New Member: Plaster adding Blue Quartz

[PoolDoc]

Crystalline silicon dioxide -- quartz -- would be very resistant to staining. However, I don't know what "Blue Quartz" is . . . except that it's NOT blue quartz. Quartz (sand or crystals) can come in tan, clear, rose or other colors . . . but not blue. See http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz

So, I have no idea whether your builder's product, trade named "Blue Quartz" is actually more stain resistant than while plaster or not. However, I can tell you that ANY colored finish will make your pool significantly hotter than it would be otherwise. And, that might not be what you want in south Texas!

[mnittler]

The installer showed me a sample of the quartz product and it had lots of blue specs in the plaster.

[PoolDoc]

"Blue specs" could be dyed calcium; could be plastic; could be almost anything EXCEPT actual silicon dioxide quartz. The fact that there were blue specks does not tell you ANYTHING about how the "Blue Quartz" (with no actual quartz) will stand up to stains.

Understand: I'm not saying it won't do better; I'm just saying you don't have any real information that it will do better.

[mnittler]

I went back and read the fine print and the blue specs in the plaster is Blue dyed Quartz. He said that the blue dyed quartz mixed in with the plaster will last forever. I am not sure what his definition of forever is? His next upgrade was adding pebbles and the next upgrade was tile. Anybody used dyed Quartz before and have any comments based on their experience?

[PoolDoc]

I don't think you can dye mineral quartz.

[BigDave]

Quartz can be dyed - at least you can dye cracks and spaces in the quartz. There's an eHow article at http://www.ehow.com/how_10018390_dye-quartz.html. The permanence of the dye and the resistance to staining - I don't know. It is certainly not as resistant as untreated quartz crystal after going through the dyeing process.

[mnittler]

I did some research on the blue quartz for pools on the internet and this is what I came up with. Some of the trade names for the Blue Quartz is QuartzBrite, ColorQuartz, DiamondBrite, Sunstone, QuartzScapes, and QuartzOne. It looks like this product is mixed in with the plaster and then sand blasted lightly to remove the plaster and expose the blue color chips of the Quartz. On the sample that the pool installer had this product felt much smoother than a pebble finish sample that he let me see. I cannot tell if it is really Quartz.