Abe Kemp had the unusual job yesterday of replacing cracked and broken tiles in the Dunedin Hospital physio pool, which was not drained for the task.
Using special glue and on instruction from Wards Plastering owner Craig Ward, Mr Kemp was able to save time and money on a job which otherwise would have seen the pool closed for more than a week.
However, two hours in, Mr Kemp was feeling the heat and took a break.
Mr Ward is contracted to fix and replace the physio pool tiles year-round; work which usually occurs when the hospital facility is emptied for thorough cleaning.
About eight tiles had to be chiselled off and replaced yesterday, but that did not warrant the lengthy draining and refilling process, Mr Ward said.
"The pool takes five days to drain; you can't drain it too quickly because it pops the tiles. Then it takes another three to five days to fill it up again and all that costs a lot of money," he said.
Instead, precisely 1kg of glue powder was mixed with 220ml of water to make a special paste which was put in the middle of each tile.
When Mr Kemp placed each tile, downward pressure spread the glue paste across its surface, forcing water out in the process.
The tiles were weighed down overnight before the pool reopened this morning.
Mr Ward said the special glue was used to attach coral to rocks in Australia. He had never used it before and was interested to see how well it would hold.
"It's certainly a lot cheaper to do it this way," he said.
