Information and experience with polished finishes such as Primera Stone, Hydrazzo, PolishedScapes

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jonandy

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Apr 2, 2020
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Woodland Hills, CA
I'm new here, so first off a quick thanks for the amazing forum! We are at the tail end of our pool renovation. (In-ground pool built in '77, behind a midcentury style house in Southern California. Hopefully irrelevant, but we've installed a salt system, along with UV, in case that matters.)

I am driving myself nuts researching PolishedScapes, Hydrazzo, PrimeraStone, etc. I really like PrimeraStone Basalt, but in Los Angeles there seems to be only one plaster company that's certified for PrimeraStone, and the small number of reviews online are not very positive. Both our PB and myself are nervous about working with an untested plaster company. I ordered the box of PrimeraStone samples, and it has me feeling like polished stone is what I want (aside from the fact that a lot of it looks exactly like a terrazzo floor at a mall). I'm interested in information people have about polished finishes -- especially in terms of whether it would be worth it to work with an untested plaster company. Pros/cons, first-hand experience, longevity, product differences. Anything that will help us decide.

To what extent is Hydrazzo equivalent to Primera Stone? Wet Edge says Primera Stone is better because they don't use as much marble aggregate. How much does that matter?

What should I expect in terms of pricing differences between pebble and polished?

Our fall-back would probably be PebbleSheen in French Gray. I have samples of that and MiniPebble, and they both feel similarly rough to me. I thought maybe PebbleSheen would be a bit smoother based on claims of uncrushed pebbles, but I don't see much difference in terms of "crushed" vs "uncrushed" pebble texture. There was only one sample in the PebbleSheen sample box that actually had smooth pebbles, and it was the darkest one.
 
A polished aggregate finish is about as good as you can get with the longevity of pebble but the smoothness of plaster. The less marble Dust In the Mix the better.

There really isn't a huge difference between manufacturers. In my experience, Wet Edge products have seemed to have held up better then Pebble Tec has.

For that matter, you can polish any finish. Npt has their PolishedScapes line which would be less expensive and much easier to find an installer.

Since you're looking into the higher end of finishes, AquaBright is another great option.
 
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I have had Hydrazoo finish in my pool for 20 years. First run of plaster lasted 17 years and was replaced due to rebar rusting problem. Now on second application of Hydrazoo.

Regular plaster can be installed by a crew in a day and they are done.

Hydrazoo the crew needs to return for a second say for the polishing which adds to the cost.

Pebble is similarly a 2 day process by the plaster crew.

Plaster application is a had applied art whose quality depends more on the crew that day and the weather conditions then on the choice of materials. There is a lot you can read in Plaster Installation and Maintenance - Further Reading about how to get a quality plaster job.
 
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Thanks for the replies! Definitely a lot of great info in the Plaster Installation and Maintenance thread. Really interesting about being able to polish any finish.

In the end it's looking like we are going with EcoFinish AquaBright in Midnight Blue. One comment from our plaster company was that the finish with Hydrazzo can be pretty mottled. Though in the end, the decision to move to AquaBright had more to do with benefits of that product than any particular issue with Hydrazzo.

Today I went to see a "Mediterranean Blue" install that was a bout 1.5 years old, and then went to the plaster company's office to see some other samples. My favorite colors were French Gray and Midnight Blue, but they didn't have a Midnight Blue sample on hand. So instead they sent us to an install they were working on today in that color. Got to see the flamethrower and everything :)

At the first house I was telling my PB some of the things I'd read about AquaBright on this site, like not having to add acid nearly as often. As it happened, my PB knew the pool company that services the pool we were looking at and called them to ask about whether that was the case. The pool company confirmed they were actually really impressed with AquaBright. The owner of the home went out of his way to mention how much he liked the finish. (They had actually added AquaBright on top of a PebbleFina finish that didn't came out a lot rougher than expected.) I was sort of worried AquaBright might feel slippery, almost like a Slip-N-Slide, but it was surprisingly textured, while not being "rough."

I asked the plaster company about the ability to patch issues (for example, if we had a bad earthquake and had to do a significant repair), and they showed me some photos where they had done a fix around a broken fixture. We also talked some about the benefits of being able to use it for waterslides, etc., since it can be above water. I think at this point my PB was also getting pretty sold on the product.

The plaster company seemed like they were doing a good job with the install at the second house we went to, so overall I'm feeling pretty confident. PB is in touch with the plaster company about getting the surface prepped.

The Midnight Gray color is pretty dark, but when we laid the French Gray swatch down on top of it, it's not as different as I would have thought. (Aquabright's French Gray seems considerably darker than the other French Grays we looked at, but I guess since the surface is non-porous, it doesn't darken down when wet like plaster does.) I took some pictures with the French Gray sitting on top of the Midnight Gray in light and shadow.

Price-wise, of the "upgraded finishes" we got quotes on, EcoFinish was actually the cheapest by a bit, but they were all within about 15% of each other, and EcoFinish is a bit less than double the cost of the PebbleSheen quote we got originally. PolishedScapes came in about 15% more, and Hydrazzo was only a little bit more than AquaBright.

I'll post an update and hopefully some pics once it's done.
 
Oh, that's good to know about the custom colors. I think I may have enough decision fatigue at this point to just stick with Midnight Blue. I kind of sold myself on the really dark color, and the extra bit of blue seeing it in person yesterday. I've been a little nervous about using a gray finish and having the pool look just a bit greener than we want. Not worried about that with Midnight Blue.

I think if we were trying to get something like the Pebble finish French Grays, I'd be pretty interested in doing a mix between Grey Reef and French Grey in AquaBright. Their French Grey seems a good bit darker than the stone ones. It's a little tough to compare, since the Aquabright doesn't darken when it's wet, but Aquabright French Grey still seems quite a bit darker than the wet French Grey stone samples we have.
 
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