Renno Troubles

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T

trivetman

Bronze Supporter
Jul 14, 2017
818
Jenkintown, PA
Pool Size
24000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
It's pool facelift week and I've run into a couple of troubles.

1) The coping they put in is almost 2" above the deck in a couple places, one being right in the shallow end where the foot traffic is. It's an old deck that we didn't replace as part of this job and it is uneven. They told me the coping wouldn't exactly follow the deck, which made sense. But, the level of un-even now is pretty extreme. The bottom of the coping is over a half inch above the top of the deck. I don't even know how the expansion joint can possibly be caulked. The old coping (see pics - cement coping is the old. travertine is the new) was clearly a lot lower and more even with the deck. The project manager is trying to nicely say...not his problem. I don't know if the problem was they didn't demo enough of the old mortar, or put too much mortar in the new job, but I can't see how they can expect I'd be OK with it this out of whack. Not sure I have any leverage to make this work for me.

2) Plaster prep and bond coat happened this morning. I don't know how much time to expect they spend on checking for delamination but it went pretty quick. They were in and out in two hours, including applying the bond coat. Also, I'm seeing what looks like chunks of debris in the shallow end which weren't cleaned up and they just bond coated over? Am I right to be concerned?

Any input/reactions are appreciated
 

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Certainly not how you hope for a project to end-up. Sorry to see and hear of your troubles. To me, they need to pull that decking (unless they can get them to match somehow by working the coping side). If they have any integrity in that company at all, they need to make that right for you. I hope they do so. As for the plaster, I'm not sure anything can be done about that unless they re-do the plaster altogether. Some of our plaster experts would know more about that, but it's obviously an application issue. I hope you can maintain communication with your builder to keep things civil and hopefully convince them to make things right for you. Bump this thread as much as you need to for visibility and responses.
 
Thanks Tex -
Unfortunately the decking issue will probably fall in my lap. The decking isn’t part of the renno - they’re matching new coping to an old deck and the levels clearly aren’t coming together. Right now I am thinking I will probably have to have the deck raised an inch or two in that spot (mudjacking i think is the term). I will also probably look into an overlay as the concrete deck is an exposed aggregate which hurts to walk on.

I just don’t understand how the new coping is at such a higher level than the old - only in that one spot.

There is hope for the plaster job to come out ok. The plaster hasn’t yet been applied. What those pics are is the bond coat. The crew was sloppy and didn’t fully clean the pool of debris before applying. The PB is actually being somewhat receptive on this one (it took some work to get him there) and it sounds like the bond coat will be redone.
 
The big question here, is the coping level and rue? I would take a longer level say a 4 foot, and run it along the coping, to see if it's at least true, meaning that the space between the coping and the bottom of the level stays the same. I would expect the coping to be level and true, because the water in the pool will be, and it would look really odd, if the distance between the coping and pool water varies.
 
The coping does seem level with the waterline. Maybe there was an unavoidable problem with the deck. Just wish they had given some warning about how off it could be - I would have had the deck work in place beforehand.

Anyone have experience with mudjacking/leveling cement slabs?

As for the plaster - is redoing the bond coat as simple as having them scrape up the debris and reapplying the bond surface?
 
Looks like the problem is with the old deck sinking. They could have done a better job with the transition but there was a step up to the old coping in your picture.

I'd point out the debris under the bond coat but, depending on the size of the particles, the plaster depth may cover it up completely.
 
So we did get them to redo the bond coat. The deck coping issue - guess we gotta fix the deck. The debris wasn’t the only problem with the bond coat. there was delamination of the old plaster they didn’t get out on the first try. Plaster went on yesterday and for the most part looks good.

I do have one concern on the plaster. We’re seeing a few small cracks on the stairs around where some trim tiles were placed. If they never get any bigger - no big deal. But I’m hoping these aren’t a sign of bigger cracks to come. Heres a pic of the biggest crack. I think the pic makes it look bigger than it is. The trim tile is only 1” square. I can’t tell how deep the crack is. Not sure if I should bring this up to PB or what they could do about it if the cracks are likely to grow.

0644B153-8B16-4B92-BCC0-0D003532031F.jpeg
 

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Thanks Kim. That was my plan as well. I just wanted to see if any of the experts here thought this little crack probably would turn into something bad.
 
You should not have cracks that visible. It may be an extreme form of craze cracks or something more severe.

What was the air temperature during the plastering?

From Diagnosing Pool Plaster Problems from @onBalance

Craze Cracks – Crazing is an excessive amount of surface shrinkage cracking which can result from an overly-wet plaster mix, from excessive calcium chloride set accelerator added to the mix, from the adding of excessive water while troweling, or from excessive drying of the plaster before the pool is filled. Crazing often leads to other problems including calcium nodules, staining, and provide a home to black algae. Excessive crazing may require replastering.
 
The plaster company was pretty responsive and said they’ll take care of it. Not yet sure what that means but its a step in the right direction
 
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