Somewhat rough Wet Edge Primera Stone finish

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Bryan72880

Member
Jul 25, 2020
17
Yardley, PA
Hi everyone,

After a year under construction, we FINALLY had our pool plastered (Wet Edge Primera Stone Grigio Treasure) and filled last week. Overall it looks great.... BUT.... the finish is definitely not as smooth as I had anticipated. There are parts of the pool where the finish is as smooth as a baby's bottom, but those spots are few and far between and most of the pool feels somewhat rough - almost as if the acid wash removed too much of the plaster and you can now feel the texture of the polished aggregate. It's kind of hard to describe. In my mind, it feels like all of the polished aggregate is on the same plane but the plaster parts in between are depressed or cupped-in slightly which makes it feel "not smooth" to the touch.

Also, we have some prickly little spots (like pin heads) in some areas localized areas. You can knock them off with your finger nail. In the spa (9'x8') there is one corner that is plagued with these little pin heads for about 1' out from each corner above the seat. Noticed them along some walls in localized areas in the main pool as well - none that I can detect on any of the floor or seat/step areas (yet). We've informed the PB of these prickly spots and they will be communicating to the plaster applicator for next steps.

Can anyone speak to the smoothness of a Primera Stone finish and if the feel I'm describing is normal? Anyone happen to have a Primera Stone pool in the SE Pennsylvania / Central Jersey area that I could visit for comparison? We spent a boatload on this finish and I had expectations of silky smoothness... and it's not quite lived up to that.

Our fill water was pretty good on the water balance - the only thing that was a bit low was the Calcium Hardness which measured 150ppm. This was municipal water. As soon as the pool was filled, we immediately raised the hardness to 270ppm per the Wet Edge Startup Guide (they want > 250ppm). We have kept pH and ALK within range by adjusting twice daily. It's taking a lot of Muriatic Acid to keep knocking the pH down but we are keeping a close eye on it and when it creeps up we hit it right away to get it back down. Readings tonight were pH=7.4, ALK=90, Hardness = 260, Free Chlorine = 1.5ppm. This is all per the Wet Edge Startup Guide for day 7.

Thanks very much for any help anyone can provide!

Best,
Bryan
 
Bryan72880 said:
Can anyone speak to the smoothness of a Primera Stone finish and if the feel I'm describing is normal?
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I had Primera Stone applied over 3 yrs ago. My smoothness is opposite of what you describe. I have maybe 2 or 3 rough areas. Mainly on a vertical wall. They are no larger than 6 inches diameter. I found these months after it was done and felt it was just minor defect due to manual polishing of the finish. On the second day they had a crew of 3-4 with hydraulic sanders hand polishing it. I think you should call your PB to come back out and feel the finish that you describe. With handcrafted finish there will always be some imperfections but yours seem to be extreme.
 
Thanks Herman. PB came out this morning and agrees that something is definitely wrong with the feel of the surface. They are contacting the local Wet Edge rep as well as the applicator for next steps. We are only 7-days into the 28-day curing period so my guess is that nothing will happen until after that period (but that's just a guess).

We had a crew of 5 with hydraulic sanders that took an entire day to polish the finish on day 3. It seems that the polishing was not successful - wrong pads, wrong technique? Not sure. They acid washed the pool at the very end of the polishing and the acid was left on the surface for maybe a minute or two or three.... maybe that was too long. I'm brand new to all of this so I really don't know.

I'll keep everyone posted on the outcome.
 
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Bryan72880 said:
Thanks Herman. PB came out this morning and agrees that something is definitely wrong with the feel of the surface. They are contacting the local Wet Edge rep as well as the applicator for next steps. We are only 7-days into the 28-day curing period so my guess is that nothing will happen until after that period (but that's just a guess).

We had a crew of 5 with hydraulic sanders that took an entire day to polish the finish on day 3. It seems that the polishing was not successful - wrong pads, wrong technique? Not sure. They acid washed the pool at the very end of the polishing and the acid was left on the surface for maybe a minute or two or three.... maybe that was too long. I'm brand new to all of this so I really don't know.

I'll keep everyone posted on the outcome.
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How did it turn out? I am interested in primera stone Grigio treasure? Would love to see pics :)
 
I believe I’m getting closer to figuring out what went wrong here. I’m hoping someone can weigh in here on the correct order of operations for Primera Stone application.

The plaster was applied on Saturday. The pool sat all day Sunday for the plaster to harden up. On Monday the pool was polished. This is where things went off the rails I believe…

The polishing crew acid washed the pool AFTER polishing it. Everything that I’m able to get my hands on online seems to indicate the proper process for a polished finish is to acid wash BEFORE polishing to remove some creme and expose some aggregate, then polish, then wash down with a pressure washer, then fill. Nowhere have I found any documentation that suggests acid washing as the last step before the fill when doing a new polished finish.

I’m beginning to believe that the acid washing burned away a lot of the polished plaster between the aggregate creating the rough surface that we now have.

Is anyone able to weigh in with experience from doing Hydrazzo or Primera Stone, and the correct order of operations?

Thanks!!
 
Bryan72880 said:
Is anyone able to weigh in with experience from doing Hydrazzo or Primera Stone, and the correct order of operations?
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I had Primera Stone applied in March 2018. I went back and looked at photos. On day 1 they did the plaster. On day 2, in the morning they did an acid wash and sprayed down the walls, floor, etc. Directly after that, they started the polishing with hydraulic sanders. At the completion of polishing, we started to fill the pool. All was completed on day 2 and filling started in early evening.

You may want to contact Wet Edge directly and enquiry to them regarding the process. Also, you can verify that your applicator was an authorized installer of Wet Edge products.
 
Hi Herman,

Our applicator is certified by Wet Edge and is listed on Wet Edge's website as one of their authorized applicators. I'm refraining from naming them at this time. We actually just received our Wet Edge warranty registration confirmation yesterday.

I have time lapse video of our entire polishing process, and I was home watching it for almost the entire day. The acid washing was literally the LAST step that the crew did. The big red containers with the skull & crossbones and the watering cans came out of the trailers at about 8:00pm when they were wrapping up polishing. They used A LOT of acid and definitely were not quick to wash it down from the walls.

I found online the application process for Hydrazzo - which I'd think should be the same for Primera Stone since they are both polished finishes. See attached. Hydrazzo details very specific acid washing instructions that happen BEFORE polishing.

You can imagine how infuriating this is :mad:
 

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Bryan72880 said:
Hi Herman,

Our applicator is certified by Wet Edge and is listed on Wet Edge's website as one of their authorized applicators. I'm refraining from naming them at this time. We actually just received our Wet Edge warranty registration confirmation yesterday.

I have time lapse video of our entire polishing process, and I was home watching it for almost the entire day. The acid washing was literally the LAST step that the crew did. The big red containers with the skull & crossbones and the watering cans came out of the trailers at about 8:00pm when they were wrapping up polishing. They used A LOT of acid and definitely were not quick to wash it down from the walls.

I found online the application process for Hydrazzo - which I'd think should be the same for Primera Stone since they are both polished finishes. See attached. Hydrazzo details very specific acid washing instructions that happen BEFORE polishing.

You can imagine how infuriating this is :mad:
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I would agree with your assessment. We did consider Hydrazzo and only selected the Wet Edge product because we felt the applicator was more professional. I considered them as equal products for smooth plaster so the company who was more professional became the key deciding factor. Also, Hydrazzo was slightly less expensive but as indicated above, the applicator for Wet Edge had better reviews.
 
As an update to this post, I've attached pictures of our Primera Stone finish after 30-days. Everyone feel free to weigh in with your comments and don't hold back. We are not pleased at all with how mottled and "streaky" the finish appears (not to mention it's roughness due to the polishing missteps as noted above). The trowel or polish lines are very clearly visible in addition to other dark/light spots everywhere. This was the most expensive finish we could have picked and just looks lousy.

Do we have any hope of salvaging this finish by a re-polish, or does this look like it was just done completely wrong which has left us with quite an ugly finish.
 

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Bryan72880 said:
As an update to this post, I've attached pictures of our Primera Stone finish after 30-days. Everyone feel free to weigh in with your comments and don't hold back. We are not pleased at all with how mottled and "streaky" the finish appears (not to mention it's roughness due to the polishing missteps as noted above). The trowel or polish lines are very clearly visible in addition to other dark/light spots everywhere. This was the most expensive finish we could have picked and just looks lousy.

Do we have any hope of salvaging this finish by a re-polish, or does this look like it was just done completely wrong which has left us with quite an ugly finish.
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Man that looks very bad in my opinion. I have the Primera Stone Saphire Treasure and mine looks nothing like that. If I didn’t know what it was I would have thought that was quartz with all that mottling. My PB would be getting an earful.
 
Whatever happened? Our Primera stone is getting polished tomorrow and reading through posts for any gotchas I can find 😅
 
conradvaml said:
Whatever happened? Our Primera stone is getting polished tomorrow and reading through posts for any gotchas I can find 😅
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The thing that ruined our finish was them doing the acid wash LAST. Make sure that they are NOT going to acid wash the pool after they complete the polishing. If they are, the only way to acid wash AFTER polishing is with extremely diluted acid that is washed off with water immediately. They also should be putting sodium bicarb in the deep end where the acid would pool which neutralizes it.

The typical procedure for polishing day would be; cover everything, acid wash first (which is optional) & rinse, then polish, then rinse thoroughly / lightly power wash, pump/vaccum out all waste water, install fittings (drain covers, etc.), then fill. You'll want to make sure to balance your water calcium immediately during the fill process if it's < 250ppm, otherwise the water will start eating the plaster looking for calcium. Are you using your hose to fill the pool, or are you having water delivered?
 
I was genuinely interested if y’all were able to make any progress in your pool finish, or had to live with it?

We are doing the Orenda startup, which is supposed to calcium balance the water prior to it getting in the pool, for minimal plaster dust / loss.
 
conradvaml said:
I was genuinely interested if y’all were able to make any progress in your pool finish, or had to live with it?

We are doing the Orenda startup, which is supposed to calcium balance the water prior to it getting in the pool, for minimal plaster dust / loss.
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Oh fantastic!! Orenda startup is great. Sorry, I misinterpreted what you were asking. Yes, our pool will be drained and re-polished in the spring (located in PA) once we reopen the pool. Wet Edge inspected the pool and advised the applicator that it needs a re-polish to remove the polishing marks and smooth the surface that was roughened by the improper acid wash.
 
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