DIY Pool Painting: How to Save Money and Get Pro Results

Painting your own pool is one of the best-value jobs in a backyard. With the right preparation, tools and paint system, a DIY application lasts just as long as a professional one — because the paint does the work, and the paint is the same.

What You Actually Save

Materials for a DIY repaint run $1,500 to $3,500 for most residential pools, depending on size and whether priming is needed.

Pool size	Epoxy kits	Paint cost
6m × 3m	4–5	$1,040 – $1,300
8m × 4m	6–7	$1,560 – $1,820
10m × 5m	8–10	$2,080 – $2,600

Add primer if the pool is bare, plus tools, repair products and freight.

Having painters do the same job typically runs $6,000 to $10,000. The paint cost is identical — what you’re saving is labour.

Pebblecrete needs roughly double the paint, since the texture halves coverage and it takes three coats. Work out your own figure with the Pool Paint Calculator.

Be Realistic About the Time

This isn’t a weekend job. Budget for:

• A day or more draining, washing, repairing and etching or abrading
• Drying time until the surface is below 5% moisture
• A day per coat, with 20 to 24 hours between them
• 10 days in summer or 14 in winter before you can refill

From start to swimming is closer to three weeks than three days. Plan it for a stretch of settled weather with daytime temperatures between 10 and 30°C, because rain during application or curing causes real problems.

Choose the Right System

What’s already on the pool decides this, not preference.

• Luxapool® Epoxy — 7 to 8 years. Bare concrete and render, pebblecrete, marblesheen, fibreglass, and sound existing epoxy.
• Luxapool® Chlorinated Rubber — up to 3 years. Only over existing chlorinated rubber.

Test before you order: rub the surface for a minute with acetone or Chlorinated Rubber Solvent. Sticky means rubber, firm means epoxy. Get this wrong and you’ll be stripping the whole pool.

Preparation Is Where the Job Is Won

Inspect thoroughly before you open a tin — cracks, hollow spots, chalky patches, delamination. Then wash, repair, etch or abrade, and dry completely.

Full detail in our Step-by-Step Guide to Preparing Your Pool, and Repairing Pool Cracks Before Painting for the repair work.

Bare cement-based surfaces need Epoxy Primer Sealer — around 4 kits alongside 8 kits of topcoat on a 10m × 5m pool. Recoating sound existing epoxy? No primer, but the entire surface must be abraded with 20–40 grit first. Fibreglass is the same: abrade fully, no primer.

Tools That Make the Difference

• Roller at least 270mm wide on a 60mm core, medium nap, plus a matching tray
• 75mm brushes for cutting in
• Extension pole
• A Drill Paint Mixer for the two-pack blending
• Gloves, goggles and a proper respirator — not a dust mask

Our DIY Pool Painting Kit covers the roller, 12mm nap covers, brushes, tray and stirrer in one purchase. For three-coat runs, the DIY Kit PLUS.

Mixing and Application

• Whole packs only. Part-mixing stops the paint curing
• Mix mechanically, allow 5–10 minutes induction, then use within the hour
• Cut in edges first, then roll the open areas
• Smooth overlapping strokes, keep a wet edge, don’t overwork it, and don’t spread it thin
• Second coat between 20 and 24 hours. Past 24 hours you must abrade the whole pool first
• Two coats minimum, three on pebblecrete

Paint still tacky after 4–6 hours wasn’t mixed correctly.

Order Everything Up Front

Epoxy shouldn’t be part-mixed and colour varies between batches. Running short two-thirds of the way through is the most expensive mistake in DIY pool painting — order the full quantity at once, and allow a little extra rather than cut it fine.