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1. I have my favorite, but there's not enough difference between them to be of any material concern. Use whatever is available. 2. In some cases yes, but if you're concerned about bonding to old concrete you're much better off painting the bonding agent onto the old concrete than mixing it...

I would normally say use whatever looks best and you're comfortable with, but in this case I think I'd recommend something easier to work with. The 15 min initial set time is going to make things very difficult, without offering any significant advantage. It's going to be very difficult to...

Doesn't freeze often enough or deeply enough to be an issue. But adobe walls and no attic, which is why the pipes are under the slab beneath the house. Adding water to the rain collection system is an interesting idea that hadn't occurred to me. Might need to think on that some more.

Yeah, so many ways to do it I'm struggling to pick one! I'd love softened water for the whole house to reduce scale and help appliances last longer. I just don't want to kill my garden with salt in the process. Installing a bypass for the garden would be a huge undertaking, lots of trenching...

Yeah, my CH goes up about 200-250 ppm/year. Looking into water softeners, but I don't have any way to keep my garden water separated from a whole house water softener (70's home with under slab water lines, and the garden and pool share the same water line running from the house to the back...

Out of curiosity I took a sample to Leslie's today to compare their "AccuBlue" machine to my own tests using the TF-100 (plus a digital pH meter). Collected a large sample and split it in half, tested half myself, filled a sample bottle with the other half and took it to the Leslie's down the...

Ha! Yeah, it's just a constant struggle to keep the pH and TA low with this much CH. Wondering how much I need to drop the CH to make it more manageable, and how much more it will matter if I'm switching to SWG. Currently is just causes a bit of minor scaling, which I don't care about too...

Yep. Ideally at least 3 core samples tested at 28-days post placement, using ASTM C1604 procedures for sample collection, preparation, and testing.

I considered installing a SWG during my big pool remodel a couple years ago, but couldn't quite fit it in the budget. I've been using the TFP method to maintain my pool with great success since the remodel, but adding liquid chlorine every other day is a slight hassle for my family when I'm...

Rebound is the stuff that bounces off during spraying and doesn't stick. Slightly different from material carved off during shaping, but they're equally bad, and yes should be removed to the extent that it's practical. The rebound under the rebar on the floor is very difficult to remove, but...

It's called laitance, and can have several causes, but it's most commonly caused by working excess water into the surface during floating / troweling. Could also have been caused by getting salt water on it before it had cured sufficiently. Salt water shouldn't have a significantly detrimental...

I would think they'd want to supervise or at least observe to make sure their recommendations were followed and limit their liability. I'm a geotech engineer and I insist on supervising or observing any jobs where I've done the design, though I don't work on pools or small civil jobs so it may...

If you google "pool plaster Houston" you should be able to find a few. Looks like there's a Superior Pool Products in Houston too, they sell supplies to pool plastering companies and pool builders. They're not open to the general public, but I bet if you call they'd be happy to give you a few...

I removed the kool deck from the decking around our pool last year as part of the remodel and exposed the concrete underneath. When it's 104-110 F outside like it is now, the concrete gets extremely hot and can definitely burn feet. I've been to places locally with travertine coping/decking...

Hard to say looking at the tables alone, but that's definitely a strong possibility. Water pressure and equivalent fluid pressure of soil are both depth dependent.

First, very cool project, I just read through everything and will be following along. The difference in thickness is pretty common, though indicates a less than stellar plaster job. Plastering isn't as delicate many people think, and the coat doesn't need to be super even. The reason it's...

The 60 PCF per ft of depth equivalent fluid pressure is a pretty standard value used for "highly expansive soils". For simply "expansive soils" a value of 45 PCF is pretty standard. Whoever did the engineering either has some reason to believe the soil is highly expansive, or is unsure how...

PCF is an abbreviation for pounds per cubic foot, so yes, that's pressure. Was the rebar spec'd from other builders at 8" OC also #3 (3/8")? The spacing requirement will vary depending on the size of the rebar, with large rebar having wider spacing. I'm the furthest thing from a pool expert...

I'm going to echo what Brian and Jimmy have already said. You'd want to chip out existing bond beam to expose rebar to tie into the bonding grid (preferably in a few places), lots of rebar dowels epoxied into the existing bond beam, and a high strength concrete pour to raise it. And as Jimmy...

As Brian said, no cold joint if done properly. Not sure how doing it multiple stages would "get rid of rebound", but it shouldn't have any negative impact. Cold joints in shotcrete (gunite) are in some ways a myth. Laboratory testing has shown that multiple layer shotcrete has no anisotropic...

Because it has both AASHTO size #5 & size #7 rocks. Probably doesn't help explain it much, but trying to understand or explain the naming conventions for AASHTO aggregate sizing is an exercise in frustration.

It likely means the top layer of the shotcrete is relatively porous, so water is both getting sucked into the interior faster when you water it, and evaporating from near the surface faster after you're done watering. Could also mean that ambient conditions are promoting fast evaporation...

I wouldn't worry about it too much. The primary purpose of watering is to increase the strength of the final product, but even if you didn't water it at all it should be more than strong enough for the intended purpose (assuming proper mix and placement). You also live in a very humid climate...

You could, but you'll need to add a plasticizer to get it to flow into a space that small with the proper water to cement ratio. Even then I'd be worried about voids.

The mixer is the easy part. You also need a crew of several skilled plasterers because it all has to be applied nearly simultaneously or it will develop cracks where fresh plaster meets partially cured plaster. You're really better off hiring it out. Tiling is an option, but requires...

Shortly after getting the pool up and running a small wet spot developed in the decking above the water line for the autofill pot. It's been attracting tons of bees, and a kid got stung during a pool party on Sat, so yesterday I finally got around to chipping out some concrete to investigate...