Recent content by MAPR-Austin

Not the worst I have seen, but the exposure does look uneven. I would ask them to try acid on an area with the pool full. Use a pvc pipe, put one end on the floor of the pool on one of those bigger whitish spots. Pour acid in the other end and it will sink to the floor as it is heavier than...

Looks like the plaster is ready to be redone, it has deteriorated to the point where the shell is visible. The cracks are structural and probably related to the pool shifting. Likely this caused the skimmer to pull away from the shell a bit as well causing a leak. If you replace the whole...

Plaster +20% or so

The tech misspoke for sure, he meant plaster. Common mistake in my experience. Post some pictures of your pool and the interior finish and we can advise you a bit. The compression staples coupled with epoxy injection is your best bet if there are any cracks in the shell. But if the pool is...

I've seen pools that are done with pebble on the sunshelf and/or steps, with a complimentary smoother finish on the rest of the pool. Pebble looks amazing, but it is rough and will tear up feet even just from swimming around, let alone any kind of playing. Marcite/marble dust/plaster or even...

Yep. 1) The pebble finish should be thicker than that. 2) the bond coat clearly failed in at least that spot, I don't even see any bond coat visible so it didn't stick to the old surface.

Was the old surface a white base with blue specks? In one of the pictures you posted it looks like you can see the old surface showing through.

Unless you have a lot of ground movement you should be fine if the travertine is just set on a sand bed or something like that. Shotcrete done right should be good as long as you put in rebar. I would still probably do a keyway.

I would epoxy in some rebar dowels, cut/chip a keyway on the floor and walls, and form/pour the step. That will be the easiest and guarantee the correct width and level-ness of the step. You might end up with a cold joint but having the new pour locked in with rebar and keyways will give you...

If you are keeping things square, they could form and pour the sunshelf and steps with concrete. Vibrate it correctly and it will be very strong. I would not do it using cement block. Wherever the new concrete and old meet I like to cut in a keyway a couple of inches deep. Make sure they use...

Eagerly awaiting pictures. In my experience the shell is typically 'water tight' and the plaster/tile surface is the attempt at making it 'water proof'. If you are losing 2" a day it is not a matter of just the missing grout, it is a matter of something going on with the shell underneath...

Pictures will help a lot. Are there any visible cracks in the grout or tile? What does the equipment room look like? Are the pipes for the pool copper or PVC (Plastic)? Are the skimmers cracked inside at all? Any big cracks in the decking, or obvious areas of water leakage from outside...

It's not the worst I've seen. Some of the unevenness will go away with a couple seasons of use. If the cracks haven't gone away by now they would concern me, but they don't look like something that is a catastrophic failure, mostly aesthetic. The sunshelf material was probably either put on...

It is standard prep to chip out below the tile line and around fittings/lights. He isn't saying he will chip up the tile bed, he is saying he will chip out the plaster that sits below the tile so that the new plaster finishes flush with the tile instead of sitting proud of it. Removing the...

We use 40k hydro-blasting instead of chipping. For our standard prep we blast the entire surface and that removes about 1/4-3/8" of material. We also do 100% removal to the pool shell. What I have noticed is that the plaster gets exponentially harder to remove after that initial layer comes...