Cardiff pool tiling, from the steps down.

Cardiff pools

Cardiff has public leisure pools, school and university pools, hotel and spa pools in the centre and around the bay, and health clubs. Out into the Vale of Glamorgan there are private pools in homes, indoor and outdoor.

Health club and hotel pools are open long hours, so members or guests often spot a problem first. Their reports are a good place to start an inspection.

Where wear shows first

Steps and entries take far more traffic than the pool floor. Grout usually goes first on step nosings and around handrail sockets, and tiles there crack or lift where the bed underneath is weak or the structure moves.

Step repairs need care with tile choice and setting out, so the nosings stay easy to see and the surface suits bare feet. We will say whether a local repair is realistic or whether the whole flight would come out better.

• Step nosings and contrast tiles
• Tiles around handrail and ladder fixings
• Entry ramps and accessible steps
• Learner pool edges and floor bands

One drain-down, not two

If there is a learner area with its own steps, or a separate shallow pool, we can usually scope both together. Doing them in the same closure means one drain-down and one refill.

Checks you can do now

Walk the steps and pool edge regularly and note any tile that rocks, sounds hollow or has a sharp edge. A sharp edge at an entry should be made safe straight away, even if the proper repair waits for a planned closure.

Keep a record of past repairs. Failures that keep returning to the same spot are a clue to what is going on underneath.