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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...

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...

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...

1) You should really try to do the pour in as few pours as possible Doesn't look like much volume, so depending on the volume of your mixer maybe you could get it with a single batch. 2) Why are you replacing all the water with bonding adhesive? That may not be a great idea in conjunction...

Either one will work. Sanded will be more textured and won't fill in the really small holes and crevices. Non-sanded will be smoother and fill in every little hole. I'd probably use sanded to maintain a little more of the natural stone texture, but it's really personal preference. Looks to...

Best fix for holes in travertine/limestone/marble IMO is a grout that matches the color of the stone somewhat closely. Mix it up, squeeze it in with a rubber grout float, let it cure for a few minutes, wipe the excess off with a damp sponge. There are also epoxies used for this, but they're...

Looking great! Yep, plaster prices here are pretty affordable comparatively. About $2-3/sq ft for white plaster, $3-4 for quartz, and $4-5 for pebble. This!

Looking great! If you want to try the surface bonded concrete in place of plaster, but are worried about how waterproof it is, you could apply a waterproofing product beforehand. I'm a usually a big fan of cementitious waterproofing agents, like Merlex super blockade, but they don't tolerate...

Assuming first pic is existing mortar? In the second pic, the left is obviously a test with the mix you bought, but is the right side of that photo also a test with that mix, or the previous/existing mortar? The first thing that jumps out about the textures is that the previous mortar used a...

If your PB is experiencing tiles set in the plaster coming loose, or not being flush with the plaster surface, then his tile guy and his plaster crew don't know what they're doing. That's sadly more common than it should be though. Your PB is correct that darker finishes have a tendency to be...

Without misting it's just a continuous plastic shrinkage (contraction) happening. Misting will stop the shrinkage, or at the very least pause it each time it's done if it's not done continuously. Shouldn't be much expansion going on when it's misted. The real reasons to do it though are to...

I'm pretty familiar with the ACI literature, as well as most ASTM standards relating to curing and testing of cementitious products, and was a bit shocked when I started researching the NPC's stance on some things. Many of the defects they imply are caused by aggressive water chemistry are...

I'm somewhat clueless when it comes to pools and pool construction, but I do design, quality control, and strength testing of cementitious products as part of my job. For these reasons, I know a lot ways to make sure cementitious products like plaster end up as strong as possible, and a lot of...

You're unlikely to get much if any cost savings based on the time of year, but if you do it in the slow season you're more likely to have a more communicative contractor and lower likelihood of delays. Yes, a pool builder will subcontract to a plaster company. Costs vary wildly by region as...

So with an estimate of the slope on top from the photos, and now having a pretty good idea of where the waterline is in relation to it, the minimum tile you'd need is approximately 65 square feet (assuming 10% waste). Tiling the outside wall to the bottom of the basin would add about another 16...

That's enough of a slant that you shouldn't need waterline tile on the interior if you don't want it. It also means it'll take slightly more tile for that section. The waterline should fall pretty close to 3" below the outer basin wall. If you want to save on tile you could only tile the outer...