New pool owner - question on Diamond Brite pits

[famousdavis]

Hi all, I'm a new pool owner as of about six or seven weeks ago. We're enjoying having a pool very much (I live in South Florida).

Background: I tend to be obsessive about things.

Question: I like our new pool, of course, which as a beautiful Diamond Brite Super Blue finish. After waiting a little more than a month, we got a Barracude G3 to vacuum the pool. When I recently cleaned out the pump filter basket, I saw a few pieces of Diamond Brite in there -- I hadn't seen that before in the first 30 days of pool ownership. I wondered where it came from?

This morning, I think I figured it out. There a few places -- maybe a dozen or so -- in our pool which have tiny pits in them, where I supposed the Diamond Brite that was there got sucked up (maybe just broken off without suction). The pits aren't real deep, certainly not to the point where it exposes the pool shell -- it's about the depth of one of the pieces of blue aggregate crystal used in the plaster.

My question is, is this normal or abnormal? If it's normal, I won't sweat it. If it's abnormal, I'll bring it to the pool builder's attention.

Second question is a follow-up: what do you do with these pits? Just ignore them (they're small enough to do that)? Or do you use some sort of pool repair kit for these kinds of things?

Thanks

[Watermom]

Famousdavis,
This kind of question is one that may be able to be answered by some of our builder types or maybe by another member who has this type of finish. However, none of those people can see the getting started section of the forum and i don't think any of the mods know much about Diamond Brite. So, be patient and once your post is released to the general forum as opposed to this start up forum, hopefully you'll get some views by someone who may be able to help you.

[famousdavis]

Thanks Watermom. I'm curious now -- what kind of pool finishes do most people have? I thought Diamond Brite was kinda the standard way of finishing pools (and PebbleTec the upgraded choice). At least, those were the two of three options offered to me by my builder.

And keeping on topic, I've found a few more places where a pit has developed in the Diamond Brite finish. They're easy to spot now because it's a fleck of white instead the small pieces of colored stone that make up the pool finish. When I dive down to investigate, I can see a little pit now -- the original flecks of Diamond Brite crumbled away. No one else is noticing these things -- but they weren't the ones who paid for this new pool. ;-)

[PoolDoc]

I would call Diamond Brite and ask them . . . and then ask if you can record their statement that this is "normal" if they say it is.
http://www.sgm.cc/diamondbrite/index.html

If they won't say it's normal, for the record, then you've got your answer.

Personally, I have no idea; I've never even seen a pool with the stuff, though I know there are some in this area.

[famousdavis]

Thanks for the link, PoolDoc. I poked around at the SGM website and found their warranty details. #2 on the list of limitations reads, "Some loss of aggregate is expected, especially in a new installation: This is not to be considered a failure."

How much constitutes "some loss of aggregate"? Who knows? But the very, very little aggregate I've lost so far would seem to me to fall way, way below the threshold.

So I won't sweat it any longer. ;-)

[PoolDoc]

Glad you were able to work it out.

[keschete]

Let me know how it goes with the Diamond brite. I am going to be using it in my new pool construction. Any advice also about your experience with the construction? It sounds like you pay attention to details like I do. Thanks, Kaya

[famousdavis]

We usually regret whatever contractor we select for anything, but, happily, we actually chose a good pool builder. We had a few bumps, but we worked them out. Some bumps: The subcontractor severed both our water main and our telephone line. The water main was, admittedly, barely buried, but still! The telephone line was not his fault, as AT&T said we didn't have an underground wire. I knew better, but the sub never asked me about it. So it's good to offer info to your builder, even if he doesn't ask for it! If you have a sprinkler system in your backyard, remove the sprinkler heads before construction, and find out where, exactly, your earth will be disturbed. It's better for you to cut-n-cap your sprinkler system before heavy earthmoving equipment digs into it.

The big question for me on the Diamond Brite was, What color to choose? There is hardly any good info on the web that shows pictures of real pools in sunny and shady conditions using different DB finishes. I did learn that some colors may be harder to take care of than others -- Tahoe Blue and French Gray being two of the more difficult colors to tend to, and which may expose flaws in the finish more readily. The look I wanted was a shimmering aquamarine blue in full sunlight, or a shimmering emerald green (think: the Carribean and white sand). But I couldn't find *any* pictures of the greenish finishes, and I worried that instead of emerald green, I'd get algae green or pond green instead.

So I chose Super Blue. It's *awesome*. Exactly the look I wanted. In full sun, with the pump running and water moving around the surface, it is just breathtaking how beautiful it is. Some have said that they thought was "too blue" but I don't think so at all. In fact, I've wondered what the other, similar shades would've looked like -- like just regular Blue -- because any lighter shading of blue from my Super Blue finish, and I don't think I'd like it quite as much. I definitely didn't want a pale or whitish looking finish.

If you have a few colors that you're interested in, maybe post in this forum asking for DB owners to share a few photos of their pools with you. You can try Googling, too, but it was hard to find real photos labeled with the specific DB finish that was used on them, and even then, often the photos were taken in poor lighting conditions.

[keschete]

I really like the Midnight blue and Tahoe blue. What makes the Tahoe blue so difficult? Do you think Midnight would have the same issues? Thanks, Kaya

[famousdavis]

From what I've read, yeah, Midnight Blue would have the same issue. The "issue" is using non-white plaster in the cement mix. Having a pigmented cement mixed with the aggregate makes it more challenging to retain the appearance of the DB finish, and flaws can be more noticeable. I liked Tahoe Blue, too, and was thinking that would be the color I'd choose, but 1) it was an DB "upgrade", and 2) I didn't want more trouble with my DB finish than what I was already going to get. This is, afterall, my first pool, so I didn't want to be more ambitious than what was warranted.

Also, with the darker pigments, be aware that they'd make your pool water warmer. I live in So. Fla., and I don't need my pool water to be any warmer than it already is right now -- that is, between 89 and 90 degrees. Not sure where you live and whether that would be a consideration to ponder over, but I did ponder over that matter before selecting a DB finish.

[vinper]

We went with French grey Diamond Brite . Its really wierd that its grey till you add water then it turns a nice blue ......

[famousdavis]

That was on my short list of DB colors, too!! But like Tahoe Blue, it was an upgraded choice. I liked the few photos I found on the 'Net that showed pools done in French Grey. I hope you like your pool when it's done!

[vinper]

Mine has been finished 2 years this Oct. ... Love it ... you can see pics of it ,in this section listed thread- My Build

[famousdavis]

Great photos! I'd love to see what the water looks like in direct sunlight. Your home, from what little I could see of it, looks nicely upscale. I'm astonished at how much bang you got for you buck. I guess it helped a lot that you did much of the work yourself, huh? Saved yourself a tidy bundle that way.

Wasn't it nice to be able to design your own pool, just the way you want? When my wife and I were looking at the possibility of moving to a larger home that would already have a pool, the homes we looked at all had fairly pedestrian kinds of swimming pools, which would be fine, but it's so much nicer when you can cobble together your own pool design and create something that is uniquely a reflection of your own values, tastes and style. Our home is pretty unremarkable in every possible way, but the pool area now is its key selling feature (not that we're looking to move). A co-worker friend just bought and moved into a nearly new home that during the hey-deys of the real estate market sold for over $1M (he bought it for about half that -- still a huge amount of money). His home outshines my home in every possible way...except one. I like my swimming pool area much better than his. :-)

[vinper]

We worked with the builder on the house saved there also . But we learned so much on both . would love to do it again .. you get better the more you practice .. But just glad to not be upsidedown on mortgage like so many people are right now...

[famousdavis]

"But just glad to not be upsidedown on mortgage like so many people are right now..."

Amen to that! My wife and I stuck in our little 3/2 home while friends I know upsized into huge homes. Then the housing market collapsed, people went bankrupt or they're upside down on their mortgages. One friend I have lives in his $500K home that's now worth about $260K (he's probably $150K upside-down). We suffered through lots of Florida summers without a pool, but now we've got one and I don't have to worry about next month's mortgage payment.

Sometimes less is more.

[PoolDoc]

I think less is going to be more for a long . . . long . . . time. You can't overcome 35 years of living nationally on credit in 5 years. I'm not sure what this will mean for the pool industry, except that there will be a heck of a lot of Intex pools!

But, I think that's a good thing, for the most part*. People forget that the ORIGINAL American dream was freedom from oppression, not freedom to shop till you drop!

Ben / PoolDoc

* If China becomes THE world power, I'm very afraid THAT will be a very, very bad thing, even for the Chinese. Take a look at these articles, about the recent high speed train crash:
http://goo.gl/umzJW -- http://goo.gl/Umfon
The authorities are LITERALLY burying the evidence, possibly including live people. One 2 year old baby was rescued by a policeman disobeying direct orders.