Plaster erosion

[Exlonghorn]

I’m searching, but here’s another case of plaster degrading. Pool built in 2011. It’s showing rough patches mostly on corners and step edges and near the spillway from the spa to the pool. Just normal erosion? Full PoolMath logs available. CSI has been kept 0 +/- .2. Everything else pretty well balanced for the past few years but I didn’t own this pool for its first 6 years so not sure how well it was maintained before then. These patches feel like 80 grit sandpaper and some material will crumble out if rubbed with a finger. Just a pool getting old?

 

[Oly]

I have seen damage to the step edges similar to that from pressure side cleaners that utilize those sweeping tails. They seem to erode the step edges as they whip around their heavy hose and plastic joints.
They often break the surface and spray thre house as well.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

White spotting -

White Spotting of New Plaster Pools

The problem of plaster spotting has been an ongoing puzzle and controversy in the swimming pool industry for over three decades. The generally round, smooth-yet-unsightly white soft spots in new plaster pools have long been a source of contention among pool plasterers, and pool chemical service...

www.troublefreepool.com

Yours is not new plaster but older plaster. Probably areas with high concentrations of calcium chloride accelerant used. Plaster in those areas is more porous and "mushy". They will degrade sooner than other areas. Not much you can do about it but keep the CSI tightly controlled.

See this Wiki article -

Plaster Installation and Maintenance - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Try some med grit wet/dry sand paper on a few inconspicuous areas and see if it helps.

 

[Exlonghorn]

Try some med grit wet/dry sand paper on a few inconspicuous areas and see if it helps.

Thanks. I’m guessing sanding will likely not improve the appearance as it’s eaten/degraded past the blue surface. I may not be understanding the goal of sanding. It’s not anything like calcium on top of the plaster surface. Thanks for the additional links. Is it typical that pools need to be resurfaced every X years?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Thanks. I’m guessing sanding will likely not improve the appearance as it’s eaten/degraded past the blue surface. I may not be understanding the goal of sanding. It’s not anything like calcium on top of the plaster surface. Thanks for the additional links. Is it typical that pools need to be resurfaced every X years?

Sanding is just to see if it improves the uniformity of the color. Worth testing in a small area. If not, then no harm.

Today's plaster materials suck for the most part. Back in the old, old, old day, a good quality plaster could overcome the deficiencies of poor workmanship but, nowadays, plaster mixes are weak-sauce and the guys that apply them are not often very skilled. So you get the double whammy of cruddy materials and lousy workmanship. A typical plaster job today will probably need a full chip out and renovation in 15 years assuming you take good care of the water chemistry.

 

[Exlonghorn]

Sanding is just to see if it improves the uniformity of the color. Worth testing in a small area. If not, then no harm.

Today's plaster materials suck for the most part. Back in the old, old, old day, a good quality plaster could overcome the deficiencies of poor workmanship but, nowadays, plaster mixes are weak-sauce and the guys that apply them are not often very skilled. So you get the double whammy of cruddy materials and lousy workmanship. A typical plaster job today will probably need a full chip out and renovation in 15 years assuming you take good care of the water chemistry.

Okay that made me laugh. I’ll pick up some wet/dry sandpaper and see what it does. I’ll go for the next obvious question. Are proprietary finishes like Pebbletec more resilient/durable? It seems that the marketing damage of a poor proprietary finish would cull it out of the market. I’m guessing I’ll be looking at a resurfacing in the next year…time to start researching now.

 

[proavia]

If the pool isn't leaking and the spots aren't a show stopper, you have several years left in that surface.

Looks like 20 days ago you added some stabilizer after reporting a CYA of 45 (really 50 as the scale is logarithmic and not linear, so you can't interpolate).
What is your current CYA?
Looks like you FC on latest (and prior tests) is too low according to the FC/CYA Levels.

 

[Exlonghorn]

If the pool isn't leaking and the spots aren't a show stopper, you have several years left in that surface.

Looks like 20 days ago you added some stabilizer after reporting a CYA of 45 (really 50 as the scale is logarithmic and not linear, so you can't interpolate).
What is your current CYA?
Looks like you FC on latest (and prior tests) is too low according to the FC/CYA Levels.

CYA is 70 now after I added dry stabilizer a couple weeks ago.

FC is consistently at 3.5-4. Low end of the range but still in range.

Thanks for the guidance on the potential useful life remaining. It’s probably a visual irritation more than a real structural problem. I shouldn’t be in a hurry to spend a pile of cash.

 

[proavia]

I see you just updated your PoolMath logs to show CYA 70 .
With a SWG, minimum is 3 and target is 5. (I missed the SWG in your sig first time around.)
You may be flirting with jumping off the minimum cliff.
Suggest to shoot for a target of 5 or a few more to allow for the variation in swimmer and debris load.
Middle of summer and CYA of 70 isn't great for having to SLAM Process. Just saying.....

 

[Exlonghorn]

I see you just updated your PoolMath logs to show CYA 70 .
With a SWG, minimum is 3 and target is 5. (I missed the SWG in your sig first time around.)
You may be flirting with jumping off the minimum cliff.
Suggest to shoot for a target of 5 or a few more to allow for the variation in swimmer and debris load.
Middle of summer and CYA of 70 isn't great for having to SLAM Process. Just saying.....

You reminded me that I hadn’t retested CYA after adding the stabilizer. Haven’t had algae for three years, so I’m not too concerned about the prospect of a SLAM. But yeah it wouldn’t hurt to bump up the FC by a point or two.

 

[proavia]

Yeah - better safe than sorry.