New Plaster in Salt Water Pool

[OffA1]

We recently had our pool replastered and converted to salt water. Immediately after it was filled and before the salt was added, I noticed yellow streaks in the plaster. The weekend when there was no salt in the water and maybe a week or two after it was added, the plaster was very nice and smooth. However, now, about a month later, the plaster is rough--the feel is worse than before we had it replastered. The company that replastered and converted the pool has been out there numerous times. They added acid to the water but it did nothing. Now they are telling us the streaks are from dirt or rust in our pipes when they refilled the pool. They say they will have to drain the pool and do an acid wash to get rid of the streaks and to make the plaster smooth again. We are a little skeptical because when we decided to convert to salt water, the company representative kept telling us how he hated salt water pools. Now he is saying he sees this problem all the time in salt water pools. We ended up going with this company because they had good reviews and were BBB approved. Now I am having my doubts. Has anyone else had this experience with a new salt water pool? What would cause the streaks and the rough feel of the plaster? Also, if we drain the pool and they acid wash it, won't it cut down on the life of the new plaster? This company has said they won't charge us to do the labor but we'll have to pay for the chemicals and to refill the pool. I am just trying to figure out if this is something that happens with salt water pools or if this could be defective plaster (or something the company did wrong).

Thanks!

 

[257WbyMag]

Welcome to TFP!

This doesn't sound like a problem that salt water would cause. The yellow streaks can mean that you have metal (iron) in the water and you may need to do a treatment to sequester the metals in the water to keep them from staining. Are you on a well or are you using municipal water? Have you had a pool store test your water for metals? Also, to determine if the streaking is due to metals, you can try scraping a vitamin C tablet on one of the streaks. If the streak lightens up, it's a metal stain.

I'm not sure if your plaster job is bad or good although, rough plaster can mean that you have a poor plaster job and/or extremely out of balance water. Good reviews on a company are a positive thing. Word of mouth references are even better. IMHO, BBB membership means nothing more than that this company has paid dues to a business in the business of collecting dues from companies.

Please post the following test results...FC, TC, pH, TA, CH, salt level, and CYA. This way, we can look at your water balance and determine if this might have something to do with the way your plaster feels.