Faulty Paint Job is Forcing Germantown Swim Center to Shut Down This Summer

The will be shuttered as of Sunday to make way for a four-month, $1.6 million facelift—including more than $700,000 to correct a bad ceiling paint job.

Gabriel Albornoz, director of the county's recreation department, said paint chips had been falling off the galvanized steel ceiling and into the pool because the wrong type of paint was used when the aquatic center was built in 2005.

Benaka Inc. of New Jersey won the bid to repaint the ceiling. The construction firm is licensed to do business in Maryland and has an office in Ellicott City, according to state records.

Larry Moel, recreation specialist at the swim center, said the peeling was the worst in the recreational pool area, where paint scabs clung loosely over the pool. Lifeguards and staff took turns cleaning up fallen chips, he said.

Meanwhile, the county and the contractor that did the original paint job blamed each other for the faulty paint job. The county's dispute with Delta Painting—a subcontractor for Forrester Construction Company, which completed the $16.6 million contract to build the swim center—was resolved in a $412,500 settlement, according to records from the Department of General Services.

In April, the County Council approved a $710,000 bond request to pay for redoing the faulty paint job.