I hired a local company, (Edit by Jim R.) from Shoreline WA to replaster, retile, and redo the coping around my in ground pool and hot tub. I got their name from a couple of other local pool companies.
They started back around January 1st. Progress has been painfully slow, they just finished grouting the coping yesterday. They come and work for 2-3 days, then I won't see them for weeks.
Meanwhile, my cement contractor says that this is the worst pool installer that he's ever seen. They chipped out the old plaster and repaired several cracks in the pool, by chipping them out about 6 inches in both directions and affixing a thick steel mesh. It was almost 3 months before they covered that mesh with mortar and it looks like there is rust there now.
The pool had a set of side entrance steps that we had blocked off to make the pool a perfect rectangle so that we can have a motorized cover. When they made the wall to block off the steps, they chipped out to attach rebar. Then, instead of using shotcrete, they basically hand formed the wall with cement. As in, they used some kind of thick cement mix that they mixed onsite in small batches, and hand formed the wall by trowel. They would lay down about 8 inches of it, let that set overnight and then add another 8 inches or so each day until they reached the top.
They used the same technique to build these steps. On some of them I'm now seeing rust coming through the concrete from the rebar below.
They built the pool cover box out of square and didn't follow the specs, so it wasn't deep enough, so they chipped and ground it out to make it the right size.
They capped old returns and put in 3 new ones. The mortar around the new returns is showing cracks just 2-3 weeks after it was placed.
There are a variety of other issues that I can list.
However, we're now at the point where I'm going to tell them to stop working and I'm going to have a different builder come in to assess their work, probably take over the job, and most importantly try to tell me if they've caused significant damage (i'm mostly thinking about the crack repair).
It is almost May and I can't imagine there being a scenario where this pool can be re-plastered and still used this summer.
Which brings me to ask a question, to which i'm sure the answer is no, is there any way that I could still use my unplastered pool this summer and resume this project in the fall?
They started back around January 1st. Progress has been painfully slow, they just finished grouting the coping yesterday. They come and work for 2-3 days, then I won't see them for weeks.
Meanwhile, my cement contractor says that this is the worst pool installer that he's ever seen. They chipped out the old plaster and repaired several cracks in the pool, by chipping them out about 6 inches in both directions and affixing a thick steel mesh. It was almost 3 months before they covered that mesh with mortar and it looks like there is rust there now.
The pool had a set of side entrance steps that we had blocked off to make the pool a perfect rectangle so that we can have a motorized cover. When they made the wall to block off the steps, they chipped out to attach rebar. Then, instead of using shotcrete, they basically hand formed the wall with cement. As in, they used some kind of thick cement mix that they mixed onsite in small batches, and hand formed the wall by trowel. They would lay down about 8 inches of it, let that set overnight and then add another 8 inches or so each day until they reached the top.
They used the same technique to build these steps. On some of them I'm now seeing rust coming through the concrete from the rebar below.
They built the pool cover box out of square and didn't follow the specs, so it wasn't deep enough, so they chipped and ground it out to make it the right size.
They capped old returns and put in 3 new ones. The mortar around the new returns is showing cracks just 2-3 weeks after it was placed.
There are a variety of other issues that I can list.
However, we're now at the point where I'm going to tell them to stop working and I'm going to have a different builder come in to assess their work, probably take over the job, and most importantly try to tell me if they've caused significant damage (i'm mostly thinking about the crack repair).
It is almost May and I can't imagine there being a scenario where this pool can be re-plastered and still used this summer.
Which brings me to ask a question, to which i'm sure the answer is no, is there any way that I could still use my unplastered pool this summer and resume this project in the fall?
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