Shotcrete Pool vs Gunite Pool

Custom concrete pool shells are created using either of two processes, both of which involve spraying—or “shooting”—concrete from a hose at high velocity:

“Wet shotcrete” (commonly referred to as shotcrete) is factory-mixed wet concrete delivered to an on-site concrete pump by a concrete truck.

“Dry shotcrete” (commonly referred to as gunite) is mixed dry on-site by workers, pumped dry through a hose, and then hydrated when a nozzle-man adds water to the mix as it exits the hose.

The merits of both processes have served as fodder for marketing hyperbole in pool-building circles for decades, and a clear winner has yet to be pronounced. We can say this with complete comfort, though: After 25 years of using dry gunite, BonaVista made the educated switch to wet shotcrete for all of its pool shells. That was 15 years ago, and we have never looked back after the shift proved to serve us and our clients extremely well. Why?

The certainty and reliability of employing wet concrete mixed to our exacting specifications in a factory-controlled environment, and then trucked directly to the pool site, ensures that every last inch of a BonaVista shotcrete pool is built with the strength and integrity we promise our clients. There are simply too many opportunities for dry-mix gunite failure, including workers inadvertently disrupting the proper sand-to-cement ratio, nozzle-men applying too much or little water at the extremely sensitive mixing point, workers not shoveling out the significant amount of extremely detrimental “rebound” material from the pool floor before spraying over it, or all of the above.

We are proud to stand behind our chosen pool-building process. And we are comforted daily knowing that our clients will still be enjoying the pool shell we built for them 30 years from now, and beyond.