Salt and sealing stone in Texas... and other states with lots of dry heat - I am looking at you AZ and Southern CA

[joepaiii]

All - I have been here for years and I am on my second saltwater pool in Texas. Both of which have had plenty of rock which tends to do things around pool water over time. I think the best recommendation for any pool with salt is to either steer clear of rock immediately around the pool or just hope that you have the right kind of rock. By steering clear - build a modern pool with cement white coping and tile any feature walls.

If you do go with rock and salt - stay away from sandstone. Now here in Texas that is very difficult. I think you could do travertine as many here swear by it and salt water pools. But I still think it will really depend on the type of travertine you get... just like the type of any rock. Some will hold up with no problems others may not.

Now I am not here to debate the salt vs regular chlorine as that debate can go forever and is almost impossible to prove disprove except in controlled experiments... and not with anecdotal data. I am here to post this to list some of the sealers I have seen mentioned here and have been told about. And also offer experience with them and the types of rock I have had.

I haven't used these but they seem to be highly recommended...

MasterProtect H 1000 (Hydrozo 100), 100% Silane Penetrating Sealer (5G)

MasterProtect H 1000


40SK Consolidator & Water Repellent

40SK Consolidator & Water Repellent​

Formerly DRY-TREAT 40SK™
​

Prosoco Saltguard, 1 Gallon

Prosoco Saltguard, 1 Gallon​

These seem a bit hard to find for DIY guys. I have used stonetech with success on my other pool. As it is water based it can be a bit trickier to apply near or around swim season. The solvent based sealers above seem to have a 4-6 dry and cure time and have less issue with water hitting them before they seal. Does anyone have experience to offer on these solvent based sealers and how they have applied them in the past? I want to do my coping and raise spa wall and raised wall on the back the pool...

My current pool has Oklahoma Flagstone coping and San Saba Rainbow Chop in ashlar pattern on my raised wall and spa. The san saba is unsealed and is in less than a year very sandy and needs to be sealed. The ok coping may or may not have been sealed. It doesn't bead but pool company tells me it was sealed...

Anyway - wanted to start a thread about stone and sealer and other recommendations about pools with saltwater.

 

[mknauss]

It is not the salt, it is the poor quality stone. SWCG or not, the same would have happened. Any pool that uses chlorine, solid or liquid, has salt levels at least half or more as much as the 3000 ppm a SWCG pool has.

 

[joepaiii]

Why was this moved out of the saltwater generator section? This could be a helpful thread to have people see what types of sealers work best around saltwater pools. Anyway.. so much for that. It certainly doesn't belong here... it should either go under construction or in the swg. And I am not debating salt vs non salt nor do I completely agree its the salt in combination with the poor quality stones. Either way - if you end up with salt and poor quality stones a sealer discussion or stone type discussion is a valid one for either the swg or under construction forum. Again not sure why a mod moved this...

 

[Katodude]

I think the point that Marty was trying to make is that EVERY pool is technically a salt water pool. Every chemical you add to a pool adds salt and that salt adds up. Which means again, EVERY pool is a salt water pool. The only difference is if you use that salt to generate chlorine or it just sits in the poo.

 

[mknauss]

Again not sure why a mod moved this..i

I sent you a PM earlier today.

 

[joepaiii]

I think the point that Marty was trying to make is that EVERY pool is technically a salt water pool. Every chemical you add to a pool adds salt and that salt adds up. Which means again, EVERY pool is a salt water pool. The only difference is if you use that salt to generate chlorine or it just sits in the poo.

As I mentioned in my first message - I don't want to debate salt vs no salt and rock degradation. In the end if you have the problem the only way to know if its the salt on not is to drain your pool and start over with fresh water. And then if/when the salt level climbs you could drop it and refill. And then see if the problems with rock go away. I have read here that people have had sandiness on their rocks and switching away from salt resolved it. I have also read time and time again that salt isn't the issue. But this has been debated ad infinitum here.

I do wonder how very soft chop style stones hold up when on a raised wall/raised spa for others. I am having lots of sand come off of these around my saltwater pool (less than a year old). Which is why I want to have a discussion about sealers and soft rocks around a pool for those who have the issue. So again - does anyone have any feedback on using one these solvent based sealers I mentioned? I have used the StoneTech Salt Water Resistant Sealer around my previous pool on the coping and it eliminated the sandiness. I am trying to find out if anyone has used this or the solvent based sealers on a raised spa and raised wall. Or is a consolidating sealer the best. Or should I just wait until the soft poor quality stone look bad and then just replace them?

 

[Katodude]

You might want to check out this thread. I put some on a piece of travertine to test it out and boy did it seal it well. I would buy a can and test it on a small piece of your stone to see.

The absolute best granite sealer

Changed jobs recently from being a CFO in Healthcare to now being a CFO for a Granite company. We import our granite from Brazil and India. For those who have BBQ islands with granite/marble/quarztite this is the absolute best sealer on the planet...if you can find it. Better than anything...

www.troublefreepool.com