Peeling Grout

[H2Oburd]

Dear TFP Community,

We drained and refilled our 5000 gal., tiled pool last night. Four years ago we had the pool Re-grouted. The reason we drained the pool was because our CYA was off the charts.
After refilling, we discovered "grid sections" of grout peeling off sections of the pool tiles.
We are speculating that the chemistry imbalance brought on by the high CYA may have caused the grout deterioration.

Has anyone had a similar problem? Am I overlooking another possible cause?

Thank you.

 

[triptyx]

I don't believe CYA by itself would have caused that issue. I would be far more inclined to suspect it was a result of a protracted pH imbalance, or a CSI that was too acidic for too long.

 

[Patrick_B]

Welcome to TFP, and sorry to hear of your troubles!!

I think it's something else, and my first guess would be low pH and TA over time. Do you have any test records, or recent test results? Without those its only a guess, but Cya isn't the cause of grout loss.

 

[Patrick_B]

Hey Ron,

I've just had a look at some of your recent threads the last several days, and sorry I have missed them, so I want to clarify what I said above. The products you've been using that contain the stabilizer are acidic and very good at lowering the pH and Alkalinity. Even though the Stabilizer (Cya) is a product called Cyanuric acid the high level of it alone did not cause your pH to drop.

I know it's confusing, but we could get your Cya up to a very high level and it not create a low and lasting pH situation. Over time, the products like pucks/tablets/powders that deliver Chlorine and Cya contain compounds that will however. A steady extended diet of these products have likely driven your pH quite low for some time now, and just guessing this is likely the situation.

Test result if any exist, I think would bear this out.