3 acid baths later, plaster still turning white, scaling???

[Kfrank12]

Still having heck with my pool and pool builder. In late November, PB did an acid bath because they never did one at start up. There were a few stains that he wanted to clean up etc. After the acid bath we were amazed at how good the plaster looked and understood why PB wanted to clean it as he couldn't show this pool to other clients with the plaster looking the way it did before. The plaster is a mediterranean designer series from Noble tile in the DFW area.

Within about two weeks, plaster was beginning to become patchy white, very inconsistent, actually looked worse than before. Of course pool builder tried to blame everything on me. I test my water at least once a week no matter what, always have since pool was finished in May 2012.

Mid jan, PB did another acid bath. This time I brought the ph up rather than letting him just dump a bunch of soda ash and leave. This time i premixed it in 2.5 lb intervals and slowly raised the ph up over a 2 day period, then added alkalinity up to get those levels up as well. Within a few days, same end result. Looks like white stains , plaster is very cloudy etc.

PB blames it on calcium in tap water. I had it checked, it was just 80 at the tap and 250 in the pool. Now he is saying the bi-product in the soda ash is what is attaching to the plaster. Plaster company came to take a look last week and did some spot treatments on the pool. Of course when they add in the acid the white substance instantly turns to milk and the perfect looking plaster is exposed. So he started trying to say "see, see, it look perfect with acid". I explained that i understood that and that i cannot swim in it when in the acid bath phase..... i told him the problem begins when we bring the ph back up. All the plaster company had to say is that they don't recommend salt systems with the plaster. WTF?

So now, the PB did another acid bath on Tuesday. As of yesterday pool plaster looked great, but today it is beginning to turn white again....

Does anyone know how to cure this problem or have any input? I am about to lose my mind dealing with this pool.

 

[Kfrank12]

Re: 3 acid baths later, plaster still turning white, scaling

The 1st pic is what it looked like when plaster company did direct acid on troubled areas. And also as an example of what color the plaster is supposed to be versus what it is now.

 

[JasonLion]

Re: 3 acid baths later, plaster still turning white, scaling

Please post a complete set of water test results, including the range that PH tends to vary over.

 

[Kfrank12]

Re: 3 acid baths later, plaster still turning white, scaling

Here are the results after the first acid bath, and during the second one.

 

[JasonLion]

Re: 3 acid baths later, plaster still turning white, scaling

It is much simpler if you post the numbers, instead of the entire PDF file.

Jan 26th:
FC 0
TC 0
Salt 2300
CH 250
TA 35
PH 7.2

Feb 5th:
FC 3
TC 3
Salt 2400
CH 300
CYA 30
TA 85
PH 7.7

 

[JasonLion]

Re: 3 acid baths later, plaster still turning white, scaling

Those two tests are fairly far apart, and the more recent one was ten days ago. Do you have any kind of test kit yourself? Have you been testing the PH? Have you been adding anything regularly other than chlorine?

Fresh plaster tends to require daily PH test and adjustment.

 

[ping]

Re: 3 acid baths later, plaster still turning white, scaling

Fresh plaster tends to require daily PH test and adjustment.

Jason, the plaster is almost a year old. I hope this helps out.

Kfrank12, do you know what the range of your pH has been for the last year and what the range is that you are trying to stay within now?

 

[Kfrank12]

Re: 3 acid baths later, plaster still turning white, scaling

the range of the ph has always been between 7.2 - 7.8. Other than when the acid baths began. PB came by today and said he is going to allow acid to sit until Monday. Then he wants to drain a couple of feet of water out hoping that we don't have to add much soda ash. He is thinking that the byproduct from the soda ash is what is causing the problem.... I am not sure what range the ph is suppose to be in after all of this. I assume the same as before.

PB did an acid bath on his pool the same time he did mine... - he didn't have any problems. Today he slipped up and said draining a couple of feet of water and then adding fresh water to it, kept him from having to add much soda ash.

I have been brushing the pool today with a stainless brush and have brushed quite a bit of white dust into the middle of the pool to be vacuumed out later today. I assume that is part of the byproduct being knocked off of the plaster.

 

[onBalance]

Re: 3 acid baths later, plaster still turning white, scaling

The plaster surface is now etched. Needs a good sanding or polishing.