The short answer
A prefab pool with steel walls and a membrane goes up faster, with less disruption and simpler watertightness. A concrete pool gives more freedom for curved shapes. For rectangular garden pools, prefab is usually the more practical choice.
Time and disruption
A concrete pool needs formwork, rebar, pouring and days for the concrete to cure, before waterproofing and tiling. A prefab pool arrives with its walls ready. Only the base ring and the floor need a little concrete. In a suburb with narrow streets, that means far fewer mixer trucks.
Watertightness
In a concrete pool, watertightness comes from the concrete and the waterproofing under the tiles. If a crack appears, the leak is hard to trace. In a prefab pool it comes from the membrane, checked seam by seam.
Shapes
Here concrete wins: it can take any shape you like, with curves and free lines. Prefab gives straight lines, rectangles, L-shapes and recesses. For most garden pools that is enough.
Renovation years later
When the membrane eventually wears, only the membrane is replaced. The pool is not dug again. In a tiled concrete pool, renovation means stripping out. Many old concrete pools in Attica are now being renovated with a membrane. See renovation.
When to choose concrete
If you want a free-form shape with curves, if the pool is part of a basement or a building, or if you are set on tiles or mosaic. In every other case, prefab is worth a look.
From our experiencePeople often ask whether prefab «looks cheap». Once the pool is full, nobody can tell what the walls are made of. They see water, coping and membrane.
