To Acid Wash or not to acid wash

[TCLGuy]

Hi there,

Newbie to Pool.

The house that we just bought used to be rented and the pool has been neglected for years. I had the water tested and calcium hardness is 900. There is serious scaling all around the pool.

A pool guy told me that he would acid wash it and then start from scratch. Makes sense in a way but it also costs a lot of money. I am aware that we have to do a major upgrade to this pool in the future and replaster it anyways. How much sense does it make to acid wash when you know that in 2-3 years you'll have to replaster anyways. How much does replastering cost?

So for now, I drained 1/3 of the pool water and will refill. Fill water has calcium 130.

My worry is that everytime I go into the pool and walk around shuffle feet etc..I am rubbing off some of the calcium crystals and get more calcium in the water. When I use my finger to rub the walls, the water around it gets cloudy instantly.

I am not sure what to do. I was hopeing to get thru this and maybe next summer somehow before replastering.

Any thoughts on the acid wash or what to do is appreciated!!
Thanks!

 

[JasonLion]

If the plaster is getting old and may need to be replaced soon it might not be such a good idea to acid wash it. Every time you acid wash you take off some of the plaster. If the plaster is older that can lead to complete failure of the plaster.

The only disadvantages to calcium scaling are the appearance and the sometimes rough surface. Chemically it is really the same as plaster, and won't cause any problems.

You should be brushing regularly with a mixed nylon/steel brush to get any dust off and then vacuuming up the dust. It is also very important that you maintain proper chemical balance.

 

[TCLGuy]

Thanks for the advice! That helps a lot.

What do you think of products like scalefree from Natural Chemistry.

Thanks!

 

[TCLGuy]

Does a robotic pool cleaner suck up that calcium that gets loose when I brush the walls? Or is it too fine?

 

[JasonLion]

A few of the robotic cleaners have extremely fine mesh bags that might catch some of the dust, but most of them do not.

Scale free is a sequestrant optimized for use with calcium. It does help prevent calcium scaling, but you need to add more regularly so it gets expensive. Balancing your levels properly is much less expensive and more effective.