# Pool remodeling in Old Naples

> Pool remodeling in Old Naples. Pools of this era reach the end of several service lives together, and the original skimmer separating at the throat leads the list.

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- Old Naples

Old Naples, Florida

# Pool remodeling in Old Naples
Most Old Naples pools went in decades before their current owners did. A shell poured in 1978 is usually still sound. Everything attached to it, the finish, the tile bed, the skimmer, the equipment, is another story, and in this neighborhood those stories tend to end within the same few years.
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Owner on every job Diagnosed before it is quoted One contractor, start to finish Splash Pools LLC, Florida LLC L12000084569
Written by Clayton Waggoner, Owner · Updated August 2026

Why this area is different

## Why Old Naples pools come due all at the same time

The lots here were platted early and the pools followed the houses, most of them in the late seventies and through the eighties. That matters because an interior finish, a waterline tile bed, a skimmer throat and a set of equipment all have service lives that are different, but not that different. A pool finished in 1979 and reasonably looked after reaches the end of several of them inside the same handful of years. So an owner calls about one visible problem, a rough patch of plaster or a run of loose tile, and the assessment finds three things at the same stage. That is age doing what age does. It is not neglect, and we say so.
The signature Old Naples item is the original skimmer. A skimmer is a plastic body cast into the concrete at the waterline, and the throat is the joint where that plastic meets the gunite shell. Plastic and concrete expand and contract at different rates, and after forty-odd summers of thermal cycling, deck movement and water working at the seam, the joint lets go. The separation is a hairline. The leak it produces is small, constant and easy to mistake for evaporation, which is exactly why it runs unnoticed for years.
It does not stay harmless. Water escaping at the throat soaks into the ground beside the pool and slowly carries the fines out of it, and the deck above that ground follows. A corner of deck settling right beside the skimmer lid is the classic presentation, and by the time it shows, the leak has been running a long while. This is how a skimmer failure arrives on our desk described as a deck problem, and why we look under the symptom before treating it.
None of that argues for remodeling the whole pool by reflex. It argues for finding out what is actually at end of life before spending anything, because the wrong order is the expensive one. New plaster over a shell that still leaks fails the plaster. New coping set on a deck that is about to be opened for a skimmer means paying for the same edge twice. Sequence matters more here than almost anywhere else we work, simply because more of the pool comes due in the same season.
The build era itself is not unique to these streets. [Coquina Sands next door](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-coquina-sands/) shares the same years, though there the headline is the fill under the deck rather than the skimmer, and we treat the two neighborhoods differently for exactly that reason. What is particular to Old Naples is how often the skimmer in the wall is the one the pool was built with, still doing its fifth decade of work, and how much of the remodel conversation turns on it.

- Skimmers of the original build separating at the throat, where plastic meets shell
- Marcite interiors at genuine end of life rather than merely stained
- Small historic-district lots and narrow streets that constrain access and staging

## One remodel instead of four separate jobs

When finish, tile, skimmer and equipment are all due, the tempting path is to fix each one as it becomes unbearable. On a pool of this age that is the most expensive path available. Four separate jobs mean four mobilizations, four rounds of draining, four invasions of a small garden, and every later job disturbing some part of an earlier one. The plaster crew scuffs the new tile. The skimmer cut opens the new deck. Nobody plans it that way. It is just what happens when related work is treated as unrelated.
Handled as one remodel, the same work sorts itself into a single sequence. Leaks are found and the skimmer replaced first, while the shell is open and empty. Plumbing repairs follow while the trenches are already cut. Tile and coping go on next, then the deck, and the interior finish goes in last, after everything that could scratch or stain it is finished. The pool is drained once. The garden is disturbed once. The new finish cures in a pool that no longer leaks.
That is the shape of our work here: [interior finish, tile, coping and deck as one project on one schedule](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-naples/). On an Old Naples lot the single schedule earns its keep twice over, because the staging room that four separate jobs would each demand is room these lots simply do not have.

## Resurfacing marcite that is done, not just dirty

Most pools of this vintage were finished in marcite, a white cement plaster, and marcite has a working life. Long before the end it stains, and staining is cosmetic. At the end it thins toward translucency, roughens until it grabs swimsuits and feet, and lets go of the shell in patches that sound hollow when tapped. Stains can be acid washed away. End of life cannot, and an acid wash on a finish this far gone just removes more of what little remains.
The honest repair is removal. We take the interior down to the shell, chipping out [marcite at genuine end of life, not merely stained](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-resurfacing-naples/), and repair the shell before any new material goes on. On a pool in its fifth decade the chip-out doubles as the inspection: hollow spots, old patch jobs and hairline cracks all show themselves once the finish is off, while fixing them is still straightforward and cheap.
What we do not do is skim-coat over the old surface. New finish bonded to failing finish takes on the life of whatever it is stuck to, and on this era of pool the old surface has no life left to lend. The distinction between a pool that needs a clean and a pool that needs a new interior is a finding from the tap of a knuckle and the state of the bond, and we make it in front of you.

## Replacing the skimmer the pool was built with

By the time an Old Naples pool comes up for remodel, the skimmer in the wall is very often original. Replacing it is not a patch job. Epoxy pressed into a separated throat fails, because the joint failed by movement and epoxy does not stop movement. The repair that lasts is to cut the old body out of the deck and the wall, set a new skimmer, and pour it back so the throat is one sound assembly again, tied into the shell rather than merely touching it.
That work opens a small area of deck and disturbs the finish around the throat, which is exactly why sequence matters. Done before a resurface, the patch disappears under the new interior and the new deck edge. Done after, it leaves a visible scar in finish that was perfect a month earlier. When an assessment turns up [original skimmers separating at the throat](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-skimmer-drain-repair-naples/), the skimmer therefore goes to the front of the queue, ahead of everything cosmetic.
The same visit checks the main drain and the skimmer line itself. A pipe that has been carrying water since 1980 deserves a pressure test before anyone builds new work on top of it, and the trench that serves the new skimmer is the cheapest access that line will ever have.

## Finding the leak before the remodel is scoped

Every remodel on a pool of this age starts with the same question: is it losing water, and from where. Naples pools lose water to evaporation every day, more in dry windy weather, and the first job is separating that from a genuine leak. The bucket test does it without instruments. Float a bucket of pool water on the top step, mark the level inside and outside, and compare after a day. Evaporation lowers both marks equally. A leak lowers the pool further.
The working rule is that [more than a quarter inch a day is a leak, not evaporation](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-leak-detection-naples/), and on a pool from this era the skimmer throat is the first suspect, with the suction and return lines close behind. Dye testing at the throat, pressure testing the lines and listening equipment on the shell each rule places in or out, until the loss has an address rather than a rumor.
The reason to do this before scoping anything else is the sequencing argument in miniature. A leak found first is one repair inside a planned project. A leak found after resurfacing means opening finished work, and no finish looks the same after it has been opened. On seventies-era pools we treat leak detection as the first line of the scope, not a contingency.

## An equipment pad running several generations behind

Follow the plumbing away from an Old Naples pool and it often ends at a pad that has been patched rather than planned for decades. A pump replaced in one decade, a filter in another, valves swapped as they seized, a heater added later, all joined by whichever fittings matched on the day. Each patch worked. The pad as a whole has become a puzzle nobody fully understands, standing on pipe that is itself as old as the pool.
During a remodel we would rather [rebuild the pad once instead of patching failing pipe](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-equipment-pad-rebuild-naples/) yet again. The old manifold comes off, the pad plumbing is replaced and labeled, and current equipment is set on it properly. From then on the next fault is a part swap on clean, documented pipe rather than an archaeology project conducted in August.
There is an era-specific reason to fold this into the remodel rather than defer it. Pads this old frequently need their runs to the pool re-made, and the trenching for that belongs in the same open-ground phase as the skimmer replacement and any line repairs. Cutting those trenches through a garden that was just restored is the kind of second visit the whole sequence exists to avoid.

## The waterline band, while everything is open

The tile at the waterline is the same age as everything else, and its bed has spent those decades wet and dry many times a day, expanding and contracting through every season since the Carter administration. When tile of this era lets go, it usually lets go from behind: the bed and the grout give up before the tile does, which is why old waterlines shed tiles in runs rather than one at a time.
Replacing the band is inexpensive at exactly one moment. [The waterline is already open during a resurface](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/waterline-tile-replacement-naples/), so the new bed keys into fresh work on both sides and adds little to the schedule. The same tile job done on its own a year later means draining the pool again and cutting into a finished interior edge, which is most of the cost for a fraction of the result.
So when the assessment finds the finish at end of life, we look hard at the tile before the scope closes. On pools of this age it is nearly always due, and folding it in costs far less than coming back for it.

Service area

## Old Naples and the neighborhoods around it
The marker on Old Naples is open. Click any other marker for what breaks pools there, because it is genuinely not the same everywhere in Collier County.

+ − ↺
Where we work

Naples and Collier County, plus Marco Island, Bonita Springs and Estero. What fails is
different in each, and that is what decides the work.

- [Port Royal](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-port-royal/) waterfront, architectural review, deck must match the house
- [Old Naples](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-old-naples/) pools built in the seventies and eighties, due for everything at once; original skimmers
- [Aqualane Shores](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-aqualane-shores/) canal homes, deck movement near the seawall separates coping
- [Park Shore](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-park-shore/) Gulf Shore Boulevard salt air hits the tile line first; seasonal vacancy
- [The Moorings](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-the-moorings/) direct salt air exposure, waterline tile failure
- [Coquina Sands](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-coquina-sands/) seventies and eighties pools; decks poured over uncompacted fill
- [Royal Harbor](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-royal-harbor/) canal homes, high water table hides leaks; coping separation
- [Grey Oaks](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-grey-oaks/) gated architectural review on anything visible from the street; spa additions
- [Quail West](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-quail-west/) natural stone decking matched to the house; spa additions
- [Pelican Bay](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-pelican-bay/) empty April to November; automation and heat pumps for year-round swimmers
- [Lely Resort](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-lely-resort/) natural gas supply; builder decks aging out; year-round pump runtime
- [Fiddler's Creek](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-fiddlers-creek/) natural gas heater sizing; builder-era paver decks losing their base
- [The Vineyards](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-the-vineyards/) year-round swimming, heat pumps and variable speed payback
- [Naples Park](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-naples-park/) mature landscaping into pool plumbing; original skimmers; storm-loaded filters
- [Pine Ridge Estates](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-pine-ridge/) mature landscaping finds underground pool plumbing
- [Vanderbilt Beach](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-vanderbilt-beach/) equipment pads corrode fast; storm season loads filters
- [Golden Gate Estates](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-golden-gate-estates/) well water iron staining on marcite; propane rather than natural gas
- [Isles of Capri](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-isles-of-capri/) canal water table hides leaks; heavy equipment-pad corrosion
- [Marco Island](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-marco-island/) barrier island salt air corrodes heaters from the inside out
- [Bonita Springs](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-bonita-springs/) pool decks and patios on Southwest Florida soil
- [Estero](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-estero/) deck and patio base engineered for local soil
- [Ave Maria](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-ave-maria/) newer east-county builds, patios and walkways matched to existing hardscape

4 neighborhoods with a published customer review Click any marker · positions are approximate

## What that usually means in Old Naples

In the order the causes above tend to drive the work, not in the order of what costs
most.

- [Pool remodeling in Naples, handled as one project](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-naples/) Most Naples pools do not fail one piece at a time. The interior finish goes, the waterline tile lets go, the coping sounds hollow, and the deck has been moving for years. Handling that as four separate trades is how a six week project turns into a season. We do it as one.
- [Pool resurfacing in Naples, including the part everyone skips](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-resurfacing-naples/) Most resurfacing quotes cover chipping out the old surface and troweling on a new one. The part that decides whether it still looks right in ten years is the four weeks after the water goes in, and it is the part most owners are never told about.
- [Skimmer and main drain repair, the quiet leak](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-skimmer-drain-repair-naples/) A separated skimmer throat loses water behind a wall that looks completely sound. No wet patch, no crack, no clue, and a level that keeps dropping. There is one clue it does give, and this page teaches you how to read it.
- [Pool leak detection in Naples, with a finding before a shovel](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-leak-detection-naples/) A leak on a canal lot rarely shows itself. The ground takes the water, nothing goes soggy, and the first sign is the bill or the auto-fill running more than it used to.
- [Equipment pad rebuilds, so the next repair is a part swap](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-equipment-pad-rebuild-naples/) Patching one fitting on a pad that is going is how you end up seeing the same contractor four times in two years. At some point the pad itself is the repair.
- [Waterline tile replacement, starting behind the tile](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/waterline-tile-replacement-naples/) Tile almost never fails on its own. What fails is the mortar bed behind it, and in Naples the salt air reaches that bed long before it touches the tile face. That is why tile set back onto the old bed comes loose again, and why every job here starts with what is behind the tile.

## What to expect in Old Naples
Expect the lot to shape the logistics. These are some of the smallest and most established lots we work on, on narrow streets laid out long before concrete trucks reached their current size. Parking, material drops and spoil removal are coordinated street side and scheduled around the neighborhood rather than imposed on it, and staging is planned into the space the lot actually has. That is one more reason the work runs as one project instead of four.
Expect an assessment before any number. On a pool of this age the scope is decided by findings, not by the build date: what the bucket test says, what the pressure test says, what the shell sounds like under the finish. We tell you what is genuinely at end of life, what has serviceable years left, and what order protects the new work from the old problems. A price quoted ahead of those findings would be a guess, and we do not quote guesses.
Expect the pool to be opened once. The sequence puts draining, trenching and deck cutting into one campaign, the interior finish goes in last, and the garden and the gate are asked to recover from the work exactly one time.

ASK CLAYTON · OLD NAPLES

## Questions from Old Naples
These are specific to this area. The general ones are answered on the service pages.
[Call 239-450-5933](tel:+1-239-450-5933)
Splash Pools
Clayton replies himself

- The pool is from the seventies. Is it worth remodeling or should it be replaced? Usually worth remodeling. Gunite shells from that era are generally sound; what has aged out is everything attached to them. Replacement becomes the honest answer when the shell itself has structural movement, and that is a finding from looking at it, not an assumption from the build date.
- How can a skimmer leak be told apart from evaporation? Run the bucket test first. Float a bucket of pool water on the top step, mark the level inside the bucket and the pool level outside, and compare after 24 hours. Evaporation affects both equally. If the pool dropped further, water is leaving the system, and a skimmer throat is one of the first places to look on a pool of this age.
- Can the original skimmer be replaced without resurfacing the whole pool? Yes. Skimmer replacement is a self-contained repair: the old body is cut out, a new one is set, and the small area of deck around it is poured back. We raise the finish at the same time because of sequence, not sales. The repair leaves a patch in the surrounding finish, so if resurfacing is close anyway, doing it after the skimmer hides the scar.
- What does a full remodel involve on a small Old Naples lot? Planning more than machinery. Deliveries and spoil removal are scheduled rather than stockpiled, staging uses the room the lot really has, and street-side access is arranged in advance rather than improvised on the morning. The work itself runs as one sequenced campaign, so the property is opened and restored once. Small lots reward a single well-ordered project far more than a series of separate jobs.
- Do pools from this era need re-piping as well? Sometimes, and a pressure test settles it rather than the calendar. Lines that hold pressure stay. A line that fails is repaired or re-run while the ground is already open for the skimmer and pad work. We neither assume forty-year-old pipe is fine because water still moves through it, nor condemn it purely for its age. The test is quick and the answer is definite.
- How is the work sequenced so the pool is only opened once? Leak findings come first, then the skimmer and any shell or plumbing repairs while the pool is empty and the ground is open. Tile and coping follow, then deck work, and the interior finish goes in last so nothing after it can scratch or stain it. Start-up chemistry closes the job while the finish cures. Each step protects the one after it, and nothing finished gets reopened.
Tap a question
The pool is from the seventies. Is it worth… How can a skimmer leak be told apart from ev… Can the original skimmer be replaced without… What does a full remodel involve on a small… Do pools from this era need re-piping as well How is the work sequenced so the pool is onl…
[Or just call 239-450-5933](tel:+1-239-450-5933)

## What is the same everywhere we work

The neighborhood changes what fails. It does not change how we work, and pretending
otherwise would be the first dishonest thing on this page.

- No price before someone has looked at the pool.
- No schedule before we know what the shell needs.
- The cause gets diagnosed before the repair gets quoted.
- Ask for our license number and check it yourself at the [DBPR licensee search](https://www.myfloridalicense.com/wl11.asp?mode=0&SID=). Ask the other quotes for theirs too.

## Nearby, and similar

These share the same underlying conditions as Old Naples, which is why the work tends
to look alike.

- [Port Royal](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-port-royal/) waterfront, architectural review, deck must match the house
- [Aqualane Shores](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-aqualane-shores/) canal homes, deck movement near the seawall separates coping
- [Park Shore](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-park-shore/) Gulf Shore Boulevard salt air hits the tile line first; seasonal vacancy
- [The Moorings](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/pool-remodeling-the-moorings/) direct salt air exposure, waterline tile failure
[Every area we cover](https://www.splashpoolsllc.com/service-areas/)

Talk to Clayton

## Tell us what the pool in Old Naples is doing.
A sentence or two is enough. You get a call back from the person who does the work, not a dispatcher.
Website
Name
Phone
Email optional What does the pool need?
Full remodel or renovation Resurfacing / interior finish Waterline tile or coping Spa remodel or addition Repair, not sure which kind Losing water / leak Crack in the shell or deck Pool plumbing Heater Pump or filter Automation / controls Equipment pad rebuild Pool deck / pavers Paver sealing Not sure yet
What is it doing?

Send to Clayton [Call 239-450-5933](tel:+1-239-450-5933)