Gunite Pool Surface Help - Bloody Feet

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bigdave

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Jun 14, 2007
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Boise Idaho
We recently moved into a house with a 13 year old gunite pool. The bottom surface was dirty so we paid a company to drain and acid wash the gunite surface. The pool is now clean, however the surface in the shallow end of pool is rough. When the kids play basketball for a few hours they come out of the pool with bloody feet all scrapped up and rubbed raw.

The gunite surface overall still looks healthy, however this rough surface is a problem. What options do I have to help fix this issue? Drain and Sand? Resurface? Please provide any experience to help our family.
 
Sounds like your pool needs a replaster job.
 
bigdave said:
Has anyone attempted to sand the surface of Gunite to solve this rough surface? Any experience with how to do such a task?
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First of all, the surface should be plaster, which is applied to a gunite shell. I'm assuming you're referring to the plaster being rough (and if someone came out to clean it they likely would have warned you if the plaster had fully eroded to expose gunite (which would be pretty rough)). Rough plaster to the point of making your feet bleed is pretty unusual. Is it a specialized finish with an aggregate? Is it a uniform color or does it have small speckles of aquarium-gravel bits?
 
Gunite is the structural concrete shell of the pool. It's about 9" thick.

Plaster is the waterproof layer on top of the gunite. It's about 3/8" thick.

Acid washing removes the cement and exposes the aggregate in the plaster.

The main types of plaster are white marcite with calcium carbonate aggregate, quartz with quartz aggregate and pebble with pebble aggregate.

Acid washing can make the surface very rough and abrasive.

Acid washed marcite or quartz can result in a sandpaper type surface.

Acid washed pebble can result in an exposed aggregate type surface.

The plaster can be polished.

What type of plaster do you have?
 
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I'd suggest some water shoes. You can get some inexpensive ones online. Will help them play those pool games far more comfortably and surefooted.

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Maddie :flower:
 
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Aggreate surfaces are polished using diamond pads.

If you can get a pic through the water I'd like to see what your pool finsih looks like.
 
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Looks like standard white plaster with calcium carbonate aggregate.

The acid wash exposes the aggregate and makes the surface rough.

It can be sanded if you can find someone local who knows how to do it.
 
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When our pool was first built, the marcite surface was very rough and was causing our kids toes to bleed! Builder was totally worthless and just said "it's normal"! Well, over the years it appeared to get worn down but it would still wear out a Polaris 380 body every 2 years. We had the pool resurfaced a couple of years ago and the plaster was MUCH smoother. Still usinng the same Polaris body and looks like it has at least a couple of years left in it.
 
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