Stay-at-home summer should boost face-lifts for swimming pools

By Kim Mulford

Major Renovations: When it's time for a face-lift. concrete pool owners can get new tiling and coping, decking, a diving board, lighting or a heater, say jerry Strauss, vice president of company's Philadelphia division.
     But for the die-hard do-it-your-selfer, there's are tools and supplies available to complete the job.
     Bill Nash of the UGlassIt chain of do-it-yourself pool renewal stores sells a booklet and materials to pool owners who want to put a new finish on their pool in a little over a weekend.
     "It's work." Nash says. "it's hard labor. It takes tow or three people to do it, but it's not rocket science.."
     Nash, who has been in the pool business for the last 11 years, recommends owners apply the new Fiberglass finish to concrete pools or vinyl pools that don't lave steel walls. Most of his customers are in the Midwest or on the West Coast.
     Customers  can visit his Web site, www.uglassIt.com, to order an instruction manual for $19.95. The cost  is deducted from the bill when materials are ordered. Materials cost about $3,000 for a typical diving pool sized about 16 feet by 32 feet.  
     "Homeowners are doing it themselves and they do it right." Nash says. "If the typical person doesn't mind working, it's only two days of your life."