Fiberglass pool colors: how the finish looks in Ohio light

Liberty Composites, the manufacturer whose fiberglass shells we install, currently offers its pools in the Crystite Classic collection, with three colors:

• Sapphire Blue. Liberty describes it as a vivid blue with diamond accents, similar to a clear-blue sky. It is the lightest of the three.
• Ocean Blue. A deeper, richer blue that Liberty compares to the depths of the ocean.
• Night Sky. A dark finish that Liberty describes as the darkness of the cosmos dotted like a starry night.

The sparkle in all three comes from reflective flecks in the gelcoat. Liberty says its Crystite gel coating resists scratches, stains and fading. That is the manufacturer's claim about the material. The written warranty is narrower, which we cover below.

Because you never see the finish on its own. You see it through several feet of water, with the sky reflecting off the top. The U.S. Geological Survey explains that water itself has a slight blue tint, because water molecules absorb the red end of the visible spectrum. Light that reflects off the floor of a pool travels through enough water that its red is absorbed, which is why a pool looks blue from above even over a white floor.

That has two practical effects. First, deeper water looks darker and bluer than shallow water over the same finish, so the tanning ledge and steps will look lighter than the deep end. Second, a small flat sample in your hand, seen in dry air, will look noticeably different from the same color under five feet of water.

The surface matters as much as the depth. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution notes that the ocean surface reflects the sky, and that the same stretch of water looks different under sunshine, storm clouds or an evening sky. A backyard pool works the same way.

Northeast Ohio is one of the cloudier parts of the country. NOAA's Comparative Climatic Data put the average at about 202 cloudy days a year in Cleveland and about 198 at Akron-Canton, with only around 66 to 68 clear days. Summer is better: at Akron-Canton, June through August average roughly 11 to 13 cloudy days a month and 6 to 8 clear ones. Cleveland gets 64 percent of its possible sunshine in June and 66 percent in July, and much less in spring and fall.

On a bright July afternoon any of the three finishes looks like the brochure. On a gray day the surface picks up the gray sky. A light finish like Sapphire Blue still reads as blue, because plenty of light comes back up from the floor. A dark finish like Night Sky reflects more of the sky and shows less of the floor, so on an overcast day it can look slate or steel colored, almost like a pond. Some people love that look. Others are disappointed by it. It is worth knowing which camp you are in before you choose.

Late-season light matters too. In September and early October, when the sun is lower, the water in a heated pool spends more of its day in shade from the house and trees. That favors the lighter finishes if you want the pool to look bright blue into fall.

Anything that the water reflects becomes part of the pool's color. A pool ringed by tall maples and oaks, as on many older, wooded lots in the region, will pick up green along its edges for much of the summer. A light concrete deck bounces light into the water and brightens it. A dark paver or stone deck frames the water and makes it look deeper. The color of the house and any fence close to the pool shows up in the reflection too.

This is why we suggest choosing the deck and the pool color together, not one after the other. A Sapphire Blue pool with a pale broom-finished or exposed aggregate deck reads as crisp and bright. An Ocean Blue or Night Sky pool with a darker stamped concrete or natural stone surround reads as calmer and more formal. Neither is wrong. They just set a different mood.

Every one of our fiberglass packages includes Pentair MicroBrite color-changing LED lights, and in Ohio a lot of pool time happens after dinner. At night the finish color matters less than the light. In our view, darker finishes make lit water look deeper and the light colors more saturated, while lighter finishes give a softer, more even glow. If you plan to use the lights often, look at a lit pool in each finish if you can. Photos rarely capture it well.

A little, and less than you might hope. The U.S. Department of Energy notes that an outdoor pool already absorbs 75 to 85 percent of the solar energy that strikes its surface. With that much of the sun's energy already going into the water, a darker floor can only add a small share. The finish color is not a substitute for a cover or a heater if you want to stretch the Ohio season.

Where a cover and a heater do their work, the color becomes purely a matter of taste. We would rather you pick the color you like looking at and spend the heating budget on a good cover.

Gelcoat is durable, but its appearance depends a lot on how the water is kept. Latham's Liberty warranty covers the finish against osmotic blistering for 20 years. It specifically does not cover fading, staining, discoloration or other changes in the appearance of the surface finish, and it asks owners to test the water weekly and keep it within set ranges, including pH 7.2 to 7.6, total alkalinity 80 to 120 ppm and calcium hardness 250 to 350 ppm.

In practice that means the best way to keep any color looking new is steady water chemistry. Metals in fill water, low pH and strong chemicals poured straight onto the surface are the usual causes of stains. We handle water testing and balancing as part of our service work if you would rather not do it yourself.

The finish is only part of what you see. The band at the waterline and the edge where the pool meets the deck draw the eye first, especially on a gray day when the water itself looks muted. Liberty can apply tile at the factory, and the Latham warranty covers factory-applied tile for three years against damage in transport and workmanship in the application. It excludes fading or discoloration of the tile and grout, so the same rule about water chemistry applies.

A contrasting waterline tile, such as a dark band on a Sapphire Blue pool or a lighter one on Night Sky, gives the pool a crisp outline that holds up in flat light. Matching tile makes the edge disappear and lets the water color carry the look. The coping and the first few feet of deck matter just as much. Our packages include a 4 foot concrete wrap deck, and its finish and color can be chosen with the pool color in mind rather than as an afterthought.

If you are torn between two finishes, the edge treatment often settles it. Lay out the tile, coping and deck samples together next to the finish chip and look at them outside, in daylight, on a cloudy afternoon.

A light floor shows leaves, dirt and bugs on the bottom clearly, which some owners like because they can see when it needs a clean. A dark floor hides debris better between cleanings. Pollen and a film at the waterline show up on all three. Many owners also like being able to see the whole floor clearly when kids are swimming, which is easier over a lighter finish.

• Look at finished pools as well as samples, and try to see one on a cloudy day as well as a sunny one.
• Decide on the deck material and color at the same time.
• Think about your trees and how much shade the pool will get, especially in the evening.
• If lighting matters to you, look at a lit pool at night.
• Pick for the view from the house. You will see the pool from the kitchen window far more often than from the water.

We show the color on your pool and deck in the 3D design before anything is ordered, so you can compare finishes on your own lot.