Hi all. I bought a house a couple of years ago that came with a 20-year old 18k-gallon gunite pool. The plaster finish was not in great shape when I bought it -- lots of pits on the bottom and crumbling on the stairs and below the tile line -- and has gotten worse lately. I added about 40 lbs of calcium chloride to get the calcium hardness up, so who knows if that was ever balanced by the previous owner. I know it will need to be refinished, but my question is how urgent this need is, as I know it's going to be expensive. If the pits get down to the underlying concrete, will that get damaged and cause a bigger problem? Anything else to worry about besides the cosmetics? Thanks for any advice on urgency, and if anyone has input on the best approaches to refinishing, I'd appreciate that as well.
Crumbling plaster - how urgent?
- Thread starter rwm
- Start date
R,
The gunite under the plaster will not get damaged.. But, the plaster is what makes the pool water tight. Water can weep through the gunite.
The worst thing that will happen between now and when you replaster might be some water loss..
If you don't mind looking at it, then I don't see this as an emergency that you need to fix now.
Thanks,
Jim R.
The gunite under the plaster will not get damaged.. But, the plaster is what makes the pool water tight. Water can weep through the gunite.
The worst thing that will happen between now and when you replaster might be some water loss..
If you don't mind looking at it, then I don't see this as an emergency that you need to fix now.
Thanks,
Jim R.
Hi RW -
We are about two years into owning our house and just did the rennovation as ours was in similar shape. From what ive gathered the gunite shell is not completely waterproof if the plaster wears away and that can cause the rebar within to rust out. Small bare spots aren’t a huge cause for concern but our pool was starting to show large patches of exposed gunite. We probably could have gone another year or two without major issues but doing it now seemed prudent.
It will not be cheap. You also probably will find contractors recommending that you replace tile and coping at the same time. Just to give an idea, our job cost around 18K for basic plaster and tile with travertine coping on a 24K pool (Philadelphia area).
We are about two years into owning our house and just did the rennovation as ours was in similar shape. From what ive gathered the gunite shell is not completely waterproof if the plaster wears away and that can cause the rebar within to rust out. Small bare spots aren’t a huge cause for concern but our pool was starting to show large patches of exposed gunite. We probably could have gone another year or two without major issues but doing it now seemed prudent.
It will not be cheap. You also probably will find contractors recommending that you replace tile and coping at the same time. Just to give an idea, our job cost around 18K for basic plaster and tile with travertine coping on a 24K pool (Philadelphia area).
sktn77a
Gold Supporter
There's a nice post about a complete chipout and re-tile/re-plaster just now for a little over $8000 (Arizona). Not bad.
