Plaster in bottom of pool chipped away

[csheesley]

I have a 14x30 gunite pool with marbalite finish colored blue that is 8 years old this month. for the last two years I have started to see cracks with calcium coming from them. last fall the pool builder removed the water to acid wash the pool and we noticed that there were large areas of delamination where cracks had occurred. They informed me that it would be ok once the water was back in the pool.
we used our pool this weekend and on one of the areas a large 6"x4" piece of plaster popped off and the rest of the area collapsed and cracked. I contacted the builder and he has not been very helpful with this when I asked about warranty on workmanship.
I am looking for assistance on actually where with the 8 year old pool I stand. Does the builders insurance cover this type of thing or is this something I should except from an 8 year old pool?

Please help! Thank You

 

[Patrick_B]

Welcome to the forum, and sorry to hear this.

I hate saying it, but it's pretty unlikely to get warranty at 8 years on a plaster finish. You could try working with the PB and find out, but I wouldn't get my hopes up too high. It won't hurt to try though. Good luck on this!

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

8 years is a difficult age to have plaster problems. That is young enough that having problems like yours is not expected, but old enough that you can't really say it was the builders fault. At 8 years, proper chemical balance over the lifetime because the dominant influence on plaster condition. And while builder issues can't be ruled out, any such issues would normally have shown up well before then.

 

[csheesley]

Welcome to TFP!

8 years is a difficult age to have plaster problems. That is young enough that having problems like yours is not expected, but old enough that you can't really say it was the builders fault. At 8 years, proper chemical balance over the lifetime because the dominant influence on plaster condition. And while builder issues can't be ruled out, any such issues would normally have shown up well before then.

I have records for my pool for every month of the year for the last 8 years. Never had a problem just the small cracking until they emptied it to acid wash it. that's when we found the hallow spots. He said once water was put back into it the pressure would push the plaster back down on top of the concrete and it wouldn't break. so much for that idea.

Im not into putting it all on the builder but separation is a process and usually happens if the proper process was not followed during installation.

 

[Patrick_B]

Wow, I just don't buy that. Common sense tells me the pressure would make the water enter the crack and do damage by being between Gunite and plaster.

 

[agogley]

I had the same type of thing happen on my pool. Well, mine wasn't as bad as yours sounds. I kept logs but the pool builder said it was my poor maintenance. I had kept everything in a spreadsheet because I didn't want to keep 10 years of monthly test results. But of course, the pool is never perfect when you take it to the shop (many times because the pool people didn't test it properly). You test the pool twice a week yourself and make small adjustments, then take water sample once a month. Something might be off..and you make adjustments. The pool builder, of course, will say, well your pool readings weren't within the recommended range at all times. Of course not.

Anyways, I ultimately just sucked it up and paid to have pebbletec put in. I didn't like paying the money, but it is much nicer. But if I had it to do over again, I'd (a) paid for pebbletec and (b) bought my own test kit, made sure the readings were perfect, then taken the water into the pool supply warehouse twice a month for tests (immediately after I tested to make sure everything was perfect). Unfortunately, you are trapped because the warranties require you to have tests generated by somebody else.