Time to resurface our pool - unsure if pebbles are a good idea

[wetwilly]

I live in southern California in an area with real hard water, so am always fighting scale and due to the drought can't replace the water as
often as I'd like. I could do RO, but that is costly.

I like the idea of putting in a pebble surface, but wonder if it really lasts as long as 20-30 years. Am concerned that I'd get calcium deposits on the
pebbles and need to acid wash which would likely reduce the lifespan of the plaster that hold the pebbles in place.

Am looking for advice. Anyone regret putting in pebbles? I do have a highly recommend company with lots of experience installing pebbles, but am still thinking
I should just go with a white quartz based plaster.

Thanks

 

[djw]

I am planning/shopping on my resurface project. You might do some research on Aquabright from ecoFinish. I am not there yet on my decision but it seems a good, possibly better alternative to plaster or pebbles.

 

[borjis]

If you can afford Aquabright, go for it.

The finish is very likely to outlast all the other finishes.

No calcium concerns either.

 

[Dirk]

I chose pebble for its longevity, which is about the same as mine, so I'm hoping to never have to resurface again. It is no where near as comfortable as my old plaster, even after it had been coated with calcium. I miss it. Since it was an acid wash that destroyed the plaster, necessitating the resurface, I'll never acid wash again, no matter what. If I get stains or deposits, I'll just live with them. Acid washing is not worth the risk, and the inevitable reduction of longevity, IMO.

Will mine last 20 or 30 years? There's no way to know, and if anyone tells you yours will, then good luck with that. How it's installed, and then maintained, has as much to do with it than the material. You could get a good plaster cure and maintain it well and have it outlast a bad pebble install, by a lot. How are you going to know? And how are you going to vet out contractors? Even if you find one that can prove his pools are lasting, you're still subject to the crew that shows up, how long those guys have been doing it, how much of a hurry they're in that day, how much they drank the night before, and whether their wives chewed them out that morning for it or not!!

All I can do, and advise, is to make the most out of whatever you get by adhering to a very strict maintenance regime. No slacking off. Perfect balance. Appropriate CSI. Proper chemical adding habits. Etc. Then just hope for the best!

Not very helpful, I know. If my pebble fails, I'll get plaster next time.

Regarding the calcium, I have a thread that describes my efforts to control that. I have hard water. High TA, too. My CH hasn't budged in 9 months. I top the pool off with soft water. That's the ticket. Zero CH-rise. Since the resurface (when I had the existing tile blasted for a nasty calcium ring), I can't find a spec of ring at the water line. Calcium free! And my SWG no longer throws calcium flakes. I have solved for calcium, so that's yet another reason to never do an acid wash again...