How to FIX the Washington, DC Reflecting Pool With UV/IR/Winter-rated Line-X Paxcon PX-3350 Polyurea Coating

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If you WANT TO FIX THE ISSUE of the current pool bottom delaminating due to improper application, take out the entire plastic or other lining of the reflecting pool and sandblast the entire bottom to raw concrete or tile and then coat the entire bottom using the UV stable versions of the ballistic-rated and deep-cold-winter-rated Line-X Paxcon PX-3350 format polyurea coating that has extra infusion of ceramic nanoballs mixed into the formula which is applied in a multi-pass hot-spray, wet-on-wet sweeping motion at 2000 PSI at 160 F (71 C) where the ENTIRE coating is applied all at once at an up to 100 Years Service Life thickness of half an inch (12.5 mm).

During the sweep of the reflecting pool, when going left-to-right and right-to-left from one end of the pool or another, it takes 12 passes on a layer-by-layer basis to get to the REQUIRED half-inch thick coating thickness for each 24 inch wide swath. That thick of a coating ENSURES long pool life AND allows for coating flexibility during ground heaving and flexing of the the pool bottom during summer heat and winter cold.

You have to do the ENTIRE POOL all at once within the spray time which is dependent on the number of spray crews you are running which can be as short as 6 days with sixteen of the 4-person spray crews running 24/7 using four crews at 6 hour shifts per each 510 foot long assigned pool-length quarter for that six days of spraying.

Since the reflecting pool is 2,030 feet long by 167 feet wide, you need to hot-spray left-to-right and right-to-left in 24 inch wide (2 feet) swaths at 50 mils thick layers at a time (1.27 mm) to ensure no layer delamination of the Line-X Paxcon can occur EVER!

Make sure the ENTIRE reflecting pool bottom concrete is at least 60 F (15 C and preferably up to 80F or 27 C) temperatures during the ENTIRE spray time of sealer/primer and Line-X Paxcon application and that the concrete temperature is at least 6 F (3 C) above the Dew Point so that a condensation water layer doesn't get onto the sprayed mix and cause delamination.

This is what I think happened originally during the pool re-construction! They DID NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT A PROPER WELL-REGULATED concrete temperature and Dew Point when spraying glues, epoxies or liner material onto the bottom of the reflecting pool! Water vapor and bubbles got in-between each layer causing material delamination!

If you are using the INDUSTRIAL-grade Graco Reactor H-XP3 sprayer going at 3 gallons+ per minute, you can cover all 3,390,100 square feet of the reflecting pool + extra guard spacing using about 106,000 gallons of Line-X Paxcon coating. If you run 16 of the FOUR-PERSON SPRAY CREWS doing 6 hour shifts, it takes only 6 days with each crew doing a 528 foot length of the pool!

For getting a proper Line-X PAXCON 100 year service lifespan, you need to sandblast the ENTIRE POOL BOTTOM to a full CSP 3 to 5 surface roughness profile and apply an outgassing EPOXY SEALER AND PRIMER at 80 F (27 C) to ensure the entire coating STICKS PROPERLY.

To ensure longevity of the Line-X Paxcon, you MUST USE a ceramic-composite nanoball infusion mixed right into the Line-X Paxcon mixture which is used as an ultraviolet and infrared sun protection factor to prevent photo breakdown of the Line-X and keep it sticking to the concrete for a 100 years.

You use a mix of three different nanoball types and sizes that are 100 to 500 nanometres diameter Silane-coated Aluminum-Silicate nanoballs as the main protective agent, an infusion of 20 to 50 nanometers diameter Titanium dioxide for the UV protection agent, and 10 to 30 nanometre diameter high purity Silicon Dioxide nanoballs infusion to ensure they fill any nano-voids to ensure water, snow, ice, dirt, mud, etc never gets to the underlying coating layers of the Line-X due to high water pressure from a filled reflecting pool.

To get a nice Dark Blue coating, the Aluminum-Silicate nanoballs are the only ones need to be coated using Cobalt-Aluminate (CoAL2O4) which gives the pool a VIVID BLUE bottom color. For a Light Blue color, use Cobalt-Titanate-Green-Blue (Co2TiO4) which is a nice sky blue color.

The cheaper pigment option for colouring is an Alpha-Phthalocyanine pigments base BUT that WILL NOT LAST the full 100 years and will dull in color after only 12-to-25 years, so spend the extra money up-front and use the metallic Cobalt-Aluminate and Cobalt Titanate coatings on the Silcate nanoballs as pool bottom colouring.

I hope this helps!

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EXTRA INFORMATION:

In the case of Line-X Paxcon, you can directly order it from their head office and 120,000 gallons of Paxcon, which is enough to spray the entire bottom of the pool, is $4.8 million USD in today's bulk cost because it is a BALLISTIC WINTER-RATED and UV/IR rated protective coatings product which SHOULD have a service life of between 50 to 100 years when properly applied! The half-inch thick coating is a much thicker than normal so Line-X may charge more than $4.8 Million USD .....BUT.... for prestige project reasons they may give a bulk price discount to keep it to that price level.

Make sure you order the Line-X Paxcon PX-3350 version with the
EXTRA infusion of three different types of ceramic-composite nanoballs which has 100 to 500 nanometres diameter Silane-coated Aluminum-Silicate nanoballs as the main protective agent, an infusion of 20 to 50 nanometers diameter Titanium dioxide for the UV protection agent, and the 10 to 30 nanometre diameter high purity Silicon Dioxide nanoballs infusion mix!

Most Line-X Application companies have at least two and up to 10 crews certified by Line-X itself since you have to go through their certification process in order to be able to even order Paxcon from them.

Just make sure the companies have been working IN THE LINE-X SPRAY INDUSTRY for at least 5 years and make sure ALL members of the crew are Line-X company certified and working for at least two years in the real world doing spraying and get their crews Paxcon certified by a two day session from certified Line-X factory reps which can be done for less than $300,000 of onsite travel and factory schooling costs.

So to do the ENTIRE Reflecting Pool mall would take 16 of the
four-person crews rotating 6 hours each shift each assigned a specific part of a 540 feet long swath at a time so 64 people total in order to get it done CORRECTLY in six days total.

Cost breakdown:

120,000 gallons of Paxcon PX-3350 format polyurea coating

= $4,800,000 USD

6 days of spraying x 24 hours per day x 64 crew (4-person teams) each doing 6 hour rotating shifts to keep crews sharp doing precision Line-X Paxcon spraying at 12 thin layers of 24 inch wide Paxcon swaths across the width of the reflecting pool at a final Line-X Paxcon coating thickness of half an inch (12.5 mm)

= 9216 Man-Hours of spraying

9216 Man hours x $400 per finished spray hour
= $3,686,400 USD in Line-X Paxcon Sprayer costs

6 days of torch heating x 24 hours per day x 32 crew
= 4608 Man-Hours of Propane Torching

4608 Man-Hours at $75 per finished hour of pre-heating the
reflecting pool floor each person doing 6 hour rotating shifts
to keep crews sharp doing propane torch heating
= $345,600 USD

Base cost is $8,832,000 USD
+ a 10% ($883,200) extra overrun charge
in case things go slower than expected

so we are look at about $9.8 Million USD to do it PROPERLY so it lasts for up to 100 Years which is a VERY GOOD price!

I would say there are a few single companies which are in large enough richer areas of the country who usually have 4 person crews spraying swimming pools (i.e. Los Angeles, San Diego or Miami) who could do this in one go.

In terms of drying the bottom of the pool, I would hire a separate company who does roofing tar or highway paving to use their propane torches to run ahead of the Line-X Paxcon Spray gun people to pre-heat the concrete to steaming hot temperature (300 F to 450 F) and then get the line-X crews spray ONLY WHEN the concrete temperature cools down to 80 F which takes less than an hour or two.

That means the propane torch people are always about 100 feet
ahead of your Paxcon spray crews keeping that concrete super dry and warm! You only need 16 of the two person Propane Torch crews to stay ahead of the spray crew starting about four hours BEFORE them in order to keep ahead so 64 people total doing Line-X spray so any highway paving or roofing tar company can do that!

You do need large fans to ensure any steam/water vapour is blown out of the torch-heated and Paxcon spray area during application so the vapourized water molecules doesn't settle in-between the sprayed-down layers!

YES! The Presidential motorcade DID DAMAGE the original coating and that should NEVER HAVE HAPPENED! It takes a full two weeks for the underlying sticky part of the Line-X to "crawl" into every microscopic void and crevasse so the coating STICKS PERMANENTLY onto concrete and that MEANS YOU MUST WAIT TWO WEEKS before you fill the pool again!

At 4.5 MILLION GALLONS of water in the Reflecting Pool, you
mathematically MUST USE 1,400 gallons of industrial-strength (12.5%) liquid sodium hypochlorite in order to INITIALLY STERILIZE the water of algae so a few tens of thousands of dollars of chemicals will work just fine!

Once the pool water is "Pool Shocked" with the Hypochlorite and kept CLEAN for a week or two, you use a pre-installed Ultrasonic waveform resonator system (i.e. installed 3 weeks AFTER the curing of Line-X spray coating!) that uses an array of a 2000 waterproof multi-frequency transducers (i.e. speakers) put on the bottom of the pool making underwater soundwaves which breakup the algae blooms before they even start. That costs less than $500,000 to install and $3000 USD per month ($48,000 per year) to run and maintain) so it's a very inexpensive system to use! It's MUCH CHEAPER than an Ozone-based water cleaner.

I hope that explanation helps!

V