Whole Pool Stain, Rough Plaster at Season Open

[Lenny]

I got in the pool for the first time yesterday and was very relieved. For whatever reason, my steps were by far the worst. They had the scale build up and encapsulated dirt (although they are slowly getting better). There are stains around the pool floor (shaped sort of like thin leaves) but the floor and pool walls, overall, are pretty smooth. Not as smooth as last year, but not nearly as rough as I feared. One I take care of the stains things will be fine.

I think I'm going to get a rougher brush and keep working on the steps. I think they will eventually be OK as well.

I still don't know exactly what happened here. I'm going to try some asorbic acid on the floor stains to see what happens. I did add a metal sequestering agent a few weeks ago but that didn't do much.

ezpool, I don't know about the power washer. Maybe you could try it with extreme caution but I'd be worried about pitting the plaster and making things worse.

Lenny

[Lenny]

Well, I have tried crushed asorbic acid tablets on a few stains and it hasn't done much of anything. I basically have 3 types of things going on:

1. The rough areas, mostly on the stairs, which seem almost like sand is encapsulated in scale.
2. Many brown stains around pool. They are shaped like a thin leaf or sliver mostly. They look like metal stains. I put metal free in a couple of weeks ago and it didn't do much if anything.
3. Generally lack-luster plaster. The plaster looks dirty in general. It just isn't the off white color it's supposed to be.

Any ideas on how I should attack this? I inspected a lot of the pool yesterday with goggles. There are a lot of areas, like in the stair corners for example, where it looks like etching (or pitting) took place over the winter but most of the plaster doesn't approach the roughness of the stairs. I'm just not sure what to do about these stains. I'm thinking about treating with asorbic acid just to see what happens.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[squirrel49]

Well, I've decided to drain, acid wash, and sand the pool. The rough, slightly stained plaster is driving me nuts, especially since the plaster used to be so smooth. We have quite a few neighborhood kids that use the pool and they now have to wear socks or water shoes to keep from tearing up their feet.

I plan on doing it his weekend. I'm all set on the acid washing part. Is there any advice on the plaster sanding (diamond pad?, wet/dry sandpaper?, grit?, sanding tools, etc).

Thanks,

Pat.

[MaryS]

Pat,

I opened my 2 year old 18,000 gallon gray plaster pool this year and found the same problem that you have - very rough surface. I have always been meticulous about my pool plaster. When I closed it, the water was in balance and the plaster baby bottom smooth. Now it is a disgrace. I have been running it acidic for the past 2 weeks and brushing and sanding. The steps are a bit better, our swimsuits are finally safe. The sides are still very rough. The appearance of the plaster is just not what it used to be, not to mention the feel of it. The service company who closed the pool said the PH must have gone up too high over the winter, causing scale.

I am curious... are you going to acid wash and sand the pool yourself? Is this a difficult process? Let me know how you make out. I am trying to decide what to do.

Thanks
Mary

[mbar]

You know I have never heard of so many people having this problem. Just something that is very curious - I usually open my pool to very low ph. This year my ph was above 8 - I wonder what went on this winter? I live in northeast pa, where are you all from? It just has me a bit puzzled as to why so many have posted about scale on their plaster pools.

[MaryS]

I am located in Southeastern PA, a western suburb of Philadelphia

[Lenny]

Mary, I'm in Wilmington, DE.

That's the thing that bugs me about this. We don't know how it happened and we have no idea how to prevent it. When I closed my pool for the first time in 2005 my plaster hadn't cured yet (pool was built late in the season) so I wasn't surprised my PH was high at the start of my first full season. The plaster was pretty smooth at that time though. I would have expected my PH to have been somewhat better when I took off the cover this year but it was sky high.

What king of cover do you guys have? I have a mesh cover and I'm still wondering whether that can be a negative because it's exposed to the elements. My hardness was very low as well. I had to pump a lot of water out this year due to winter rain, so the the mesh cover caused the water to get quite diluted.

[mbar]

I have a mesh cover as well. There was so much rain this year - I'm sure I had almost all new water It just shocked me that my ph was high this year, when it usually is so low when I open.

[squirrel49]

Marie: I live in Southeast Michigan.

Mary: Yes I am acid washing and sanding myself. Shouldn't be too bad. Looks like I'm postponing another week. The water haulers are backed up at least a week and I want to re-fill as soon as I'm finished (don't want to leave the pool empty for a week).

Lenny: I have very similar situation to you. I completed building my pool late summer 2005 and opened on Labor day weekend. I closed that fall and had no issues on the subsequent open. I have a Merlin mesh cover.

Picture of clean plaster prior to the problems:

[mbar]

What a beautiful pool! Hope all goes well Let us know how it turns out.