Plaster/Pebble Tec Finish- is this normal?

[MamaHoran]

Hello! I am a first time pool owner and just had my pool “finished”. Once it was full, we noticed what appears to be gouges in the bottom of the pool. These appear to be from the spikes they used to install the plaster. We contacted our builder and they brought their sub contractor out here. After a long battle, we finally got them to agree to drain the pool so we could see what was going on. The first 2 pictures show the scrapes and the waviness, and the 3rd one that shows what it looks like filled. The gouges are very large and some are deep (my big toe can fit into some of the “gouges” seen). I asked for a full chip-put and repair. They would not agree, they only agreed to a chip out of my sun deck (which had a different set of issues with the plumbing, gunite, and plaster). I’m not sure exactly what they did to this area of the pool, aside from another acid wash a “patch” to the area. That did not work and after the pool was refilled, the scrapes are still seen and felt. Our PB has stated that this is their final fix, which I pushed back and said this isn’t acceptable. We have a meeting with Pebble Tec on 3/22. I just feel defeated, after spending $111,815 on a pool and it is an eye sore. I would love any input or similar experiences, is this acceptable finish quality? I feel like I’m running up against a brick wall with this. The scratches are still there, and can be seen at night, but felt with your foot . I only have a video of the pool since it has been refilled, so I screen shot 2 areas of concern (poor picture quality, I will go and grab some more this evening). The circled area, you can still see some of the scratches, and the last picture you can clearly see the waviness of the product. Half of my pool plaster looks great, the other half looks like it was done by a completely different crew. Waviness, scrapes, and gouges. Our OB told us that since this can only be seen at night, this isn’t really a concern.

 

[MamaHoran]

Here is the issue with my sundeck, for those that are wondering. My bubblers were sitting on “mounds”. My sundeck was supposed to be 6ft in length, they dug it to 5ft. Even though we brought the issue up to my builder on day one of our 3 day dig, it was not addressed by our PB u til after gunite was done. The bubblers were centered for a 6ft deck, and it looked horrible so we had them bust up the gunite and center the bubblers on the deck. They didn’t fill the holes with fine or concrete, they said that the plaster company would do this when they came plaster the pool. They filled the holes with something- concrete, or whatever type of compound they use to fill the holes with before plaster, and that sat slightly higher than my gunite. I was hopeful this would have been leveled out during plaster, but that was not the case. After they did a chip-out in the sundeck, they realized that the plumbing for the bubblers was too high, so they had to bust up my sundeck again and re-do the plumbing for the 3rd time. The areas that were mounds are now slightly concave but it is better than the first time.

 

[HermanTX]

Do you still owe the PB any money? If so, like 10%, then you have leverage.

 

[MamaHoran]

Do you still owe the PB any money? If so, like 10%, then you have leverage.

Paid in full 100% and not a day late. I received and signed a docusign before they plastered. It had to be paid 3 days prior to plaster. If it was late, the paper said they could put a lien on my home. So, we paid it!

 

[HermanTX]

Our PB has stated that this is their final fix, which I pushed back and said this isn’t acceptable. We have a meeting with Pebble Tec on 3/22.

Will this be a physical meeting at your house or on a phone? It appears your only hope is that the rep supports your arguments. It appears more cosmetic and It probably does not affect the performance which is what the rep will look at for warranty purposes. Let us know what the outcome is after the meeting. It appears the PB will not budge unless the rep indicates otherwise. The PB is probably trying to reduce his losses from redoing the sun deck twice.

 

[MamaHoran]

Will this be a physical meeting at your house or on a phone? It appears your only hope is that the rep supports your arguments. It appears more cosmetic and It probably does not affect the performance which is what the rep will look at for warranty purposes. Let us know what the outcome is after the meeting. It appears the PB will not budge unless the rep indicates otherwise. The PB is probably trying to reduce his losses from redoing the sun deck twice.

This will be a physical meeting at my house. I’m worried that they will side with PB, who appears to have a good relationship with them.

I don’t think they lose anything- I feel like I actually paid a ton more than I should have for “tight/limited access”. They got me really good on that one! To the tune of $19,000, and an added $3k more for the cost of rising prices for gas, materials, etc. PB owns the excavation and grading company, they made a good chunk off of me!

 

[AQUA~HOLICS]

From the first set of pictures it appears to be an application imperfection on the final trawl and not a product deficiency.
The second set of pictures is very common when the plumber has not been properly advised of what the final water level is to be prior to the bubblers being set before Shotcrete.

 

[MamaHoran]

From the first set of pictures it appears to be an application imperfection on the final trawl and not a product deficiency.
The second set of pictures is very common when the plumber has not been properly advised of what the final water level is to be prior to the bubblers being set before Shotcrete.

would you say that the scrapes from the installers shoes should be accepted as an “application imperfection”?

 

[AQUA~HOLICS]

Accepting the finished product is up to you, not seeing it in person makes it a hard call to make.
All plaster finishes will have imperfections and that must be weighed against the type of repair needed to obtain the finished look that’s acceptable.

 

[MamaHoran]

Accepting the finished product is up to you, not seeing it in person makes it a hard call to make.
All plaster finishes will have imperfections and that must be weighed against the type of repair needed to obtain the finished look that’s acceptable.

That is what I am finding out. I’m learning that the more I push to get it to what I feel is acceptable, is only causing further issues. I am interested in seeing what they say when the come out.

 

[kimkats]

I am SO sorry you are dealing with this. I understand why you are upset for sure!

Now is the hard part. Remove all emotion from this problem. VERY hard to do but oh so necessary. Get EVERYTHING in writing moving forward. Write notes of all names, dates, times, ect of talks about this. Write a follow up email such as "On (date), we (names) talked about (issue) and decided (solution)."

 

[MamaHoran]

I am SO sorry you are dealing with this. I understand why you are upset for sure!

Now is the hard part. Remove all emotion from this problem. VERY hard to do but oh so necessary. Get EVERYTHING in writing moving forward. Write notes of all names, dates, times, ect of talks about this. Write a follow up email such as "On (date), we (names) talked about (issue) and decided (solution)."

Oh yes, I have a string of documentation with pictures, emails, texts, and documented calls. I have had my husband editing most of my notes, so he takes the emotion out of it. Every step of the process we have had some type of re-work done, from the moment the submitted my project plans to my city for approval.

My sundeck will likely have to be chipped-out and done at a minimum. I noticed orange pebbles in the new plaster, and I chose PebbleSheen Aqua Blue. Which is described as “a combination of white, gold, gray and dark brown pebbles creates a light to medium blue water color”. There is zero orange in that description, and zero orange in the plaster that was done the first time. The new plaster (that was completely chipped out) is significantly thicker than the original, so there is a large lip/drop that can be felt where it transitions to the original plaster. I also noticed that there is a foreign substance in my grout around my tile, it looks like gunite or concrete mixed in with the white grout, and this is seen in several areas the light the pool. When they chipped out my sundeck, they also chipped up my tile. I asked that they repair the tile that was chipped, it looks “patchy”.

My neighbor built a pool at the same time we did, different builders and we shared the same access. Their build was very different than mine, they started after mine and finished before. Their PB was out here every step of the way to do QC and check on their sub-contractors. I went with my builder because they advertise in-house crews and told us in the sales pitch that they only sub-contract out the gunite. That was very far from the truth, I work from home and know what the PB sub-contracted out- electrical, plumbing, gunite, deck crew, and plaster.

 

[kimkats]

OH I LOVE your water line tile! That is SO pretty!!

I do have to ask the installers where their pride of work done was on the day they did your work................I can see why you are so upset