Pool Resurface or Acid Wash?

[Swampwoman]

Hi there.
Since you don’t really know the history of the pool, you could test the water for metals to see if you’re dealing with copper, iron or both. Metals also sometimes combine with scale.

For metals test in this case, though we generally avoid pool store testing, that may be your best route because good tests are expensive. The testing is only to determine if you need to exchange some water.

For stain treatment in this case I would do one more test first before trying Ascorbic Acid. I would get some dry acid and put in a sock and rub it or set it on a stain area for a while.

If it works better than the vit c, then acid wash will get you better results and copper is likely. If vit c works better, it’s more likely iron and the AA wash you read about is the better course.

Hope that makes sense. Have a new puppy here and not a lot of attention available for anything else but I’ll try to check in to see what you’ve found.

Btw, if dry acid works better, there is a tool called Purity Underwater Acid wash wand that divers have used successfully.

Cheers, Swampy

 

[Rossterman]

I had some dicoloration in our pool (pebbletec) after 10 years and a few green swamps (kids watched house for a few years while we live out of state). Drained pool and for $400 the came and foam acid washed it. Looked brand new and no noticeable errosion of surface!

 

[Household6]

OP-
Take a look at my thread titled “pool repair weekend.”
We have a pool that (best we know) was put in over 30 years ago. Was well maintained until house was seized in 2007. Sat for 3 years completely unattended.
Flippers bought the place and got the pool up and running.
Fast forward 7 years and our plaster was failing. As in peeling off the sides of the pool.
Our quotes ranged between $10k and $30k to resurface. We didn’t have it.
Decided to give it a try going DIY. (We had nothing to lose!)
I can’t recall the refinish year off my head, but for the money we put in it ($2k, including travel, hotel, food - house was a rental until a couple weeks ago) it looked great until this March!

One problem we experienced AFTER the “resurface” was upon re-filling the pool with water, pool guy was supposed to come the next day to do chemicals. He didn’t. I can’t recall exactly what happened, but we had bad issues with spots like yours. I have another thread that pertained that issue and will tell you what our solution was. (The next pool guy couldn’t get the spots off. He swore it was the concrete lifting from repairs and algae getting under. It wasn’t.