How Much Does It Cost to Repaint a Pool?

Hiring a Pro Costs Thousands While DIY Saves on Labor

Painting an inground pool yourself usually costs between a few hundred dollars and about a thousand dollars for all materials, paint cans, and prep tools. The exact price tag depends on how many square feet of concrete or fiberglass you need to coat. A standard backyard pool measuring 16 by 32 feet often takes between six and eight gallons of paint for two solid coats. If you already own basic gear like extension poles and scrubbing buckets, you only pay for the paint, cleaning chemicals, and roller covers.

Hiring a professional painting crew changes the equation entirely, with total costs usually ranging from a couple of thousand dollars up to five thousand dollars or more. Contractors charge for their time, heavy equipment, and the heavy manual labor involved in scrubbing, power washing, and rolling out thick coatings. Labor often makes up two-thirds or more of a contractor quote. When you hire a crew, you pay for their speed and the insurance they carry, but the actual liquid in the paint bucket is the same product you can buy yourself.

The total bill swings based on several practical details of your pool layout:

• Pool dimensions and depth: A play pool with a shallow bottom requires far fewer square feet of coverage than an eight-foot deep end with steep hopper slopes.
• Existing wall condition: Flaking, bubbling, or heavily chalked layers must be stripped or heavily sanded before fresh coats can stick, which drives up labor hours.
• Local labor markets: Contractor rates vary widely by region, season, and how close you are to the start of warm swimming weather.
• Accessibility: Tight side yards, steep yard grades, and long distances for hoses and pump equipment add time and cost to professional bids.

Taking the DIY route makes sense if you have an open weekend, a strong back, and patience for detail work. But if you have physical limitations, steep transitions down to a deep diving well, or no safe way to dispose of chemical rinse water, paying a contractor protects your safety and guarantees the work finishes quickly.

Epoxy Lasts Longer but Acrylic Costs Less Upfront

Epoxy pool paint is a durable two-part resin coating that mixes a base resin with a chemical hardener right before you roll it onto the walls. A single gallon of epoxy generally costs significantly more than standard pool paints, but it forms a hard, slick barrier that resists pool chemicals, algae buildup, and sun damage. A proper epoxy finish typically lasts between five and eight years before showing chalkiness or thin spots. Because it cures into a non-porous shell, it feels smooth on swimmer feet and withstands rough scrubbing from manual brushes.

Water-based acrylic paint costs noticeably less per can and cleans up with plain water, but it carries a much shorter lifespan. You can expect an acrylic paint job to last only two to three years before it starts fading, rubbing off on swimsuits, or clouding your water with chalky dust. Acrylic coatings cure thinner and wear down faster under chlorine shock and winter weather. However, acrylic works well on short notice because it can be applied to damp surfaces, whereas epoxy requires bone-dry concrete.

The biggest trap pool owners fall into is mixing up paint chemistry. You cannot put epoxy over old acrylic paint. The harsh solvents in the epoxy will soften and lift the acrylic underneath, causing the entire new layer to wrinkle, bubble, and peel away in large sheets within weeks. Acrylic, on the other hand, can sometimes adhere over well-sanded epoxy, but switching formulas always introduces adhesion risks.

Before buying any paint, check what is currently on your pool surface. Soak a clean rag in denatured alcohol and rub a small, hidden patch of the existing paint for thirty seconds. If the paint softens or rubs off onto the rag, you have an acrylic or water-based coating. If the paint stays hard and shiny, you likely have epoxy. Matching your new paint to your existing paint type protects your wallet from catastrophic peeling.

Prep Supplies and Patching Putty Add to Your Budget

Many homeowners budget only for paint cans and get surprised by fifty to one hundred dollars in extra cleaning agents, rollers, and patch materials. Skipping these prep items almost guarantees that your new paint will lift off the wall, turning your hard work into wasted money. Proper preparation requires a small collection of chemicals, patching compounds, and painting accessories that you must include in your initial budget.

• Heavy-duty degreaser: Trisodium phosphate (TSP) cleans off body oils, sunscreen residues, and natural pool scum that form along the waterline and steps.
• Muriatic acid: Used for an acid wash (a deep cleaning wash using diluted acid) to remove mineral scale and etch bare concrete so the paint grips tight.
• Baking soda or soda ash: Neutralizes the acid rinse water in the pool bottom before you pump it out into your municipal drain or sewer cleanout.
• Epoxy pool putty or hydraulic cement: Fills structural divots, hairline cracks, and chipped spots around light niches and drain rims before painting.
• Solvent-resistant roller covers: Heavy-nap rollers with plastic or phenolic cores that will not melt or shed fibers when soaked in strong epoxy solvents.
• Personal safety equipment: Chemical splash goggles, vapor respirators, heavy rubber gloves, and rubber boots to protect your skin and lungs from acid fumes.
• Drainage tools: A submersible sump pump and discharge hose to drain standing pool water and remove wash rinses.

Buying these extra supplies typically adds between $150 and $300 to your overall DIY budget. If you already own high-quality safety gear and an extension pole, your supply bill stays lower. If you need to buy every roller frame, respirator, and pump hose from scratch, factor those costs in before you commit to doing the job yourself.

Proper Cleaning and Drying Keep New Paint from Peeling

Applying paint is the easiest and fastest part of the entire project. The real work happens in the days leading up to painting, where careful cleaning determines whether your coating lasts five years or five months. Follow these steps in order to prep the pool shell correctly:

1. Drain the pool completely: Lower a submersible pump into the deep end and pump the water out to an approved sewer cleanout. Check your local water table first to make sure high underground water pressure will not lift or crack an empty pool shell.
2. Remove muck and debris: Shovel out old sludge, silt, and dead leaves that accumulated on the floor. If you have heavy debris buildup before draining, learning how to get leaves out of a pool without clogging pipes saves your pump from jamming up during the emptying phase. You can also review safe ways to clean a brown pool without staining it so surface grime does not bake into bare plaster under the sun.
3. Scrub with degreaser: Mix trisodium phosphate with warm water according to the label directions. Scrub every square foot of the walls and floor with a stiff-bristled deck brush, starting at the tile line and working down to the main drain. Rinse thoroughly with fresh water and pump out the suds.
4. Perform the acid wash: Mix one part muriatic acid into four parts water in a plastic watering can, always adding acid to water rather than water to acid. Wet the wall with fresh water first, pour the acid mix down the surface, and let it foam for roughly two minutes. Scrub lightly, rinse immediately with clean water, neutralize the standing pool wash with soda ash, and pump it out safely.
5. Patch cracks and gouges: Inspect the floor and walls for chips, cracks, or hollow spots. Mix two-part epoxy pool putty by hand until the color turns uniform, then press it firmly into cracks and smooth the edges flat. Let all patches cure completely according to package instructions before moving forward.
6. Let the pool dry and verify moisture: Epoxy requires several days of dry, warm weather to dry out porous concrete. Test the surface by taping an eighteen-inch square of clear plastic wrap to the pool floor with duct tape. Leave it in direct sunlight for twenty-four hours. If you see condensation or dark moisture patches under the plastic, the pool is still too wet to paint.
7. Apply two thin coats: Roll the paint out in early morning or late afternoon to avoid direct, boiling midday sun that causes blistered paint skins. Work from the deep end toward the shallow end stairs. Allow the first coat to dry according to the manufacturer label before applying the second coat.
8. Wait for full cure time: Cure time (the drying time required before adding water) is critical. Acrylic paint generally requires three to five sunny days to cure, while epoxy usually demands five to seven days of dry, warm weather. If it rains during the curing window, pump out puddles immediately and add an extra day of drying time for every day of rain.

Painting Costs Less Today but Replastering Lasts Decades

When pool owners look at their worn concrete, they often debate between repainting and replastering. Replastering (applying a fresh cement surface instead of paint) involves chipping away loose material and applying an entirely new structural coat of smooth white marble dust and cement, or a durable pebble mix. Replastering is a major construction task that almost always requires a professional plaster crew with specialized trowel skills, mixer trucks, and pump rigs.

The upfront price gap between the two options is massive. While repainting might cost $500 for a DIY weekend or $2,500 for a hired painter, replastering an average backyard pool typically runs between $5,000 and $10,000, and pebble surfaces can climb even higher. For homeowners working with a strict spring budget, repainting provides an immediate, bright, clean look without taking out a home improvement loan.

The long-term math tells a different story. A high-grade plaster job lasts fifteen to twenty years with proper water balance, while pebble surfaces can last even longer. In that same twenty-year window, you would need to repaint an acrylic pool seven or eight times, or repaint an epoxy pool three or four times. Every paint cycle requires draining tens of thousands of gallons of water, buying fresh chemicals, scrubbing with acid, and giving up swimming time while the shell dries. Over two decades, the cumulative cost and labor of repeated repainting often matches or exceeds the cost of a one-time replaster job.

Choose pool paint if you need an affordable fix for the next three to five years, if you plan to sell the home in the near future, or if your pool shell is in sound physical shape with only cosmetic fading. Choose replastering if the surface plaster is cracked, pitted down to bare gunite, hollow beneath your feet, or peeling off in chunks. Paint is a protective skin, not a structural patch; applying paint over crumbling plaster will only cause the new paint to flake away with the failing concrete underneath.

Once you finish painting and the surface cures fully, fill the pool with fresh water and balance your sanitizer, alkalinity, and calcium hardness right away. Unbalanced water with low pH or low calcium will attack fresh paint quickly, pulling minerals out of the coating and shortening its life. Switch on your pump and ensure how a pool skimmer works keeps floating debris moving smoothly into the basket, protecting your fresh pool floor from organic stains while the coating settles in for the season.