Does “acid bath” cause pool to be resurfaced sooner?

[Midnightblue]

We had our pool build finished about 6 weeks ago and have Stonescapes Modnight Blue. They did an acid wash but didn’t brush anything while doing it. I brushed 3+ times a day for the first 4 weeks and the color isn’t consistent. There are several large spots where the blue plaster is still really visible while the rest of the pool you can only see the dark stones.
The pool builder recommended either draining and redoing the acid wash or doing an “acid bath” for 5 days and scrubbing daily. Any long term effects to the acid bath (ie. the finish not lasting 15 years or so?)

What’s the best option?

Thanks

 

[ajw22]

Every time you bathe the plaster in acid you remove a thin layer of it and open the pores. It thins out and weakens the plaster. How many years it is taking off the plaster life is hard to say. But it is not helping.

Scrubbing daily, hourly or every minute will make NO difference to the look of the plaster. At this point the PB is just trying to placate you and have you feel they tried something. The color is in the surface pf the plaster. No brushing will change that. Giving it another acid bath and unpeeling a layer of plaster off may uncover a different color or it may not.

Accept what you have as the character of the pool is your best option.

 

[Midnightblue]

Every time you bathe the plaster in acid you remove a thin layer of it and open the pores. It thins out and weakens the plaster. How many years it is taking off the plaster life is hard to say. But it is not helping.

Scrubbing daily, hourly or every minute will make NO difference to the look of the plaster. At this point the PB is just trying to placate you and have you feel they tried something. The color is in the surface pf the plaster. No brushing will change that. Giving it another acid bath and unpeeling a layer of plaster off may uncover a different color or it may not.

Accept what you have as the character of the pool is your best option.

Thanks AJW. Would draining the pool and having them do an acid wash (the right way) on just those spots help at all? It cost about $100 for us to fill up the pool with city water.

Here’s are some pics of the spots that annoy me.

 

[ajw22]

Thanks AJW. Would draining the pool and having them do an acid wash (the right way) on just those spots help at all? It cost about $100 for us to fill up the pool with city water.

An acid wash will remove a layer of plaster. An acid wash done wrong can weaken or damage the plaster.

As I said earlier, sanding the surface will remove a layer of palster without the bad effects of acid.

 

[Midnightblue]

An acid wash will remove a layer of plaster. An acid wash done wrong can weaken or damage the plaster.

As I said earlier, sanding the surface will remove a layer of palster without the bad effects of acid.

Sorry. Missed the point about sanding. Can you explain how I can do that to just those area? Thanks

 

[ajw22]

Sorry. Missed the point about sanding. Can you explain how I can do that to just those area? Thanks

My sorry. I confused your thread with another similar one where I spoke about sanding. I now see I didn’t in your thread.

Is your finish a pebble finish or smooth finish?

 

[Midnightblue]

My sorry. I confused your thread with another similar one where I spoke about sanding. I now see I didn’t in your thread.

Is your finish a pebble finish or smooth finish?

No worries. Thanks for all your help so far. Ours is a Stonescape (mini pebble).

 

[ajw22]

Unfortunately you can’t sand a pebble finish. You are stuck with what you have.

 

[Midnightblue]

Unfortunately you can’t sand a pebble finish. You are stuck with what you have.

Thanks. Pool builder just came by today and said they could put a pvc pipe down to the bottom, add the acid, and brush it at the same time (basically a spot treatment). But now I’m trying to decide if that’s a good idea or just let it be. Any thoughts?

 

[ajw22]

I would let it be.

You are chasing after cosmetic issues that are unlikely to ever get perfect and risking lossining the pebbles.

 

[Kathleen2252]

Unfortunately you can’t sand a pebble finish. You are stuck with what you have.

Please clarify
Our PB sanded our pebblesheen with an electric sander twice for rough finish
It helped a great deal.

 

[KCNM]

Please clarify
Our PB sanded our pebblesheen with an electric sander twice for rough finish
It helped a great deal.

That probably helped specifically because it was either grinding down or removing the surface pebbles that were causing the roughness.

With the PebbleSheen surface, the way it was explained by my applicator, is that the pebbles are much sparser than you would expect by seeing the surface. That's because what they do is put on a layer of plaster, then trowel it down to level the pebbles at that layer, then do it again with more plaster. The net effect is that, right on the surface, you have a high density of the pebbles hopefully aligned to a smooth surface.

So if you sand away those pebbles, there's not really more underneath them. I mean, there are more pebbles in the plaster, but not nearly at the density that is present on the surface due to the troweling and layering.

 

[Kathleen2252]

Thanks for the explanation.