Have you ever watched that show “How It’s Made?” It’s pretty easy to get drawn in. If you’re a naturally curious person, you could get completely geeked out watching them explain how things are made–especially things you’ve never given much thought to the inner workings of–like baseballs, aluminum foil, shoelaces, and those cute little paper umbrellas you get in your pina colada.
Well, if you’ve ever seen a giant fiberglass pool shell riding down the road on a trailer, you might have stopped to wonder, “how in the world did they make that?” The process of making fiberglass is cool enough but when you see how it’s transformedinto a beautifully finished inground fiberglass pool, it’s even cooler.
Fiberglass is literally fibers of glass, spun fine enough to be molded into many forms. Your first thoughts of fiberglass may conjure up giant bubblegum pink rolls of insulation, but it takes many more forms than that. You’ll find fiberglass in your car, your home, and all over the world around you. Fiberglass is a key component in airplanes, wind turbines, medical equipment, and electronics. And if you’re in the market for a new inground swimming pool, you’d be really happy to find it in your own backyard.
The process for creating an inground fiberglass pool is fascinating. They’re constructed by hand, by craftsmen who are very skilled at their trade. The best quality fiberglass pools are made up of numerous layers of resin, chopped fiberglass, and hand-laid woven roving fiberglass for the greatest strength and durability, and the flexibility of fiberglass allows for a great variety of styles, shapes, sizes, and finish colors.
So if you’re thinking about creating your own private backyard oasis this year and would like to know more about fiberglass pools, take a look at this awesome and informative guide that will tell you exactly how a fiberglass pool is made. (But if you do get a pool and want to try and make your own paper umbrellas to go in your poolside drinks, you’ll have to watch the show to see how those are made– we’ve got absolutely no idea.)
Daydreaming of that quick dip in the pool? Making that dream into a reality has now been made even easier by the folks at Thursday Pools®! Combining 26 years of experience in fiberglass pools and spa design with manufacturing across multiple industries, Thursday Pools® edge innovations to the pool world. Thursday Pools® builds some of the highest quality fiberglass pools in the industry, all starting with the finest grade of gel coat available for pool producers: CCP’s Shimmer® gel coats. With a coatings history that dates back to 1913 (then known as Cook Paint and Varnish) and later as the first gel coat producer in the late 1950’s, CCP Composites has produced market inspired gel coats for some of the most demanding applications and industries, including:
Marine boat hulls and decks where constant impact, toughness, UV, blister and water protection are demanded
Gel coats for tub shower units, where moisture resistance, impact, and cleaning chemicals are used
Fatigue and moisture resistance for wind energy blades
Truck hoods, air deflectors and sidewall panels where moisture, impact, fatigue, UV and heat all come into play
CCP Composites aggressively researches market needs and expectations, offering only the finest materials that will stand up to demanding industry needs. With pools in particular, only certain colors like white and light blue gel coats were suggested to s, mainly due to the nature of the chemicals needed to keep pool water healthy. These included adding acids or caustic materials to adjust pool pH, certain metallic salts chlorinated chemicals to control bacterial of the gel coat surface, either through mineral deposits or bleaching of the surface through chlorine attack.
Fabrication of a Thursday Pool starts with Shimmer®
Surprisingly, ambient temperature,chemically‐treated pool water is more aggressive chemically than salt water from the ocean. The lack of color options is often cited as one of the main reasons for choosing cement/tiled finished in‐ground pools over the superior performance of fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) pools.
Vinyl lined pools were also more popular because beyond the increased color range, vinyl pools offer a smooth floor (unlike the bottom of cement pools, which have a tendency to cut up customer‘s feet as they walked or played in the pool). All that changed in 2002, when one of the first pools was fabricated with a break‐through, deep colored gel coat specifically formulated by CCP’s sister company, CCP Composites Australia (FKA Cray Valley) for the rapidly growing pool industry in Australia. This product was heavily researched for blister, water uptake, color fade (bleaching) and for UV resistance. This new, ISO/NPG high performance gel coat proved to be far superior in all respects when compared to conventional pool gel coat products available at the time. Within 3‐4 years of product launch, the CCP Composites gel coat, known as POLYCOR® Shimmer®, became the dominant pool gel coat used in Australia. CCP Composites US brought this gel coat technology to the North American market, where it is now rapidly becoming the pool industry’s “go to” gel coat. Several years ago, Thursday Pools® found the benefits of Shimmer® for their pools, just as the Australian pool manufacturers did in 2002.
Bill Khamis, CFO of Thursday Pools, has seen immediate benefits of the Shimmer® products, such as “reduced air pressure for reduced styrene emissions,” along with “better transfer efficiencies that have resulted in a 30% savings in gel coat materials consumed.” “25% labor savings” have also been utilized in that it “takes less time to spray a mold, cleans up faster and spray gun set up is significantly faster.” Improved lay down of the gel coat has also been noted in a “better and more uniform surface quality that customers have noticed.” Bill is a very strong advocate for the Shimmer® product, sharing that customers not only love the color range, but also the depth of color, made even greater by the glittering particles included in the Shimmer® products.
In addition to color range and the advantages of fiberglass pools over concrete, Thursday Pools require 70% less chemicals usage, have cleaner surfaces and reduced maintenance that are significantly less abrasive to the skin and feet, and are far less prone to cracking. The only advantage to vinyl linings is the lower initial installed cost; however, ongoing maintenance costs increase every time the liner tears as it must be repaired or replaced. As you can see, FRP pools are clearly the way to go. With over 5 million in ground pools installed in the US (and over 53,000 installed in 2012 alone) and 5 of the top 10 pool states (Source: APSP 2013) within driving distance of their central Indiana location, Thursday Pools is well located, well suited and well-organized to capitalize on the growth potential of the Midwest FRP pool market.
Ed Vondell, COO of Thursday Pools®, noted the valued technical and product support that CCP Composites has provided with Bill Bannow, Technical Services Engineer and Jason Baranowski, Account Manager. Both have spent long hours in specialized support staff training in the use of the Shimmer® products, and more recently, introducing the CCP Composites rapid mold manufacturing technology that utilizes the OptiPLUS® mold making materials for a brand new Thursday Pools® design launching in 2014. The outlook for Thursday Pools® and Shimmer® gel coat looks quite promising in 2014 and beyond.
The creation of Facebook, Apple and Windows are well-known business success stories which garnered unprecedented media coverage, captivating the general public worldwide. Some of the Internet companies seem to have been created overnight, attracting job seekers and Wall Street investors to the glamor and fame of high-tech companies. Thursday Pools on the other hand started over thirty years ago in the garage of Bill Khamis, founder of the company. The company wasn’t incorporated thirty years ago but the foundation, technical know how and expertise was born in Khamis’ garage in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Bill Khamis, Co-Owner of Thursday Pools, LLC
Khamis started learning and making race car parts out of fiberglass for a local race car company while he was still in high school. To make the specialized parts he teamed up with resin and fiberglass suppliers to learn tool making and production techniques. The tooling he developed was much smaller than Thursday Pools pool molds but met the high standards of the auto and race car industry.
After graduating from high school and during college Khamis was asked to make bigger parts and diversify from auto parts. He founded a new company called Fabri-Tech with a high school friend, Dave Camp, and started building huge fiberglass outdoor scenes for the family entertainment centers, zoos and parks. This was his stepping stone for building large molds and parts.
After selling Fabri-Tech he moved into the marine industry and built molds for his new company, KamKraft Boats. The precision molds he built using steel substructure and part tolerances, unknown in the pool industry, were a precursor for things to come. If boat building wasn’t enough, Khamis teamed up and started making carbon fiber parts for auto and the precision measuring machine industry. The parts Khamis made out of carbon fiber had even more exact tolerances which again honed Khamis’ tool making skills. Not only did it improve his tool making skills; it also gave him hands on experience with laminate schedules and materials needed for different applications.
In parallel, Khamis began high-end custom home building along with gunite pool building. He remembers the early days when gunite was 90% of the market for the high-end, million dollar plus homes. Over the years the homeowners started requesting fiberglass swimming pools so he started hiring contractors to do the installs. During this time he compared the installation time and effort of gunite versus fiberglass. He was amazed when a fiberglass pool was installed and complete in only a few short days versus the weeks his gunite crews worked on the pools.
Fast forward to 2010 and the birth of Thursday Pools. Khamis purchased an inground fiberglass pool and when it was installed, he was seriously disappointed in the quality. However, he didn’t send the pool back to the manufacturer and ask for his money back. Instead, he decided he could do better and that’s how Thursday Pools came to be.
