White liner: island turquoise in your own pool

What water colour it gives

With a white floor there is nothing to "darken" the light. What you see is the natural colour of the water itself: light turquoise in the shallows, a little bluer in the deep end, with the clear feel of a cove in the Cyclades. It is the colour most people have in mind from photos of the islands. How it compares with the rest you will see in liner colours.

Because the floor reflects strongly, every detail on the bottom is clearly visible and the water looks shallower than it is. In the midday sun of July the glare can tire the eyes; an umbrella or a pergola next to the sun loungers solves this.

Which houses it suits

• Cycladic and island houses with white render and blue or natural wood window frames.
• Courtyards with white marble, light-coloured stone or pebbles.
• Simple gardens with olive trees and herbs, where the water is the main colour.
• Pools with a sea view, where the turquoise continues the shallows along the shore.

On houses with dark facades, lots of wood and dense greenery, white often looks out of place; there a light grey liner or a light blue one sits more naturally. For what changes in general when building on an island, see prefab pools on the islands.

How much leaves, dust and stains show

This is the trade-off. On a white liner you will see:

• Leaves and pine needles, even a few, and the brown shadows they leave when they stay on the bottom for days.
• Dust, especially after Saharan dust or wind blowing in from a field, as a fine beige layer.
• Metal stains from borehole water with iron or manganese, in brown or purple-black shades.
• The waterline, where sunscreen and oils stick, as a yellowish band.

The upside is that nothing escapes you: you see straight away when it needs vacuuming or brushing, and you spot a water problem early. We explain the causes and how to clean them properly in stains on the liner.

Light and temperature

White reflects most of the solar radiation, so the water warms up a little more slowly than with a dark liner. On the islands, with strong sun, this rarely matters in midsummer; at the start and end of the season a solar cover makes more difference than any colour.

At night, on the other hand, white is the best backdrop for underwater lighting. It reflects the light from LED lights and spreads it evenly, so even a few lights illuminate the whole pool, and colour programmes show clearly.

How to keep it white

1. Cover the pool at night and when it is windy, to keep leaves and dust out.
2. Skim leaves with a net before they sink and stain.
3. Let a robotic pool cleaner keep the floor clean, without daily vacuuming.
4. If you fill from a borehole, have the water analysed for metals first.
5. Keep the pH at 7.2–7.6 and free chlorine at 1–3 mg/l, because outside these ranges scale and stains are more likely.

In this shade we install, for example, the Haogenplast liners StoneFlex Ivory, StoneFlex Pearl, StoneFlex Royal, 3D-Uni White 2028, Classic White 2028. Every range and colour is on the Haogenplast liners page.

Questions

See also