Hi
I was directed here from a post I made on reddit/r/pools, so apologies to anyone who's already seen this post before.
I recently had my gunnite pool resurfaced with blue surf pebbletec. It was completed 17 days ago and is still curing, and the pool was filled on completion. The pool was filled continually with the hose placed at the bottom of the deep end, and took just over 30 hours to fill. It's been brushed daily since it was filled, and no chemicals have yet been added to the water. Recently temperatures have hovered around freezing, and the water is probably only a few degrees above freezing at this point, although I think that the curing is an exothermic process and so shouldn't depend on ambient temperatures.
There was a two week gap between the chip out of the old plaster and the application of pebble tec, and in that time there was a lot of rain that gathered in the exposed concrete at the bottom of the deep end, which then stood there for around a week or more. The water was eventually pumped out about 12 hours before the plaster was applied, and I think the concrete substrate was still damp when the pebble tec was applied.
The acid wash was done the day after the plastering was finished. It was washed very late in the day/early evening, while I was out of the house, and the crew then packed up and left without doing a handover. They started at around 5pm and sunset was at around 6:30pm, so I'm guessing they were working in either very poor light, and finished in close to darkness.
When I got back there were very prominent streaks running from the pump jets, down the side of the pool wall, and along the floor to the deepest part of the pool. It looked as though either acid or water gathered in the jets during the wash and was not washed out properly. Whichever it was then dripped out after the crew had finished and either started curing the plaster or bleached the surface.
Now that the pool is full, the streaks from the jets are visible, even on a cloudy day, from over 50ft away. On top of this there are other streaks across the entire bottom of the pool parallel to the ones from the jets, and running from the shallow end to the deep end. The other streaks are not as prominent, but they are clearly visible and the combined effect is that the finish just looks like Crud.
Additionally, the very bottom of the pool, where the standing water had been, is very mottled and is a completely different shade compared to the rest of the pool.
I've been told (by pebble tec) that 'exaggerated variations' in the finish are typical and that they'll fade during the curing process. But we're over halfway through the cure and I've brushed the pool daily since filling it, and neither the streaking nor the mottling in the deep end has changed at all. If anything the brushing has made it more obvious rather than less.
Is this is typical with pebbletec? And if not, can the streaking and the mottling easily be fixed, and if not what are my options?
We're about to go into our snow covered winter here, and I'll have to cover the pool this weekend, and so draining and re-doing the acid wash and refilling, or doing an in situ acid wash, is not an option until the spring.
I've also been advised that doing a second acid wash is likely to weaken the pebble tec surface and isn't a good idea, which makes sense to me, but I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts on that too.
Thanks in advance for your input
I was directed here from a post I made on reddit/r/pools, so apologies to anyone who's already seen this post before.
I recently had my gunnite pool resurfaced with blue surf pebbletec. It was completed 17 days ago and is still curing, and the pool was filled on completion. The pool was filled continually with the hose placed at the bottom of the deep end, and took just over 30 hours to fill. It's been brushed daily since it was filled, and no chemicals have yet been added to the water. Recently temperatures have hovered around freezing, and the water is probably only a few degrees above freezing at this point, although I think that the curing is an exothermic process and so shouldn't depend on ambient temperatures.
There was a two week gap between the chip out of the old plaster and the application of pebble tec, and in that time there was a lot of rain that gathered in the exposed concrete at the bottom of the deep end, which then stood there for around a week or more. The water was eventually pumped out about 12 hours before the plaster was applied, and I think the concrete substrate was still damp when the pebble tec was applied.
The acid wash was done the day after the plastering was finished. It was washed very late in the day/early evening, while I was out of the house, and the crew then packed up and left without doing a handover. They started at around 5pm and sunset was at around 6:30pm, so I'm guessing they were working in either very poor light, and finished in close to darkness.
When I got back there were very prominent streaks running from the pump jets, down the side of the pool wall, and along the floor to the deepest part of the pool. It looked as though either acid or water gathered in the jets during the wash and was not washed out properly. Whichever it was then dripped out after the crew had finished and either started curing the plaster or bleached the surface.
Now that the pool is full, the streaks from the jets are visible, even on a cloudy day, from over 50ft away. On top of this there are other streaks across the entire bottom of the pool parallel to the ones from the jets, and running from the shallow end to the deep end. The other streaks are not as prominent, but they are clearly visible and the combined effect is that the finish just looks like Crud.
Additionally, the very bottom of the pool, where the standing water had been, is very mottled and is a completely different shade compared to the rest of the pool.
I've been told (by pebble tec) that 'exaggerated variations' in the finish are typical and that they'll fade during the curing process. But we're over halfway through the cure and I've brushed the pool daily since filling it, and neither the streaking nor the mottling in the deep end has changed at all. If anything the brushing has made it more obvious rather than less.
Is this is typical with pebbletec? And if not, can the streaking and the mottling easily be fixed, and if not what are my options?
We're about to go into our snow covered winter here, and I'll have to cover the pool this weekend, and so draining and re-doing the acid wash and refilling, or doing an in situ acid wash, is not an option until the spring.
I've also been advised that doing a second acid wash is likely to weaken the pebble tec surface and isn't a good idea, which makes sense to me, but I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts on that too.
Thanks in advance for your input
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