Ice damaged diamond brite plaster finish

[miles267]

First winter with pool. Didn’t winterize at first. Until New Years temps held near 0 for a few days. Covered equipment pad with tarp, 60W bulb overnight, kept pump running. Pool started freezing. Panicked. Had pool winterized by PB.

After thawing, noted surface of my first step into pool had surface abrasion and small, loose particles of quartz plaster floating around. Top surface of step seems a bit chewed up. Water depth only about 5 in. above surface of step. During severe cold, no way to avoid ice/freezing.

Warranty work. PB plans to drain water on tanning shelf to repair. I know people have plaster resurfaced in IGP over time, but what is the repair method for something like this?

 

[kimkats]

I am not sure and will be reaching out to someone that may know. It might be a little while for them to get back with you so hold on a bit.

My gut??? says chip out and redo but nothing to base that thought on so don't put too much stock in it.

 

[miles267]

Thanks so much Kimkats. AFAIK it’s the only area of the pool that has suffered this type of damage. The pool is only a year old. Was put in Nov 2016-Jan 2017, only used one season. Making this the first full winter, one with unseasonably cold temps and surface ice. Also, this is the most shallow part of the people. Hope to not expect this to become an annual event. Appreciate your follow up.

 

[miles267]

Any ideas?

 

[miles267]

PB coming out in couple weeks to repair this. Am still a bit unclear on the cause of this issue, what the nature of the repair will be and how to prevent it from reoccurring?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

did you lose plaster is it just surface roughness?

 

[miles267]

Seem to have lost some quartz plaster which has caused pitting, so surface has become rough. But only on this step. It doesn’t go all the way thru to the concrete that I can tell.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

My guess is he may try to "polish" it out using a some kind of mechanical grinding process. If the pits are deep enough, then he may try to fill them with patching material and then grind it smooth. I very much doubt it's going to look like it did when new.

As for what caused it ... hard to say. One could easily make a case for an unusual winter and freeze damage OR a case for plaster workmanship defects....which one do you think your PB will likely go for

 

[miles267]

JoyfulNoise, was afraid you’d say that [emoji22]. It was not only our first winter but a bit extreme for this part of country. The surface of this step was likely the only surface that came in contact with ice.

Since it’s Super Blue Diamondbrite quartz plaster, are they ever able to mix and apply a small coat of same material and smooth it out?

Am asking in the event I should allow them to do whatever it is they’ll do (warranty) or I should be suggesting something else from the start.

Thanks.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Yeah, you unfortunately had a one-in-a-million winter this year. I would not go for a skim-coat option as that never works. See what the PB says about fix options. I don't think there's any perfect solution so you're going to have lean on your PB to sdo the best he can to make it right.

Wish there was better news....let us know what happens.

 

[miles267]

PB came today. Drained water level down to provide a work surface. Said they did a combination of wet sanding and acid washing to remove the rough surface. Perhaps the abrasion was on surface and didn’t go very deep. Now filling water back up to get pump running.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Was it perhaps a deposit of dirty calcium scale? Was it rough and raised or did it feel etched into the surface?

 

[miles267]

It was definitely etched into surface and not raised. In fact, it seemed more like pits in the surface, small craters that were rough to touch?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Perhaps it was From the original application and there was too much late troweling or too much water was used in the mix. So what you had was millimeter sized spalling of the cementious surface caused by freeze damage. I believe the steps are the last to be applied with plaster and troweled so there are often more defects there than in other places.

Well, good thing it was resolved under warranty.

 

[clink2208]

PB came today. Drained water level down to provide a work surface. Said they did a combination of wet sanding and acid washing to remove the rough surface. Perhaps the abrasion was on surface and didn’t go very deep. Now filling water back up to get pump running.

This is exactly what has happened to our pool in Tennessee from the same stretch of weather over New Years! We were out of town and came home to piles of ice built up. Out top step looks exactly like yours. I found this thread searching for a solution. Out pool company told us the entire pool will need to be re-plastered. We have a diamond brite plaster finish, too. Unfortunately, our pool is going on 3 years old so I don't think we will get any warranty coverage. I'm glad to see you think the wet sanding and etching worked. Now we have to find someone to do the same for us! Ugh!!!