetic and not dealing with the root of the problem. Good luck.

The zinc in the cream seems a reasonable explanation and prehaps is more accurate than the pesticide from the vineyard as i know other people in the area have had a similar problem this year

we will just have to install high pressure hoses and wash the british guests down before they get in the pool!!:yes:

Hello

I would love to know what it is and therefore be able to prevent it in future. However on seeing the stain, a state of panic set in and the first thought was how can I get this off!?

I would be interested to hear from anyone else who is suffering with the same kind of staining and if they have been able to remove it with anything. I went to Boots but could only see one bottle of suncream containing zinc and that was a factor 50+ for babies. I am confused as to all the people with pools and british guests who don't have the staining. What's the difference? My pool guy said they must have just had less children using the pool.....Should I ban children from using the pool?????Hmmmmm!

If you do the dreaded google, I think you'll find that;-
a. most people think it is suncream that does it
b. the stain can lead to the liner cracking and failing in sunlight
c. many places insist on people showering to remove sun cream before bathing in their pools
d. nobody seems to know how to remove it
e. because of 'b' above - many recommend covering it with the plastic strips to keep the sunlight off of the 'stain' to minimise the risk of liner degradation once it is stained

Just a thought, but being married to a German, it is normal and expected for Germans to take a shower before they go into a pool, thus washing off the sun tan cream. My advice would be to have an outside shower next to pool and put up a sign to remind British guests to shower before jumping in! Italian agriturismos and German public pools also require use of swimming caps but maybe that's a step too far!

Our pool is 4 years old and in the last two years we have discovered this strange 2inch wide bgreen/yellow band above the waterline. It is very unattractive.
The company who built the pool says that of the 450 pools they have built and maintain, this has happened to only 15 and all are owned by Brits!

At the beginning of this summer, in an attempt to get rid of it, we raised the level of the water to cover the stripe and added extra chlorine and the mark faded quite a bit - but it came back with a vengeance!

Any suggstions would be very gratefully received.

we are the same with this year being the first in 3 years that the stain has appeared. We have had more Brit visitors this year ........ chlorine fades it but does not get rid of it. Going to look at the borderline mentioned earlier in this thread

Can someone tell me where to get the 'borderline' from?
And I wonder how successful it is?
I imagine it is better to get a darker colour so the dreaded green stain, is less visible.

This is the only site I have found in Europe - not a retail site, but maybe your supplier could find it, or search further on DEL. (They do colours which would work with your sand coloured pool, but all of these 'waterline strips' are patterned, so I imagine they rely on this to camoflauge the staining.) It might also be worth googling 'waterline' rather than borderline.

[url=http://www.delbrece.fr/en/liners.htm#]LINERS - DEL - FABRICANT DE LINER POUR PISCINE[/url]

Here are a couple of links.

[url=http://www.askalanaquestion.com/borderlines-adhesive_borders_for_pools.htm]borderlines - adhesive borders for pools: create a new look[/url]

[url=http://www.jedcopro.com/jedcopro_010.htm]BorderLines Adhesive tile pool borders[/url]

Yes, julie, but those are US sites, and they only do borderlines in 'blue', which would be okay, but hardly wonderful, on a sand liner coloured pool. The world's leaders in swimming pool liner stuff are the French, (who also have the advantage of being EU and avoiding import duties.....)

There are factories in France which have the capability of printing anything you want onto a bit of swimming pool vinyl. Even (at a cost) your own artwork!

That's OK Charlie boy - you pays yer money and yer takes yer choice. :winki:

I have been cleaning swimming pools for 4 years in Le marche. This year has seen a new "blight".... NIVEA for Kids. I have seen the damage in 3 pools, in 1 of them after only 2 days of use. The product causes a horrible green mark all around the sides of the pool and also in the case of the Desjoyeaux system colours the filter bags. Most of the green will come off with a heavy duty degreaser from your specialist pool products supplier BUT a yellowish green stain is left. This does not shift!!
I wrote to Nivea to ask for advice 6 weeks ago, they have not replied. I think that maybe all who have a holiday pool need to warn guests not to use any water proof "fun to use" sun blocks, definately NOT Nivea and then treat any future staining as damage, retaining deposits. The culprits have been mainly UK holidaymakers with one french family. I daresay that next year will see copy cat products from the supermarket chains. Beware!!!
If anybody hits upon a solution (sorry) please let us all know.

I would just have done the Grazie button, but that incredibly helpful post deserves more than that. It explains why a): Brits are the culprits, b): why it has happened this year, c): kids are the culprits and asks d): who's going to be the first to start a 'class action' against Nivea!

[quote=DavidUno;99260]I have been cleaning swimming pools for 4 years in Le marche. This year has seen a new "blight".... NIVEA for Kids. I have seen the damage in 3 pools, in 1 of them after only 2 days of use. The product causes a horrible green mark all around the sides of the pool and also in the case of the Desjoyeaux system colours the filter bags. Most of the green will come off with a heavy duty degreaser from your specialist pool products supplier BUT a yellowish green stain is left. This does not shift!!
I wrote to Nivea to ask for advice 6 weeks ago, they have not replied. I think that maybe all who have a holiday pool need to warn guests not to use any water proof "fun to use" sun blocks, definately NOT Nivea and then treat any future staining as damage, retaining deposits. The culprits have been mainly UK holidaymakers with one french family. I daresay that next year will see copy cat products from the supermarket chains. Beware!!!
If anybody hits upon a solution (sorry) please let us all know.[/quote]

I don't suppose you know which Nivea for Kids is the guilty party? They do more than one type and various factors. Is it the blue spray-on one?

I should add that Nivea Kids is readily available here in Italy as it is sold in almost every supermarket. Is there a difference between the UK and the Italian version?

My God - if Nivea does that to swimming pool liners - imagine what it does to the kids! Probably turns them into cockroaches - the only things that will survive a nuclear war apparently. :bigergrin:

Exactly! Apparently the carginogenic properties of sun blocks far exceed the carcinogenic properties of the sun. (Derivatives come to mind!)

Pork bellies!

Pork bellies! The crack on the financial sites is they arrive as hogs and depart as sausages!

Enough - I come here to escape that stuff!!

Buy, buy, buy!!

[quote=anne2;99265]
I should add that Nivea Kids is readily available here in Italy as it is sold in almost every supermarket. Is there a difference between the UK and the Italian version?[/quote]

I have been told it is because the British versions contain zinc & the Italian ones don't- I checked some Italian kids high factor cream I have & indeed there is no zinc in it (but this is only 1 bottle) but haven't got any English stuff to compare

[quote=HelenMW;99415]I have been told it is because the British versions contain zinc & the Italian ones don't- I checked some Italian kids high factor cream I have & indeed there is no zinc in it (but this is only 1 bottle) but haven't got any English stuff to compare[/quote]

We have 2 versions of Italian Nivea Bambini sun creams, both have a quite horrendous list of ingredients but can't see zinc listed anywhere. So could be well be the answer - only zinc free creams!

Maybe non Zinc is the answer. There are several strengths on the market. Those that I have seen in use causing damage are Spray factor 50 and slap on of various factors up to 50. Factor 50! Better off indoors!
Nivea coated kids surviving nuclear war? Any writers out there?

This is a little off topic but I'm wondering why concrete reinforced pools in Italy almost always have vinyl liners. I've been told it's to protect from water seeping through cracks in the concrete due to earth movement. As a native Californian, where the earth is known to move a bit once in awhile :-), I'm not sure why they are used in Europe but not in the US. Other areas of the US that have soil movement due to frost heaving, etc. do not use vinyl liners either. I have reservations about the use of vinyl itself as it contains known carcinogens and has a highly toxic manufacturing process. Just wondering if anyone has opinions on this. All in all it doesn't seem vinyl is worth the trouble.

If a pool is not lined in vynl (how on earth is it spelt?) what is it lined with?

Most concrete pools in the US are finished with plaster, tile or various stone aggregate finishes. Here's a photo of the Neptune pool at San Simeon in California done with mosaics mostly from Murano.

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/88601163@N00/328719191]Neptune Pool on Flickr - Photo Sharing![/url]

It's not just about land movement - it's also about price. Vinyl is far cheaper.

Yes, I figured price was a big factor.

I understood that it was also to do with the extremes of temperature experienced in much of Italy, during winter it is so cold that tiles, mosaics etc have a habit of coming unstuck and popping off if any water seeped in behind!

Vinyl is cheaper than tiles, but more expensive than 'gunnite' or a plaster finish (painted with vinyl paint, or with some sort of waterproofer built in).

I was talking to a friend the other day who has his first vinyl lined pool, built in Italy three years ago. He was extolling the virtues of vinyl (he had had pools in SA with 'cement based' liners - aka tiles or plaster) on the basis that it was much easier to keep the pH right if you didn't have to take into account the leaching of alkalis from a non linered pool.

But then again, there are factory made vinyl liners (very smooth, rather 'glossy' and without seams) and welded liners (more orange peel effect finish, and the seams collect the dust). I'm not a plastics chemist - maybe the welded liners should be termed PVC rather than vinyl?