Plaster problem

[John B.]

Last season I renovated my pool and had it plastered by a professional pool company. This season, the walls (about 6-8 inches below the tile line) and the floor of the pool have developed a "sandpaper" type surface. It is so bad that the kids have sore feet and, while diving for pennys, one came up with a bloody knuckle. After plastering, I religiously brushed the surfaces as directed and before winterization the surfaces were fine. What went wrong and how can it be fixed? Thank you!

[TJ]

Hi John:

Our swimming pool was installed last summer and we had the same problem when we removed the cover on May 2.

The "sandpaper" surface is caused by the new plaster leaching out calcium during winter storage. During the curing process, the plaster will naturally increase the ph of your pool water during winter storage and this high ph causes the buildup of calcium on the pool surface.

I purchased a stainless steel pool brush and used it on a daily basis for roughly one week to get rid of the calcium. Prior to completely balancing the pool chemisty, the calcium was very difficult to remove.

I did notice, however, that once the chemistry was balanced and the water temperature rose above 70 degrees, the calcium was easily removed even with my nylon pool brush.

The plaster surface in our pool is once again smooth.

I hope this helps.

[John B.]

TJ: Thank you, very much, for your input and advice. I called the warranty department of the company that did the renovation and they are sending someone but is has been over two weeks now. I am going to try your remedy. The chemistry, right now, is perfect and the pool water temp. is 78 degrees so I will give it a shot. By the way, did you notice any "pitting" after brushing where the larger deposits might have been? Thanks again!!! John

[Pool User]

John:

I haven't noticed any pitting in the plaster. I forgot to mention that I did add one bottle of Stain & Scale Control to the water at the time I started brushing with the stainless steel brush. I don't know if this resulted in softening the calcium deposits and making it easier to remove but eventually I could remove any scale by rubbing my hand or foot over it and the consistency was similar to wet clay.

Also, brushing the scale will cause your water to become cloudy. The filter will clear this up in a day or two and some will settle on the pool floor. Between vacuuming and filtering, remember to monitor your filter pressure. I believe I had to backwash my filter two or three times due to increased pressure before the calcium scale was completely gone.

[John B.]

Thank you, again, for the advice. I plan on visiting my pool supply center tomorrow and starting this right away. You have really helped! I thought that I was going to have a major problem and have to jack hammer and re-plaster the pool. I will certainly try ANYTHING short of that. I'll let you know how it works out.
John

[Pool User]

John,
Just ask your local pool store for a product like hydro quest. It dissolves the scale. Stain and scale control only prevent it. Any questions call 702-0311.