Water seeping through plaster and shotcrete

[aivey13]

Hello all, new to the site here. We just completed a concrete pool in Oklahoma. We plastered on Tuesday 7/20, acid washed Wednesday 7/21. Pool was filled as of yesterday afternoon, 7/22. Last night, and again this morning, I've noticed numerous wet spots on the exterior of our shotcrete walls. Roughly two sides of our pool walls are exposed, above ground, due to topography of our yard so this weeping is obviously coming from inside the pool. I would have expected seepage through just the shotcrete, but am surprised to see this much seepage after the plaster was applied. I've seen some threads on here about water seeping INTO the pool from the surrounding soil, but that is not my particular issue.

Is this normal or typical after only a few days of plaster to have water seeping out to the exterior? Does plaster's imperviousness improve over time? Hoping you all can ease my anxiety.

 

[BigPapaSmurf]

That doesn’t look correct to me. Have you reached out to your pool builder?

 

[aivey13]

That doesn’t look correct to me. Have you reached out to your pool builder?

Yes, I have. He's always slow to respond (sadly). He's an overly optimistic guy...I guess you have to be in the pool construction business...so my assumption is that he'll tell me "oh ya, that's normal. It'll 'go away' or improve over several months...". Hoping to see if anyone else has had this problem, and how it turned out.

 

[onBalance]

Brand new pool plaster is somewhat permeable for a few days after being newly finished and filled with water.
From the experiments I did years ago, the water seepage should stop in less than a week. If it continues, then alert the pool builder and insist that the plaster job be inspected closely.

 

[Haku84]

I have the same issue as you with the topography of the yard to one side is above ground. I noticed my skimmer was leaking. PB had some one look at it, and I was told if it was under ground i wouldnt have noticed it. (facepalm) Keeping an eye on it, I noticed this morning the dirt around that area and the stucco was still wet.

 

[aivey13]

Just an update for anyone who is curious. So now, after a month of having water in the pool, my "wet spots" have been narrowed down to 2-3 significant areas. All other areas have dried up. Not sure what is going on with the remaining wet spots, but one in particular has grown in size. Pool Company isn't sure what the cause is - doesn't think it's a pipe leak because he thinks they pressure tested everything sufficiently. He thinks it might be condensation on the pipes that is absorbing into the concrete shell, which seems logical because it has been very warm and humid here in Oklahoma the last month. But, seems like if that were the case, there'd be more wet spots than just these 2 or 3.

Still hard for me to guesstimate what it is - could be seepage through the plaster in a few weak spots, but I don't know how common that is, and just seems like it would be more prevalent if that were the cause.