Repairing hole in plaster

[lborne]

I have a Florida Gem coating - it is basically plaster with blue 3M chips. Yesterday when the PB was repairing a leak around one of the main drains, he found a hole in the plaster. He thought it was deep enough to fill. So now I have a quarter sized white round spot on the bottom of my deep end. I know it is not important, but a blemish like that in such a new pool (7 months) is killing me. He said the only way to really repair it is to drain the pool and try to fix it, but that it will most likely never match.

I need ideas on how to fix this or cover it up.

I have decrative tiles on the walls and so was thinking of epoxying a small tile, like a starfish or something right over the blemish and then on the opposite side of the deep end to give it some symmetry. I know the tile will stick above the pool finish, but am not sure if that is bad or not, other than bumping it when vacuuming.

 

[Brentr]

Sounds like a neat idea however would you have to drain the pool to do this If so I would ponder for a few days because it seems that your water table is shallow and you would not want the shell to pop out or shift. I am not an expert however I have been reading about things like this hapenning to other people

 

[Guest]

A diver can patch the spot without draining. You may have a little bit of a problem as 3M has discontinued the ColorQuartz product, but somebody might still have some material left over.

It is a bummer in a new pool, but it does not need a drain, and it doesn't have to be a white patch. Around here the plaster companies have to provide a 5 year bonding warranty. You might want to check that in your area as well. Sounds like you got bad prep/installation in this area (and maybe more that will show up later) and it doesn't seem right to me that you should have to live with that.

 

[JasonLion]

The patch will never match exactly. But a professional should be able to get it close enough that you won't notice unless you are looking directly at it.

From what I have seen, it is still possible to get ColorQuartz if you hunt around. They stopped making it because it wasn't selling very well and they had a huge inventory. A fair bit of that inventory is still out there.

 

[Guest]

The patch will never match exactly. But a professional should be able to get it close enough that you won't notice unless you are looking directly at it.

From what I have seen, it is still possible to get ColorQuartz if you hunt around. They stopped making it because it wasn't selling very well and they had a huge inventory. A fair bit of that inventory is still out there.

I'll expand on that a little bit! They had a huge inventory because it was being oversold and under performing, creating a very unhappy customer base. If the plaster folks would have been honest about the expectations of the product, people may have been more receptive, and maybe not quite so disappointed when it was installed. Once the ground swell of unhappy customers caught up to the excess inventory, it was too late.

Like Jason said, it can still be found, but it will take some hunting. It was only discontinued last December, so it wasn't that long ago.

 

[lborne]

The hole has already been repaired without draining using a white epoxy. Can it be chipped out and replaced with the gem coat product without draining? PB told me no - it had to be drained. Could they have mixed the 3m product with the epoxy and at least gotten it to sort of look like the rest?

I really don't want to drain since I just added borates and have cya and salt levels where they need to be. I checked the warranty and it does not cover refilling or any cracks that can happen when a pool is drained. I'm not sure it is worth the risk and cost to me (about $200 in water and chemicals).

I do have a high water table, but also have a drain under the pool that I can hook a pump to.

 

[Guest]

We split main drains, make them VGBA compliant and fill and patch the area, all underwater, so I don't know why you could not get your small repair handled the same way. It may be that you have to look for that guy that does that kind of work, but he should be out there! Not that uncommon here, so I'm sure they exist out your way also!

Here's a link you might find helpful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO5ZM43Lzeg

Phil is a buddy of mine; do you want me to ask him if he'll come to Florida and do the job :lol: