A property manager walked me into her condo’s pool room to show me paint hanging off the ceiling in sheets — it had been repainted less than two years before
A property manager asked me to look at her building’s indoor pool room. Paint was peeling off the ceiling in long curls over the shallow end, the steel door frame to the change rooms had rust bleeding through, and the exterior wall had a grey bloom of mildew along the bottom. The room had been repainted less than two years earlier with a good-quality interior paint. That was the problem. A pool room isn’t an interior room in the normal sense, and ordinary wall paint doesn’t last in it. This post covers why paint fails in condo pool rooms and what a repaint that lasts actually involves. It’s for condo boards and property managers, not homeowners.
1. The air in a pool room attacks paint
A pool room is warm, wet and full of chlorine byproducts all day, every day. Most pool rooms are run somewhere around 50 to 60 percent humidity when the dehumidification system is working, and higher when it isn’t. On top of that, the air carries chlorine compounds that are hard on metal and on a lot of coatings.
Regular interior latex is made for a dry room with the odd humid shower. In a pool room it stays soft, takes on moisture and lets go, usually at the ceiling first, because that’s where the warmest, wettest air collects.
What to look at: Look up. Peeling, bubbling or a dull, chalky ceiling over the water is the first sign the coating isn’t suited to the room.
2. Ottawa winters make the cold walls sweat
The worst damage I see is almost always on the exterior wall and the ceiling below a roof. In January the outside face of that wall is well below freezing, so the inside face is cold too. Warm pool air hits it and condenses, the same way a cold glass sweats in summer.
That water sits behind and on the paint for months. That’s where the mildew along the bottom of the wall came from, and it’s why the rust on the door frame was worst on the side facing outside. Paint can’t fix condensation. If the wall is wet every winter, any coating will struggle.
What to look at: On a cold morning, check the exterior wall and window frames in the pool room for beads of water or a damp feel. If they’re wet, have the ventilation and dehumidifier looked at before you budget for paint.
3. The coating has to be made for the room
For pool rooms I use coating systems that the manufacturer specifically rates for high humidity and chlorinated environments, usually an epoxy-based system on the walls and steel and a compatible high-humidity finish on the ceiling. They cost more per litre than wall paint and take more steps. They’re also the only reason the next repaint isn’t in two years.
Steel needs its own treatment. Door frames, lintels and any exposed structure have to be cleaned back to sound metal, rust treated and primed with a primer suited to steel before the finish goes on. Painting over active rust in a pool room just seals the rust in.
What to look at: Ask whoever painted it last what product went on. If the answer is a regular interior wall paint, you’ve found your reason.
4. The pool has to close, and the room has to dry
This is the part boards push back on. You can’t do this work with the pool open, and you can’t do it the day after the pool is drained either. The walls and ceiling need to dry out with the dehumidifier running and the room closed, and I check them with a moisture meter before any primer goes on. Then each coat needs its full cure time before the room goes back to humid conditions.
Depending on the size of the room and the system, that can mean the pool is closed for a couple of weeks. Planning it alongside a scheduled pool maintenance shutdown is the easiest way to keep owners from noticing twice.
What to look at: Find out when your next planned pool shutdown is and ask whether the painting can be booked into the same window, with drying time built in.
5. Don’t forget the change rooms and the corridor
The humid air doesn’t stop at the pool door. Change rooms, the steam room or sauna entrance and the corridor right outside the pool often show the same peeling and mildew, just more slowly. I cover that spillover in painting condo gyms and amenity rooms, and the same mildew treatment I use in bathroom ceilings applies there.
What to look at: Walk from the pool deck out through the change rooms and into the corridor, and note every spot where the paint is bubbling, peeling or spotted grey.
What to do if you’re seeing any of this
If your pool room ceiling is peeling or the steel is rusting through, I’ll walk it with you, take moisture readings on the walls and ceiling, and tell you whether it’s a coating problem, a ventilation problem or both. Then I’ll give you a scope that fits your next shutdown. I work with condominium corporations and property managers across Ottawa — Kanata, Nepean, Barrhaven, Orleans, Westboro and Stittsville. Call 613.325.3011 or email yasir@heims.ca.
— Yasir, HEIMS Construction
HEIMS Construction is an Ottawa-based commercial painting and drywall contractor serving condominium corporations, property managers and institutional clients across the Ottawa area. Fully licensed and insured, with $5M commercial general liability coverage.