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The PoolHouse
The fibreglass advantage
The Pool House, formerly Aqua Technics NZ, has been building fibreglass pools for 45 years and now runs the largest pool display centre in NZ. That's 45 years of refining what a fibreglass shell can do that concrete can't:
- Speed: It's manufactured off-site under controlled conditions, then craned in and backfilled, which cuts weeks off a site-built concrete programme.
- Consistency: Every shell comes off the same proven mould, so quality doesn't hinge on how well a pour went on a wet Tuesday.
- No construction joints: It's a single monolithic, gelcoat-finished structure with nowhere for water to find a way in.
- Built to flex: It's engineered to move with the ground and the water load rather than crack under it, which is exactly the failure mode that eventually catches up with rigid concrete shells.
Where design freedom used to stop
None of that has ever been in question. What's held fibreglass back on architecturally led projects is the edge. The coping and surround is where a client's brief for a mosaic border, a stone-look coping detail, or a fully tiled deck transition has, until now, run into risk. A fibreglass shell moves, and a rigid coping bond that isn't engineered for that movement eventually cracks, stains at the joint, or fails at the shell interface. So the coping gets left plain, even when the rest of the brief is anything but.
Enter Technokolla
This is where the partnership does its work. Technokolla is a Sika Group system, bringing Italian-engineered waterproofing and tiling technology into NZ exclusively through Surtec. It isn't a generic tile adhesive pressed into service on fibreglass. Technokolla publishes a dedicated application brief for adhering tiles to fibreglass and acrylic, a purpose-engineered build-up designed to move with a flexible substrate instead of fighting it.
Backed by BRANZ Appraisals 519, 541 and 542, the system runs as a fully bonded waterproofing membrane carried continuously across the shell to coping junction, fibreglass reinforcing mesh at every corner and movement-prone detail, a flexible pool-rated adhesive for mosaic, tile or stone coping, and a dedicated grout built for chlorine and salt exposure. All from one manufacturer, tested to work as one system rather than assembled from whatever's on the truck.
Backed by real technical support
The partnership isn't just supply. Surtec's technical team works directly with The Pool House and its design partners on coping detailing, specification and consenting, and can recommend qualified Technokolla certified tilers for the job, so a design team gets a fully accountable chain from shell to finished edge, not just a list of products. Surtec's Architects & Specifiers Hub carries the full documentation set, and every system comes with a 15-year warranty and PS3 producer statement support at sign-off.
Protecting the finish: Fila Solutions for coping and surrounds
Coping stone takes the harshest hit of the whole pool. Chlorinated or salt water, sunscreen and body oils, calcium scale, and full weather exposure all take their toll. Left unsealed, it stains and grows algae within a season.
Surtec supplies the Fila Solutions range alongside Technokolla for exactly this reason. A Fila pre-sealer and impregnating sealer, matched to the stone type via Surtec's Stone & Material Selector, protects the surface without changing its look or slip resistance, and ongoing Fila cleaners remove pool chemical residue without the etching a generic acidic cleaner causes over time.
Best of both worlds
The result for architects is the build speed, consistency and durability of a fibreglass shell, and a coping and surround finished to full architectural standard in mosaic, tile or natural stone. All backed by one accountable, warranted system, and a technical partnership that stands behind it from first sketch to final sign-off.
What this means for specification
Where a project calls for a fibreglass pool with a tiled, mosaic or natural stone coping and surround, The Pool House and Surtec's technical team are available to work directly with the design team on:
- Coping detail and movement joint layout specific to the shell geometry
- Mosaic, tile and stone selection compatible with the Technokolla adhesive and grout range
- Coping and surround sealing specification matched to stone type, using Fila Solutions
- NZBC B1, B2 and E2 compliance documentation, tied to BRANZ Appraisals 519, 541 and 542
- Site-specific specification wording for MasterSpec or direct EBOSS listing
Get in touch
The Pool House: [email protected]
Surtec (Technokolla and Fila Solutions, exclusive NZ distributor): [email protected], 0800 NZ TRADE, surtec.co.nz
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