Hi everyone! Recently joined this forum to explore options when renovating our pool. I fully intended to post progress photos as we went, but it's been a very hectic couple of months and while I did an okay job getting some photos, I never found the time to upload them. Apologies if a photo-dump at the tail end is less exciting, but I thought I would share in case our process or results were informational or interesting to anyone here (or anyone looking in the future). We purchased a new home in the SE Texas area in March of 2021, and it came complete with our first swimming pool--a roughly 15'x40' saltwater pool, 10-years old, with quartz plaster and an adjoining spa. The pool featured one large tanning shelf and a somewhat small shelf on the opposite side, adjacent to the spa. Not sure of the exact depth otherwise, but it is probably about 4-feet on either end, and approximately 5 or 5.5 in the middle. This is a photo of the pool when we initially viewed the home and put in our offer (also notice the mostly-healthy trees... more on that later):
We absolutely loved the pool which, although a decade old, still looked modern and fit perfectly in the surrounding space. We would have had no inclination to change anything about it, but unfortunately, sometime between making an offer and closing the sale, a rust spot developed on the bottom of the pool. As a pool noob, I had no idea what it was, and the prior owner claimed it was a stain from a leaf that had blown into the pool during a long freeze that shut down power and water for a couple of weeks. After having it looked at by a couple of pool builders, we determined it was actually a crack in the plaster where rebar was bleeding through. Between March and mid-summer, it gradually stained the bottom of the pool, which we tried to address with metal treatments, but that resulted in nothing more than a couple bouts of stubborn algae and metal stains that faded but just came back in days. Here are some pictures of the rust spot, as well as the spreading stains:
Our pool servicer tried to patch the crack on two occasions, digging out the plaster and chipping down, then filling it with some kind of waterproof material, but it did not last either time. Within a few weeks, the rust always started bleeding through again (and we still couldn't get rid of the existing/continuing stains). Picture of the patch job with returning rust:
By the end of last year (November-ish), we were pretty sure we just wanted to wait until winter and possibly resurface the pool, especially since both builders who looked at the issue spotted other cracks in the plaster in other locations. They said it was primarily aesthetic, and that we could probably go a few more years without addressing anything, but at that point I was pretty obsessed with making my "brand new" pool look perfect. We might still have waited a year or two, honestly, but we were also frustrated by a problem with the water feature. As you can see in the photos above, one side of the pool has a stacked stone wall that was apparently intended to operate as a "weeping" wall, with water trickling down across its length. Unfortunately, the original builder did not do a good job with the effect, resulting in a torrent of water at one end, and a bare trickle at the other. Again, something we were resigned to deal with for awhile, but in December we noticed the waterwall was also leaking in multiple spots across the back whenever it was turned on. Which explained a bunch of issues we'd had with dying trees in the adjoining garden (due to a somewhat steady diet of chlorinated saltwater). So, we decided in mid-December that we had to repair the waterwall, anyway, so we might as well just tackle everything at once. Here are some pictures of the malfunctioning wall, and the leaks:
In January 2022, we interviewed a couple of pool builders and got quotes for the work. Before going any further, I should probably brace you for this: I think we may be the only people in the history of pool-owning to spend the amount of money we ultimately decided to spend for the sole purpose of renovating a pool to look pretty much like it did before spending the money. Heckle me if you must, but I swear fixing all of the little things added up in our heads and made sense (and we don't regret it, so far). In addition to the problems noted above, we also had no pool lights. The spa light was broken when we purchased (which we knew), and then the pool light crapped out around seven months later. Between the cracks, the stains, the weird and leaky water feature, and the lights, there was a lot to do that is not evident on the surface. We also decided to automate everything--in for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. Upgrading to a pebble finish also seemed like a no-brainer, since the quotes for pebble and quartz weren't that far off, although it did ultimately balloon the price more than expected when we chose a builder who would not re-plaster unless they also re-tiled. We actually really liked the original tile and would have left it alone--just sandblasted away the stains and scaling--but they claimed the join between tile and plaster is a big deal and they could not warrant a job where they don't also do the tile. Seemed like a bit of a stretch, but we really liked their work, so the deal was done. We looked at a variety of tile and almost really went nuts with this one:
...but we weren't really sure our subdued and somewhat natural pool design would look right with such a wild pattern. Plus, the pool builder kept saying it was "beautifully unique," which I sort of interpreted as "something you will regret later." It also turned out to be more expensive than our tile allowance would allow, so that made the decision with us--we would stick to our guns and go with a tile close to our original look. We looked at the below samples and ultimately chose the tile in the upper left, below:
...and with that I've discovered only 10 files can be attached to posts in this forum. Fair enough. Instead of a single, long post-mortem of a pool remodel, you will get two posts to (hopefully) enjoy. Stay tuned...
We absolutely loved the pool which, although a decade old, still looked modern and fit perfectly in the surrounding space. We would have had no inclination to change anything about it, but unfortunately, sometime between making an offer and closing the sale, a rust spot developed on the bottom of the pool. As a pool noob, I had no idea what it was, and the prior owner claimed it was a stain from a leaf that had blown into the pool during a long freeze that shut down power and water for a couple of weeks. After having it looked at by a couple of pool builders, we determined it was actually a crack in the plaster where rebar was bleeding through. Between March and mid-summer, it gradually stained the bottom of the pool, which we tried to address with metal treatments, but that resulted in nothing more than a couple bouts of stubborn algae and metal stains that faded but just came back in days. Here are some pictures of the rust spot, as well as the spreading stains:
Our pool servicer tried to patch the crack on two occasions, digging out the plaster and chipping down, then filling it with some kind of waterproof material, but it did not last either time. Within a few weeks, the rust always started bleeding through again (and we still couldn't get rid of the existing/continuing stains). Picture of the patch job with returning rust:
By the end of last year (November-ish), we were pretty sure we just wanted to wait until winter and possibly resurface the pool, especially since both builders who looked at the issue spotted other cracks in the plaster in other locations. They said it was primarily aesthetic, and that we could probably go a few more years without addressing anything, but at that point I was pretty obsessed with making my "brand new" pool look perfect. We might still have waited a year or two, honestly, but we were also frustrated by a problem with the water feature. As you can see in the photos above, one side of the pool has a stacked stone wall that was apparently intended to operate as a "weeping" wall, with water trickling down across its length. Unfortunately, the original builder did not do a good job with the effect, resulting in a torrent of water at one end, and a bare trickle at the other. Again, something we were resigned to deal with for awhile, but in December we noticed the waterwall was also leaking in multiple spots across the back whenever it was turned on. Which explained a bunch of issues we'd had with dying trees in the adjoining garden (due to a somewhat steady diet of chlorinated saltwater). So, we decided in mid-December that we had to repair the waterwall, anyway, so we might as well just tackle everything at once. Here are some pictures of the malfunctioning wall, and the leaks:
In January 2022, we interviewed a couple of pool builders and got quotes for the work. Before going any further, I should probably brace you for this: I think we may be the only people in the history of pool-owning to spend the amount of money we ultimately decided to spend for the sole purpose of renovating a pool to look pretty much like it did before spending the money. Heckle me if you must, but I swear fixing all of the little things added up in our heads and made sense (and we don't regret it, so far). In addition to the problems noted above, we also had no pool lights. The spa light was broken when we purchased (which we knew), and then the pool light crapped out around seven months later. Between the cracks, the stains, the weird and leaky water feature, and the lights, there was a lot to do that is not evident on the surface. We also decided to automate everything--in for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. Upgrading to a pebble finish also seemed like a no-brainer, since the quotes for pebble and quartz weren't that far off, although it did ultimately balloon the price more than expected when we chose a builder who would not re-plaster unless they also re-tiled. We actually really liked the original tile and would have left it alone--just sandblasted away the stains and scaling--but they claimed the join between tile and plaster is a big deal and they could not warrant a job where they don't also do the tile. Seemed like a bit of a stretch, but we really liked their work, so the deal was done. We looked at a variety of tile and almost really went nuts with this one:
...but we weren't really sure our subdued and somewhat natural pool design would look right with such a wild pattern. Plus, the pool builder kept saying it was "beautifully unique," which I sort of interpreted as "something you will regret later." It also turned out to be more expensive than our tile allowance would allow, so that made the decision with us--we would stick to our guns and go with a tile close to our original look. We looked at the below samples and ultimately chose the tile in the upper left, below:
...and with that I've discovered only 10 files can be attached to posts in this forum. Fair enough. Instead of a single, long post-mortem of a pool remodel, you will get two posts to (hopefully) enjoy. Stay tuned...
