product for patching before painting with epoxy?

[nickbwilson]

I am preparing to paint the inside of my pool with an epoxy based paint. I have just finished scraping all the loose/bad plaster from the surface of my pool and there are allot of large (up to 1.5 foot square) areas which need to be patched. All together we removed about two car washing sized buckets of plaster from the pool. I used something called "patch-it", made by "Leslie's pool supplies", which is designed for above and under water patching to patch some of the first flaky spots I found. The patch-it dries very quickly, and I'm concerned about being able to apply it to such large areas before it starts to set. Just to give you an idea, it starts to harden as soon as it is mixed and is unusable within about 2-4 minutes, depending on how wet you mix it.
What I'm wondering is, should I just fill the scraped out areas in the pool with regular pool plaster before I paint? I'm assuming standard pool plaster would set less quickly. This seems to be a safe and logical thing to do, but some advice from someone with more experience would make me feel allot better.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Nick

 

[PoolGuyNJ]

Its mostly hydraulic leak stop style cement. Make small batches. Use a tiny bit more water to thin it a little and it won't dry quite so quickly for a longer working time. It is a nuisance. Brush on an even thinner coat as a bond coat first. It will crack. Fill as needed.

Sometimes an epoxy fill is a reasonable option. Check Olympic/Kelly Coatings for Poxofil. Its sort of like working with spackle Holds epoxy primer well, which your surface will need before the finish coat. Just takes time to cure.

I don't envy the type of job you are doing. Been there, Done that... It would take a lot of money for me to do that again.

 

[nickbwilson]

PoolguyNJ,

Thank you for the response. I have patched a few spots with a mixture of Portland cement (they grey kind), silica sand, water and acrylic bonding agent. This seems to be the formula for pool plaster, based on my internet research. I am going to wait a day or two and then try to chip some of it out, to see how well it holds. Have you ever done this? Could you recommend a good ratio of cement, sand, bonding agent and water?

Nick

 

[bp460]

I do not have any experience with hydraulic cement. I have used a lot of epoxy and can provide
some insight if you decide to use it. Poxofil is a good product, but you have to mix up a whole
gallon at a time. This is a nightmare if you are working alone! I prefer to use a 100% solids
two-part epoxy in which you mix equal parts of the A and B components. I mix up an amount
that I can apply in about 30 minutes.

I have been using this product and purchase it directly from the manufacturer:
http://www.abatron.com/buildingandresto ... ld551.html

Epoxies are expensive, but Abatron is the cheapest I have found, yet gives me excellent results
and is my favorite to work with.

Good luck,

Brad