Bead Blasting

[starr1005]

IDK if this is the right forum or not... but has anyone done their own bead blasting of the tiles? Our pool guy is asking for 700 bucks to blast them, but it looks like i can get what i need from harbor freight for 100 or so.


Curious if anyone has experience with this set up, what kind of pressure you ran, what kind of outcome you got?

Thank you,

 

[ajw22]

@JoyfulNoise whaddyathink about DIY bead blasting?

Waterline Scale Removal - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[JoyfulNoise]

The amount of money you’d have to spend buying or renting the equipment to do it would not make it economical and you can easily damage tile if you don’t know what you’re doing. Better to just pay a pro to do it and leave them with the liability.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

My guy is charging me $750 for about 100 linear feet of tile and a spa wall face. So it’s not unreasonable

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

I've had my share of fights with waterline scale as well. I've had my pool bead blasted two times. Cost in my area is around $6 per linear foot. Next time around, I'm going to try the Avanti abrasive disc noted in the wiki article.

Waterline Scale Removal - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I’d be very careful with abrasive discs. You can easily cut into the porcelain tile using those and take the glaze right off.

The whole point of blasting using kierserite media is that the hardness of the media matches the hardness of the calcium scale (around 4 mohs) but is less than the hardness of porcelain (about 5-6 mohs). This media is also a larger granular grade which allows it to fracture and “explode” on impact thus helping to lift off scale. A good tech knows how to fine tune the delivery pressure and flow rate get rid of the scale without messing up the tile. If the pressure is too high, you can physically crack or chip the tile.

It’s worth paying for if the person you hire has actually acquired some skill at it.

 

[starr1005]

The amount of money you’d have to spend buying or renting the equipment to do it would not make it economical and you can easily damage tile if you don’t know what you’re doing. Better to just pay a pro to do it and leave them with the liability.

Good deal, I appreciate the response. I had a seen a video of a guy using a set up from harbor freight for about 100 bucks... and it seemed to work pretty well. If damaging is a concern though, i will probably pass.