Brand new pool, how often should the startup guy visit?

[portabill]

The plaster went on my new pool 9 days ago, and the startup guy did great. However, I haven't seen him in 5 days. Did a sanity check of chemical levels, chlorine is gone (no surprise), but the pH as at least 8.2. I just put in some muratic acid to start pushing it back down while I figure out what is going on with the contractor.

What is the pH level where scale starts forming? The salt system is off and no salt is in the pool, what would drive the pH up like that?

Thanks from a newbie!

[PoolDoc]

OK for starters, you'd better add 1 gallon of plain 6% bleach per 10,000 gallons of pool water this evening, and again in the AM. Keep dosing 1 gallon per 10K in the PM, till you work something out with your installer. But, don't let it 'go green'!

Regarding the pH, it's normal for pH to rise as plaster cures. But, different contractors have different ideas about how you should handle that . . . and your plaster warranty is partially dependent on doing it HIS way. So, track your guy down, and find out what he wants done.

[famousdavis]

When we had our pool built this summer, a similar thing happened to us. The pool builder contracted with a local pool guy to provide service to our pool for a month. What that meant, really, is the guy was going to come over to our home just once a week or so for a month to add chemicals to get the water balanced.

While we were into this, I bought a cheap test kit and started testing my water to find that there was no chlorine in it, so I just called the pool guy and told him there was no chlorine in the pool, and when was he going to come out next because I didn't want algae to grow in our brand new pool? So, he actually visited a little more frequently than once a week because I called him. I think it was on his 2nd visit he added some stabilizer which helped to keep chlorine in the pool, but even with stabilizer, the chlorine get dissolved pretty quickly (within a few days) of his visiting.

Although we didn't have an algae problem, I think we could have -- there was at times during that first month 0 chlorine in the pool. That gave me a bad taste in my mouth for using a pool service to care for my pool.

I noticed that he used test strips to test our water -- this was before I came to this forum and learned anything about water testing and how to care for one's own pool.

I initially thought I'd use his services all summer long, but through the advice on this forum, I cut him loose after our summer vacation in July. I feel like no one is going to test my pool's water as carefully as I do. And so no one gets more accurate pool water test results than what I can get (using the Taylor K-2006).

Our water has been gorgeous all summer. I don't realize how great our water is until we visit someone else's home, and my kids report to me how cloudy the other people's pool water is compared to ours. I credit our sparkly water to three things: this forum's advice, the K-2006 test kit, and my daily and weekly testing of pool water. I think it's Carl who has a tagline that says something like, "Take 5 minutes a day to care for your pool" -- great advice, that.

[portabill]

Thanks for the replies, things are back under control. The contractor's regular pool guy is "busy" with the county fair, so, unbeknownst to the contractor, made a deal with his buddy, with another startup guy/maintenance company. The temp startup guy showed up yesterday to see how things were going because he thought the regular guy was back on the job. He took care of things and it's now back in range. He said he hasn't heard from the real guy and left a message while I was standing there. Now I know a little better what will happen with the balances. Good thing I wasn't working out of town right now.