Ultra-Granicoat: Changing the way you look at a Fiberglass Pool
 It's rumored that Henry Ford once said, "you can paint it any color you like, so long as it's black." While no one can really prove he actually said it, the phrase has survived for nearly a century. That said, Henry Ford, with his Model T, revolutionized automobiles, and sold nearly 15,000,000 of these black cars with the Model T engine. This was the longest run of any single engine until the Volkswagen Beetle came on the scene.
Well this story has been the case with fiberglass pools: "you can have it any color you like, so long as it is white…" or "the whiter the pool, the more blue the water." We have heard; we have said it. 5 years ago, in partnership with Safas Corporation, a leading provider of sprayable solid surface finish, we changed all of that. Now, you can have a low maintenance, visually stunning and fashionable alternative to the solid white gel coat pool and its called Ultra-Granicoat®. We know that in time the rest of the composite pool industry will emulate this finish and like the spa industry today, you won't find a gel coat pool in a decade. Until then we are happy to offer this unique product.
So what is a solid surface finish? Most are probably quite familiar with it from the kitchen counter top industry. There are many manufacturers, but what is in common is a rich, granite texture, that is durable and easy to repair. Solid Surface finishes are renewable, UV stabilized and stain resistant. They provide all of the aesthetic features found in similar looking natural stone and manmade cementitious products without of the high maintenance and upkeep. Safas has researched and patented a sprayable solid surface material and Trilogy Pools has developed a process to utilize this revolutionary technology as a swimming pool finish.
There is a lot of difference between standard gel coat and an Ultra-Granicoat® solid surface finish both in appearance and performance. Gel coat is a durable, polyester material with colors added for appearance. You have seen it on bathtubs, boats, and recreational vehicles. It is a non-porous surface, with good corrosion resistance. Because of its stability in water, nearly every boat manufactured today uses this product. It is sprayed on a mold and allowed to "cure" or hardened and then it is backed with vinyl ester resin along with fiberglass fibers to add structural strength to the end product. In general, polyester resins, like gel coat, cure better with increased amount of material (i.e. thickness) applied to the mold. Greater amounts of material applied to the mold results in more heat built up during the curing process and ultimately provides a more durable surface finish. The problem is encountered when the gel coat layer is too thick; it can become prone to cracking. On the other hand, if it is too thin then it will not have good long-term weatherability.
Lets examine how Ultra-Granicoat® is processed and applied and you will begin to see where this amazing product gets the outstanding performance gains over a traditional gel coat finish.
Choose from one of 6 Ultra-Granicoat solid surface finishes! Finally, an alternative to the standard white fiberglass pool.
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First, color is added to the uncured clear polyester resin and this mixture is allowed to cure in a large piece. The end result is a much better cure because there is so much more material present (remember thickness above?). Next, it is post-cured in an oven at over 300 deg F resulting in an almost perfect cure every time. Then, the standard stock colors are grounded back to particles with a uniform size and added back to uncured polyester resin in very precise proportions. This allows Ultra-Granicoat® to possess outstanding color consistency batch to batch, which in turn makes any field repairs effortless. Trilogy Pools then sprays this mixture of cured and uncured material onto the prepared mold surface. The material being cured, will still cure to the same level of a standard gel coat finish. But, now recall those colored, oven-cured particles. They were cured to a much higher degree. It is this process that gives Ultra-Granicoat® outstanding and unmatched performance over traditional gel coat finishes.
You might easily visualize this unique material by imagining the construction of a brick wall. Think of the bricks as oven-fired color particles and the mortar as the polyester material that holds it all together. Like a brick wall, Ultra-Granicoat® derives its fantastic properties from the synergy of two materials working. While this analogy of brick wall is an easy way to visualize the granicoat surface, the similarities end there. The material used in the particles in the Ultra-Granicoat and the resin that holds it all together is identical. Once cured, there is no way to separate the particles from the rest of the surface:they become one continuous material.
Unlike a bass-boat type finish, where one simply adds colored chips to clear polyester resin, Ultra-Granicoat® is truly a solid surface material and once cured, there is no chemical difference between the colored "particles" and the rest of the surface, except the difference in the curing. What this means to you is that as one sands or scratches down through the material, you will not encounter "layers" of different color. Its color is consistent not only on the surface, but down through the material as well.
In bass-boat type finishes, one would typically have three layers: a layer of clear on the surface, a layer of clear with particles or flakes, and a backing color layer of gel coat. The visual effect is achieved by looking down through the three layers. Now think about what happens when you try to repair this surface. You have to precisely control the layer thickness to preserve the visual depth. Doing this in the field or a small area is extremely difficult and matching it day to day is daunting. Operator skill plays into this as well, so patch results are highly dependent on who does the repair.
Beauty, stability, reparability, and durability are a few reasons that Ultra-Granicoat® is being used in millions of kitchen countertops, sinks, and bathroom vanities. It not only stands up to the rigors of a pool, but also to the abuse found in kitchen sinks. We have extensively tested Ultra-Granicoat® with Safas in the laboratory, and in the field, to establish its long lasting performance for pool operations. In addition, it has been subjected to numerous tests found in the kitchen and bath industries. Ultra-Granicoat® has a proven track record with outstanding durability and is available for your Trilogy pool at a surprisingly affordable price. You will pay much less than a pebble-type pool surface finish and have a fraction of the long-term maintenance costs. It is now available in 6 amazing colors, giving you even more flexibility in your pool's finished appearance. With Trilogy Pools and Ultra-Granicoat®, your pool will truly be less maintenance than the grass you'll replace.
Ultra-Granicoat is a registered trademark of Safas Corporation.
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