Blasting limescale off my pool walls - DONE & REPORT POSTED

[Budman]

Re: Blasting limescale off my pool walls - DONE & REPORT POS

I am about to give this a go. How can I get the glass beads out of the pool without messing anything up? Can I us one of those leaf vacuums that attach to the garden hose, can I just sweep them into the floor drain then clean the filters?

I also dig up old threads. :-D
I'm adding in a bit more info than just getting the beads out of the pool.
I purchased almost all the same items to do the glass bead. I had a little better compressor with more CFM so I didn't have to purchase that.
I got the 80 grit media.
Main thing is to keep the media dry. A filter/dryer on the hose will help.
I use a filter pack exactly like this one.
http://www.poolbargains.com/pool-pack-100.php
It's a bit of a pain since you have to empty the filter quite a bit if you use a lot of beads.
I then spread the beads out and let them dry and reuse them.
Initial cost is quite expensive but I've done some of my neighbor's pools and it's all paid for itself.
I also have the equipment now to do it whenever I want.
We have hard water in Arizona and we all get the white line. Some tile worse than others.

 

[coryp]

Re: Blasting limescale off my pool walls - DONE & REPORT POS

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_8520_8520
http://www.universalminerals.com/WE_CMS/documents/pdfs/adMaxxStripMedia12.pdf

i think lately, most pros use wet blasting with Kieserite... while i dont' see any thing that stated it can be ingested, they seem to tout it as safe and not toxic, and that you can swim right after cleaning... the part about not having to worry about the glass killing your pump would be enough for me...

msds says it's pretty harmless....

http://www.universalminerals.com/WE_CMS/documents/pdfs/MSDS Maxxstrip.pdf

 

[AZHawkeye]

Thanks for the write up on this. It doesn't seem like there's a lot of DIYers that own pools and want to take a project like this on. They'd rather pay someone $400-800, but that's not for me. I am thinking of doing the same thing - buying the soda blaster tho. I can spend about $150 on the equipment and have to use again. I have also heard of using salt as the blast media.

 

[Chuckiechan]

I'm thinking of doing this soon.

How wide of a "target" can the nozzle give you and still do the job?

I'm glad to see it's all available at Harbor Freight, glass beads included.

Also, I've heard of people diluting muriatic acid in a spray bottle and slowly cleaning up the scale.

Won't that affect the plaster, too?

EDIT, excluding the compressor how much did that blast rig cost you?

 

[cpropes2005]

I know this is a really old thread but can you repost the pictures? For some reason they arent showing up for me and I am interested in trying this but would like to know the details on the equipment you guys used.

 

[southernazpool]

Hi guys. I live in AZ with a salt pool and have battles this same issue for years. Tried many solutions. The one i settled on was using a finishing sanding disc attached to a drill. https://www.amazon.com/3M-9415-Medium-Finishing-Sander-9415NA/dp/B00004Z4DJ i lean over the edge and have to apply pressure, but it gets its off. No sanding media or compressor etc. It is a lot of work and can be tough on arms etc if doing a lot at once, but cost effective and works well. Cheers