Uneven coloring in new quartzite plaster

[MoebiusStreet]

Our new pool, with light blue quartzite plaster, has rather uneven coloring. There are a couple spots of a couple square inches each, where the coloring is almost white. There are also some streaks looking like drips down the wall in two places, and some more subtle streakiness on part of the floor.

Is this something that will work itself out as the plaster cures (it was filled with water one week ago)? Is it something I should get the builder to address now? Or is this unavoidable with this kind of plaster, and I should choose my battles elsewhere...

 

[HouTex]

IMO, this is unavoidable. I was told by my PB to expect uneven coloring and streaking. But some jobs are better than others. I have some of the same marks that you describe. All in all, I'm OK with my plaster job. It's not perfectly uniform, but it's acceptable.

edit: the materials from Wet Edge Technologies even warn customers to expect uneven coloring and streaking in the plaster finish.

 

[JasonLion]

Some color difference is unavoidable with quartz finishes. The color does tend to get more uniform over the first week or two. Still, a manual acid wash is sometimes called for, especially if you are seeing areas that are almost entirely white after the first week. A top notch plaster crew will generally come back after a week or two and decide if an acid wash is needed, and provide that (if needed) as part of their standard plastering service.

 

[Patrick_B]

The spots sound like they could be cream spots and that would be common. You will likely be able to reduce them with some thorough brushing. SOme streaking is normal, but I cant say for sure on yours. Brushing may help some there too. Your installer should be working with you on this as well.

 

[MoebiusStreet]

It turns out we had to do an acid wash of sorts - but they didn't need to drain the pool to do it.

The plaster guy came with a little device that fits on the end of the regular pole. It's a little disk, with a tube running back to a jug of acid sitting on pool deck. He used this to treat the problem areas. While not 100% now, it look far better - the white spots are gone.

On the other hand, that jug of acid wasn't kind to the pH balance. The water was below 7.0, so I had to leave the waterfall and bubbler running to bring it back up. It would have been nice for the guy to warn me, rather than letting me discover it hours later on my own.