Damage to new plaster caused by chlorine float

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LoneWolfArcher said:
When we bought this house with the pool, I was just like you. I wanted as little maintenance as possible. I grew up with an AG pool and watched my dad spend hours a day maintaining and vacuuming the pool. Draining and refilling it. My attitude was "that is not for me!"

So I used all of the shortcuts I could: stabilized chlorine pucks, magic potions to fight algae and clear the water. Etc. By the end of the first summer I hated my pool. Due to the stabilized chlorine pucks I ended up with really high CYA (the stabilizer that comes in the pucks and never decreases, only increases). And because I had high CYA I was throwing algaecide into my pool to fight the algae (because with high CYA chlorine couldn't do it!). I ended up turning my pool purple! (Copper Cyanurite as a result of the algaecide (copper) and Cyanuric Acid (chlorine stabilizer). I hated my pool.

The next spring I found TFP! Got a proper test kit. And learned to use liquid chlorine only, muriatic acid to lower Ph, baking soda or borax to increase Ph, and CYA when needed and that was it! I now love my pool! I got a robotic pool vacuum this year and now my pool maintenance is even simpler!

Best part, I am spending a fraction of what I did that first summer when I was chasing problems. The lesson I learned was that spending 10-15 minutes a day testing my water and adding LC saved me hours of aggravation down the line. In other words, the shortcuts so I could skip maintaining my pool ended up costing me time and headaches down the line.

So consider that, pool services are expensive. A good robot vacuum will be a better investment since once you get the hang of the maintenance that part is a piece of cake.
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Thanks, I do plan to eventually learn how to maintain the water chemistry myself. My pool is extremely small, probably just under 2000 gallons and only 3 1/2 feet deep so a cleaning robot would be useless for me. Because of the small size I also wanted to see how hard of a job it was for a service company to maintain the proper chemical balance in the pool. So far, it doesn't appear they are having any difficulty as the guy only comes once every 2 weeks. Again, if I didn't have so much on my plate right now, including raising TEN 5-week-old puppies, I'm sure I'd have the energy to do other things!
 
A robot would not be useless. In fact, you could get away with a relatively inexpensive one.

And testing your water regularly will take less time than you’ve likely spent reading and posting here. You can run your tests and add chlorine in just a few minutes.
 
Ya know.. after looking at the pics again I wonder if that is from someone (pool guy) pouring acid or Cl into pool right at the edge.. you can see how the discoloration goes down from the spot... but I can't quite see the perspective from the angle of the pic. If that is what happened, that is why we recommend pouring chems in the pool in front of a jet to disperse them.
Cool pool, can you give a pic of the whole thing?!
 
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mguzzy said:
Ya know.. after looking at the pics again I wonder if that is from someone (pool guy) pouring acid or Cl into pool right at the edge.. you can see how the discoloration goes down from the spot... but I can't quite see the perspective from the angle of the pic. If that is what happened, that is why we recommend pouring chems in the pool in front of a jet to disperse them.
Cool pool, can you give a pic of the whole thing?!
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That’s a good point. I wonder if the original poster can check if the chlorine floater will even sit in that spot or not with the water level height that it is.
 
If your going to bite the bullet bite right now. Same info now or then so get going and take it over. It's not like you can do anything when a hired company does it anyway. Start today, the help is here and ready to roll.
 
xtexan86, you may be right about the "black aggregate" being exposed upon sanding. But I think sanding of the bleached spot is the best option to find out whether it will help or not. I believe that sanding will help expose the blue color again. Any kind of acid treatments would be a mistake and probably makes things worse.

Regarding the comment that blue colors take many years to fade, while that is true for the best blue pigments, it is not true for cheaper types. Inexpensive organic blue pigments often fade within a few months to a year. My concern is that your photos show similar blue color fading due to chlorine. And I am wondering if the blue color of your plaster begins to fade elsewhere over the next few months leaving the gray exposed.

As a possible remedy for the single spot, I agree with you that placing a mosaic tile into the plaster can help with the aesthetics.

As to your question regarding the topic and info of color pigments fading and being bleached by chlorine, see this article.
watershapes.com

Pigments and Pools - Water Shapes

Colored plaster and aggregate finishes are found in more and more watershapes these days. But as Que Hales, Doug Latta and Kim Skinner discuss, not all pigments are created equal -- and knowing how to choose among the options can be the key to a project's success.
watershapes.com watershapes.com
 
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mguzzy said:
Ya know.. after looking at the pics again I wonder if that is from someone (pool guy) pouring acid or Cl into pool right at the edge.. you can see how the discoloration goes down from the spot... but I can't quite see the perspective from the angle of the pic. If that is what happened, that is why we recommend pouring chems in the pool in front of a jet to disperse them.
Cool pool, can you give a pic of the whole thing?!
Click to expand...
The pool guy serviced my pool last Tuesday and I watched him pour chemicals only into the pool's deep end so other than deciding to use a chlorine float in the first place, I can't blame the service people. If you click on my name, you can see my pool as a banner picture but I'll attach one here also.
 

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xtexan86 said:
The pool guy serviced my pool last Tuesday and I watched him pour chemicals only into the pool's deep end so other than deciding to use a chlorine float in the first place, I can't blame the service people. If you click on my name, you can see my pool as a banner picture but I'll attach one here also.
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Do you remember the floater sitting on that side of the pool? I'm too lazy to reread the thread ;)
 
xtexan86 said:
Thanks, I'm sure it's something I can eventually learn, just had too much going on
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Honestly, it's easier than you think. Order up a good test kit (hint: get the TF-100 plus the speedstir), and set aside an hour or two of your time to read through the pool school section on this site, and try out the instructions that come with the test kit. I was intimidated at first, too, having never even lived in a house with a pool and all of a sudden with this giant newly built and very expensive investment to maintain, but then saw some red flags with my pool service and have never looked back.

You'll get some expert advice on here -- but the vast majority of us are not experts, we are pool owners just like you, with all sorts of stuff happening in our lives. I highly encourage you to take control of your pool maintenance, you'll be glad you did.
 

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onBalance said:
xtexan86, you may be right about the "black aggregate" being exposed upon sanding. But I think sanding of the bleached spot is the best option to find out whether it will help or not. I believe that sanding will help expose the blue color again. Any kind of acid treatments would be a mistake and probably makes things worse.

Regarding the comment that blue colors take many years to fade, while that is true for the best blue pigments, it is not true for cheaper types. Inexpensive organic blue pigments often fade within a few months to a year. My concern is that your photos show similar blue color fading due to chlorine. And I am wondering if the blue color of your plaster begins to fade elsewhere over the next few months leaving the gray exposed.

As a possible remedy for the single spot, I agree with you that placing a mosaic tile into the plaster can help with the aesthetics.

As to your question regarding the topic and info of color pigments fading and being bleached by chlorine, see this article.
watershapes.com

Pigments and Pools - Water Shapes

Colored plaster and aggregate finishes are found in more and more watershapes these days. But as Que Hales, Doug Latta and Kim Skinner discuss, not all pigments are created equal -- and knowing how to choose among the options can be the key to a project's success.
watershapes.com watershapes.com
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The plaster I chose was Diamond Brite, which is an exposed natural quartz aggregates and polymer modified cement. It is supposed to be very durable and withstand a lot of chemical treatment and probably under normal conditions, should last about 15 years until it needs to be replastered. The pool service company supervisor should come by tomorrow and I'll see what recommendations he has as to fixing the stain.
 
mguzzy said:
Do you remember the floater sitting on that side of the pool? I'm too lazy to reread the thread ;)
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I wish I did. Every other time I've looked at the pool the thing is floating around everywhere. Memorial Day was a bit windless and I think somehow the floater got right along the pool edge which sheltered it from getting any type of wind.
 
xtexan86 said:
The plaster I chose was Diamond Brite, which is an exposed natural quartz aggregates and polymer modified cement. It is supposed to be very durable and withstand a lot of chemical treatment and probably under normal conditions, should last about 15 years until it needs to be replastered. The pool service company supervisor should come by tomorrow and I'll see what recommendations he has as to fixing the stain.
Click to expand...

Hopefully they used the good (non-bleaching) inorganic blue pigment in their plaster mix.
 
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