The finished project.
As the old adage goes: if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. So, when Las Vegas' New York-New York Hotel and Casino recently replaced its largest reflection pool, the challenge for contractors was how to make it stand out above the bright lights and eye catching architectural designs littering Las Vegas Boulevard — and stay on-budget. The solution came in a seamless, spray-on, waterproof, protective coating.
"In high-end hotels, resorts and homes, traditional plaster, epoxy, tile and fiberglass materials have limited the design options and slowed project completion," says Tim Singleton, a project manager at Water FX, a Las Vegas-based builder and renovator of dramatic pools, spas, water features and thematic props, including the large reflection pool on the Strip.
As a solution to the dilemma, Water FX has turned to a new breed of coatings that dramatically expand the water feature and architectural decor palette.
According to Singleton, pools and water features are traditionally lined with a plaster type material that is time consuming to apply and difficult to color consistently. It may also require a waterproofing topcoat such as a two-part epoxy, which is similarly laborious to mix and apply in multiple coats, and does not always offer the desired design options.
"Plaster has to be troweled on by hand, which requires craftsmanship to get right, particularly on wavy, irregular or angular surfaces," Singleton says.
Often this is followed by, or substituted with, a two-part epoxy topcoat, which cannot be mixed too soon before it is applied. Because epoxy has a short pot life, it typically must be mixed in small batches shortly before use, which is time consuming and leads to waste.
Gelcoat application over structural polyurea on the Casino basin.
Singleton says that on a construction job the size of the large reflection pool, it would have required up to 20 men mixing and hand troweling plaster, coordinated with mixing and applying two-part epoxy coatings to complete the job in the necessary timeframe.
Instead, Water FX sprayed the reflection pool with an innovative polyurea coating and decorative topcoat with six men in two days. Large culverts directly below the vessel limited the depth of the reflection pool. The dark topcoat selected, according to Singleton, enabled the water feature to appear much deeper than its actual safety-regulated 18-inch depth.
"The GelFlex topcoat offers hundreds of UV stable colors, which allows you to match any color," Singleton says. "You get the look of multiple epoxy coatings in a single, seamless, durable waterproof topcoat without all the work and hassle."
GelFlex is an aliphatic UV-color stable, chemical resistant, polyurea topcoat by VersaFlex, a global supplier of high-performance polyurea coatings.
As part of this protective, waterproof coating system, the GelFlex polyurea topcoat is typically applied over an aromatic pure polyurea basecoat, which serves as the main seamless waterproof membrane of the pool.
The spray-applied polyurea basecoat membrane creates a seamless, waterproof, durable, protective liner that stops leaks and strengthens the integrity of the entire structure. The polyurea coatings exhibit physical properties such as high elongation, crack bridging, hardness and tensile strength to create a robust liner. The coating system is designed to withstand wide variations of temperature and humidity including decades of freeze-thaw cycling.
Since the polyurea products are quick setting and curing, they can be walked on in minutes. The GelFlex topcoat is then spray applied over the polyurea waterproofing membrane at a 10- to15-mil thickness to provide stable, high-gloss color and distinctness of image. This rapid process typically allows projects to be returned to service a few hours after application of the topcoat.
A plural component spray gun connected to a long heated hose and pump machine is used to spray on the polyurea basecoat and topcoat. Unlike a traditional two-part epoxy topcoat with a short pot life, the polyurea products' components are mixed in the spray gun nozzle during application, so there is no pre-mixing needed and essentially no waste in the process.
Finished product outside the New York-New York Hotel. Short application times allowed a faster turnaround on this project.
"No one really wants a boring white plaster pool, and two-part epoxies are limited in color," says Singleton. "The polyurea topcoat can customize the design and color of swimming and decorative pools, ponds, fountains, water walls, waterfalls and water features. It is fun, for instance, to match the bright colors of kids water toy structures with complementary designs and colors in kids pools."
The efficiencies achieved with the polyurea coating system are particularly significant compared to costly, labor intensive tiling and other traditional pool finishes.
"While a large vessel could take months to tile, we could save months and tens of thousands of dollars in application by using the polyurea coating and topcoat," Singleton says. "The maintenance savings would be significant as well, because tile grout is susceptible to chemicals and notoriously hard to clean, while the polyurea topcoat is chemical resistant and easy to clean."
Smooth Structural Strength
Fiberglass is popular in pool shells for its smooth feel, and larger water features and slides also use it for its lightweight strength, yet fiberglass has significant drawbacks for the architectural design and contractor community. Fiberglass emits hazardous volatile organic compounds during production due to its resins and gelcoats. As such, fiberglass is increasingly regulated by federal, state, and local agencies, particularly in California.
Because of the limitations of fiberglass, proactive members of architectural design and contractor community like Water FX are looking beyond traditional materials, and are excited by new materials and new ideas of application.
"The structural polyurea is just as strong and lightweight as fiberglass, withstands sun, chemicals, and public abuse better, and is easier to work with," Singleton says. "Because it is sprayed onto substrates, it works easily into intricate shapes like waterfall rocks, water slides, and winding lazy river structures."
"We see the design, safety, and turnaround possibilities of new materials to customize water features," Singleton says.
Del Williams is a technical writer based in Torrance, California. To watch a video showing application of this product or get more information, visit versaflex.com.
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