Acid wash areas without removing water

[lborne]

I have a relatively new pool with a pebble tec type finish - its plaster with the 3M chips. Anyway, after they apply the plaster, they acid washed the pool to bring out the blue chips. There are three areas where there is too much plaster left and it looks like white sploches. One area was on the seat in the spa so I drained it down, poured acid, brushed and it now looks perfect. The problem is, the other two areas are on the bottom of the pool. I've heard of the trick people use to remove algae stains by pouring acid down a pvc pipe onto the spot and was wondering if this would work.

Alternatively, I was thinking of going under and using a suction cup sort of like the end of a plunger over the spot, squeezing out the water, and then injecting acid into it using a syringe. Then brushing the area under water. That would provide a higher concentration of acid on the spot.

Or should I just leave the splotches. The PB said he would fix them, but frankly I don't want him touching the pool finish since it would be him and not the guys that do it all the time.

 

[mas985]

You could try a squeeze bottle like an old ketchup or mustard bottle but you would need to be in the water to get to the spots. I do this for trouble spots on the tile. If the acid is fairly concentrated, it should still work pretty well under water since you are delivering it directly to the area.

 

[Guest]

lborne-What you have is 3M colorquartz, a finish that 3M discontinued last year. What you are describing is one of the main reasons they discontinued it; it was blotchy and did not expose evenly, and had many unhappy pool owners. In the end, they just couldn't keep the program alive and dumped the product.

You could try an in pool acid wash, where you raise the acid level and expose the finish (it has to be continually agitated). Make sure someone who has done it before handles it though. That may help a bit to even out the finish for you.

 

[JasonLion]

The pouring acid down a pipe approach can work if it is a fairly small area. It becomes impractical to do uniformly over anything more than a square foot or so, and even that gets a little tricky.

 

[lborne]

Thanks all. Luckily, the finish is pretty good with the exception of 2 areas. One is a splotch and another is a squiggly line about 4 inches. The main reason I don't want to use the pipe is because I also want to be down underwater the brush immediately after application. I suppose I could get someone to help, or rig my pool brush on the pvc pipe. Either way, I'm sure I can get these two areas to blend in as it was pretty easy on the one spot I could get to easily.