Vermiculite or Grout for pool base for Vinyl Lined pools?

done both. Vermiculite can be made smooth if finished properly. if water gets behind your liner with the grout bottom it will float much more easily. Also any loose pieces of grout are sharp. when the liner is replaced you will appreciate that vermiculite can be bonded to with patch material or even another thin coat of vermiculite. Vermiculite should be put in by master craftsman and don’t assume you can do the installation if you’ve done concrete or other type of flat work.

To each his own, but all the comments about pool vermiculite are incorrect. Get the mix correct and it's very easy to put down, is smooth, and hard enough to walk on. It's Portland cement and ground up cork. It wont flake. It can be dented if you try. It's porous which is supposed to help let water under liner escape. When you replace liner, there will be mold mildew algae, whatever and you will patch some, but no big deal. Once i found the correct amount of water per batch, very straight forward. I used vermiculite that already had cement added. Just add water. Bottom line, for DIY, a great choice. If using a pool contractor, listen to their advise.

What are you thinking she UK old be the rough amount to mix vermiculite. For my understanding concrete crack in cold season

So I made a pizza oven and was told that vermiculite can't get wet or becomes very brittle. I want to do an inground pool but we have high ground water tables. Can I still use it or not?

yeah that is all in the mix for vermic. Premix pool base? Some times the premix bags are different consistency.

Do not ever use chicken wire eventually it will come though and pop through the liner like a scolding hot razor knife going through melted budda. FORGETABOUTIT but honestly great video I watched the whole thing.

and it’s designed to be textured and porous also underneath is the concrete base the v mix is perfect for liner applications

Hey now that it's been a year are you still glad you went with the motor instead of the vermiculite?

You don't want a smooth finish with vermiculite. It should be porous so the the liner can push into it, vs sliding over it when the water is in it. If the vermiculite is smooth like you would do a patch in concrete, it will work like sand paper to the liner, as the liner will minutely move.

I’m a vermiculiter and my pools look like your mortar. If you don’t have your water ratio right and everything you won’t get a good finish. I could send you hundreds of pictures.

Getting ready to do my pool next week I’m also a do it yourselfer first time pool builder have you had any issues since dropping the liner in and what state are you do you get cold weather? I was planning on using a grout mixture do to cost.

Is grout or mortar hard like concrete? Because we're in PA and was told not to use concrete I guess because of the cold weather and contraction and expansion which may lead to cracking. Is grout or mortar resistant against this cracking? Is vermiculite also resistant to this?

Been doing vynil pools for years I always add dishwashing soap to the vermiculite spreads way better and smoother

I need to patch some part of the low end. Could you tell me if I need to do the entire pool? Or can it be patched?(low end)

Personnaly, i think i would use grout or concrete and make a slab at the deepest end and the shallow end....then use vermiculite to shape the slopes.

You dont know how to towel. Built 400 inground pools. We only used v mix. The concrete mix you get out concrete truck is a liner killer because it has sand and small stones and it get hard.

What kind of transit is that and where can you get it?

I just tore my liner out its hell underneath

Strange for I've seen much better work with vermiculite than what he did.

I've been building pools for over 30 years, vermiculite the way too go, n no chicken wire, get the water n mix right, don't over mix,