We finished our pool about 2 weeks ago. I am in the Frisco, TX area. I love our design, and landscaping, and the decking, and it is just how I envisioned it! However... I am not happy with our plaster, and evidently several other people are not as well, as today they sent out an email saying they have lots of plaster complaints about staining and spots so they are coming out to review all the latest builds. Everything was smooth up until plaster. Our pool is 34X18.5 rectangular, and the spa is 8X8. We used pebble, which is Sea Blue. I had them use larger rebar on the pool beam and we also did chemical soil injection. We always had water in the bottom of our pool. Even after they dug it, it was wet at the deep end, which is 6 feet deep. Water was always in the bottom deep end after gunite. I pumped it daily. Even at plaster, there was water there, but multiple people from the plaster company, our Project Manager, all said, nothign to worry about, plaster actually cures underwater. I figured these guys know what they are going, and the plaster guy is not going to want to have to redo a job, so I left it to the experts. The rain delayed us a bit, but we got plaster, I filled it up, brushed it 3 times a day. Pool school was kind of a joke, the guy showed me how to run everything and basically told me to keep chlorine tabs in the holder and check the PH. I bought a test kit and I test my water every day, because I know how important it is in the beginning. I have been reading tons of articles online and educating myself. After we filled the pool, I noticed several darker areas. They assured me they would clear up if I brushed it. I am a new pool owner, I have never owned a pool before, so I trusted them. Now brown spots are starting to show on the plaster, along with white areas. My PH is been 7.4 to 7.6 consistently. I did add some calcium hardner to bring the calcium up to 200. I took my water to Leslie Pools to have them test it weekly as a backup as well. Tony at the Frisco store has been amazing, and has yet to sell me anything, he has just tested the water, and gave me advice. I put a Vitamin C on the brown spots, and they cleared up. THEY coming out tomorrow to look at our plaster. The guy at Leslie's, told me nothing with my water has caused any plaster problems, because my water is perfect. I attached some photos. Does this just look like a bad plaster job? Again, never owned a pool so I have no idea!!
Bad Plaster Job??
- Thread starter pevitt
- Start date
I have similar dark staining in my quartzscapes tahoe blue plaster done 11-14. Yes it is a bad plaster job. Onbalance on this site maybe able to come a long and help you. He is the professional. I am just an unhappy pool owner. My builder will do nothing. I hope you get the help you need.
If you can (and it's legal), audio record as much as possible of your interactions with the builder. Get any promises in writing. It may come in handy later.
The builder has been great to work with, and they said they will absolutely do whatever it takes to fix it. They are trying to find any correlation they can to what is causing this, as it has popped up in several pools recently. One theory is that we have had alot of rain lately, and it has been dumping tons of muddy water in Lake Lavon, and the cities are treating the water more heavily to make sure it is clear etc.. I tested my home tap water and the PH is very high, as high as my HTH Water Test kit will go! He said they are starting out by treating the pools with SC-1000 by Orenda Technologies. It is a Scale and Metal Control. We put it in, but after 3 days, it still looks the same, and actually the brown spots look worse to me. They keep thinking it is a metal/scale problem, but my water has tested 150-190 for Calcium Hardness, it has never been high. The mgr. at Leslie's Pools told me that is not surprising for new plaster, that it can take it awhile to level out. I have not tested my water today, it rained very hard this morning, so wanted to wait until everything gets circulated. He said if they have to, they will drain it and acid wash it, but he would not do that until the plaster had cured for at least 3 months. Or he said, worse case, we will replaster it. I just keep thinking I need do so some sort of acid treatment to see if it will help? Vitamin C removed some of the stains, but I feel like they just came right back, and now where the brown spots are, there is new darker blue streaks now?
They're great to work with, right up until they decide to cut and run. 
Hence why you need to get these promises (the acid wash and potential replaster) in writing or recorded so that you can hold it up later if they decide they don't want to be as honest as they are sounding now.
This is a huge investment, and can be expensive to fix - if you're serious about not having this forever or not having to pay for a remediation yourself, you'll want to get admissible evidence that the builder agrees that there is a problem and is promising things to remedy it.
Hence why you need to get these promises (the acid wash and potential replaster) in writing or recorded so that you can hold it up later if they decide they don't want to be as honest as they are sounding now.This is a huge investment, and can be expensive to fix - if you're serious about not having this forever or not having to pay for a remediation yourself, you'll want to get admissible evidence that the builder agrees that there is a problem and is promising things to remedy it.
Good suggestion triptyx! They are a reputable builder, and the owner himself called me, gave me his cell, and told me to call him anytime. We have also referred a few people to them. I know they want to make it right, I just wish I could figure out what the root cause is! After we treated with the ScaleTec, my chlorine was really low, it says on the bottle it can deplete chlorine levels. I've got them back to 1, where they have been holding, we have an Ozone system as well. My water is very clear and sparkly, not cloudy at all. Calcium Hardness tests 150 today, it seems to like to be in this range. I added 4 lbs of Calcium hardener about a week ago, but it did not last long. Leslie's said all the rain can make it out of whack. Going to add some more to try to bring it up to 200. Any other suggestions? Do you think an ascorbic acid treatment would help?
Sorry, no idea about those things. Hopefully someone with more experience can answer your question.
A quick sidenote/fun fact - I used to live in Frisco at Panther Creek/Preston. I miss living out there.
A quick sidenote/fun fact - I used to live in Frisco at Panther Creek/Preston. I miss living out there.
Just wanted to follow up and see what happened with your plaster. We are using the same builder and are getting close to plastering our pool.