My pool coping and waterline is white travertine. Notices couple small areas of white hard crusty stuff. Assume is calcium. Most of it I simply scratched off with my fingernail. There are two lines down grout lines. Should I just scrape them off with a plastic scraper or is there better something/safer for travertine? Also noted my travertine is simply getting dirty. What is a pool water safe cleaner for travertine. I would like to use a bucket and sponge is possible. Thanks!!
Calcium on travertine
- Thread starter MCF50
- Start date
- Jan 4, 2016
- 5,392
- Pool Size
- 44000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
I do the fingernail trick as well.
Bottom line is the only thing that will soften the scale is acid, and of course that will also remove a few microns of the travertine. That doesn't worry me, so I use a squirt bottle with muriatic acid diluted 4 to 1 (1/2 c. MA, 2 c. water) or (100 mls MA, 400 mls water). I put that in an old ketchup (sauce) squeeze bottle. I squirt it on to soften or remove the scale, rinse it off, then carry on scraping. When my fingernail gets worn off, I've also used one of those razor blade scraper replacement blades, carefully of course! I've never had success with plastic, but a narrow metal paint removal scraper works sometimes.
If the pool is warm I do it from inside the pool, which is handy because I can rinse my hands and the surface I'm working on easily.
Wear proper eye protection always when working with MA for cleaning. A single drop in your eye can cause significant damage if you get unlucky.
The trick for the long run is to maintain your pool water chemistry per TFP guidelines, and the scale will be a lot less likely.
Bottom line is the only thing that will soften the scale is acid, and of course that will also remove a few microns of the travertine. That doesn't worry me, so I use a squirt bottle with muriatic acid diluted 4 to 1 (1/2 c. MA, 2 c. water) or (100 mls MA, 400 mls water). I put that in an old ketchup (sauce) squeeze bottle. I squirt it on to soften or remove the scale, rinse it off, then carry on scraping. When my fingernail gets worn off, I've also used one of those razor blade scraper replacement blades, carefully of course! I've never had success with plastic, but a narrow metal paint removal scraper works sometimes.
If the pool is warm I do it from inside the pool, which is handy because I can rinse my hands and the surface I'm working on easily.
Wear proper eye protection always when working with MA for cleaning. A single drop in your eye can cause significant damage if you get unlucky.
The trick for the long run is to maintain your pool water chemistry per TFP guidelines, and the scale will be a lot less likely.
thanks. I keep my numbers very close. As it is only a small area can I just use a plastic scraper?
- Jan 4, 2016
- 5,392
- Pool Size
- 44000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
Absolutely. Give it a try. The plastic is softer than the travertine, so no worries there.