Concerned about quality of shotcrete

[msm stl]

I know that a lot of people post pictures of shotcrete. It's just so hard to tell what is appropriate since even well done jobs seem rough! I talked to my shotcrete guy before the shoot. He said that he didn't use rebound. I was not able to be home during most of the shoot - just the beginning & very end. It has now been almost 1 week, and I'm concerned about the appearance of several areas. The floor of the shallow end is not even - there is a very obvious hump near the stairs. There are a number of openings throughout the pool that appear to be between 1 - 1.5 inches deep. We have an automatic cover, and the walls of the cover vault have a very "patch work" appearance.
I know that it isn't easy to tell much from photos, but here are a few. I hope someone can offer some advice!


crevice in the floor


hole in floor


part of the wall in the auto cover vault


top edge of wall in auto cover vault


uneven shallow end floor

 

[minimonster17]

Please tell me you water cured (hosed down) the shotcrete twice daily for the past week... If you have been then you know that this helps the shotcrete from shrinking/cracking as it cures.

I don't know what to tell you about the hump, that should have been troweled out better.

 

[y_not]

WOW! I know nothing about shotcrete, other than what little I have read on here. But boy, those 1st. 4 pics look pretty brutal, even compared to what I have seen posted before.
They resemble a cooled lava flow in Hawaii!!

I sure hope you're able to get this worked out soon, and with little fuss, so you can move on & enjoy your new beautiful pool!!

Cheers!

 

[Patrick_B]

Sorry to pile on, but I've not seen anything that looked quite like that in the many, many, build threads I have seen here. It does look patchy and very rough/voided in comparison. Not sure how much it matters in the end, but it doesn't look good to this viewer. Honestly not sure what you can do about it either. Again, sorry to be a black cloud over your parade.

 

[msm stl]

Despite PB telling me that watering the shotcrete wasn't necessary, we did it 2-3 times/day. (He said that since it wasn't too hot - only mid 80's - watering didn't matter...)
I'm going to see if another local builder will review the job as a consultant.

 

[Patrick_B]

Good luck, and let us know what comes up.

 

[Charlie_R]

Very limited experience here, just with pumped 'crete for floors and walls of major construction projects (think commercial/industrial pours).

Since this will be covered with I think two coats of plaster -- rough/scratch coat then finish/seal coat, I would say that the roughness would help with the bonding of the rough/scratch coat of plaster.

 

[sdspencer]

I've been looking through my pool build pictures and I don't have a closeup shot of the shotcrete, but I remember being concerned about its texture after they had sprayed it. This is the best shot I have of some crumbling parts on the bench. The worst part was the stairs for us, but it all came out fine in the end.

 

[y_not]

I was looking @ your album this morning and judging by the EXIF data, it appears that there was only a 2-3 day time span between when they finished the work and you took these pics. Is that correct?

 

[Patrick_B]

I was looking @ your album this morning and judging by the EXIF data, it appears that there was only a 2-3 day time span between when they finished the work and you took these pics. Is that correct?

What difference would that make?

 

[y_not]

... it appears that there was only a 2-3 day time span between when they finished the work and you took these pics. Is that correct?

What difference would that make?

I thought that if it happened so quickly and so early in the watering stage, that from there, maybe those that know this stuff might be able to deduce what went wrong and where with the whole process based on the timeline. Maybe a clue of some sort.

I dunno, just being logical, which tends to get you somewhere with problem solving.
Doctors and technicians ask lots of "stupid questions" too. Not because they enjoy looking stupid, but because they're intelligently deducing a solution.

Like I said, I have no 1st hand experience with shotcrete. Just trying to get the ball rolling on problem solving as to where it went wrong and who did it. Ie. Maybe It's the mix provider, not the crew's fault. I dunno.
*Juuuust thinkin' is all.

 

[foobert]

It seems that there is some debate in the pool industry as to which layer of the pool system is the "water tight" layer. http://hydrologicblog.com/2012/01/pool-water-tightness-tests/.

Some say it's the reinforced concrete/gunite/shotcrete shell. Others say it's the coatings placed on top of the shell that actually provide the water proofing. Obviously, the article is biased to the former, but, read some of the comments to get a flavor for the other side of the argument.


Regarding the last 2 photos of the cover vault, what's the worry here? Nope, it's clearly not best quality work. But, the vault doesn't need to be water tight, and will be hidden away by a cover, yes? Just wondering if I have the perspective right.