New Wet Edge Crystal Blue plaster issues, advice?

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amillionvoices

amillionvoices

Gold Supporter
Jul 20, 2024
20
Orlando, FL
Pool Size
12000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Jandy Truclear / Ei
Hi everyone, long time reader. I haven't gotten around to posting a full build thread and we're almost done. But I wanted to share pics from the plaster job today. We used Wet Edge Crystal Blue. They finished around 8 hours ago and these are the pictures before acid wash and fill, which is supposed to happen tomorrow. I have a few concerns, the main one being what looks like a sagging part of the surface which is creating some cracks. This is hard to get a good picture of but essentially we have a few cracks all in the same area a few feet apart. The left one is about 4 inches long the right about 1.5 inches. Below the cracks you can see some of the wall bulging out almost like it slid down the surface. Is this something that happens and can be fixed tomorrow before the wash and fill?

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Here's the same area with circles around the bulging parts.
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You can see the area in this picture on the right that is darker than the rest of the shell. This is the same spot that the sagging is happening which makes me worry it moisture was weeping through versus just being discolored.
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Here's another angle with the same stain from months earlier
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And addition pictures that show the surface of the pool, including this one boot mark. Should I be concerned with the unevenness of the texture/color before the acid wash? Or will that take a lot of the unevenness away?
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The cracks and sagging of the finished product is not normal and is showing signs of possible sloughing from over hydration of the substrate and in turn causing a crack to form above it.
In your third picture provided was the wet area there even when in direct sunlight?

The boot mark is there to stay and most likely will not be removed with the acid wash.

The acid wash removes the “Butter” of the plaster, if the finish is smooth in one spot and rough in another the acid will most likely remove the “Butter” evenly across both surfaces.

In picture #6 the white powdery substance appears to be product that the final wash left behind and is typically removed with the acid wash.
Still it’s hard to give a exact answer without actually seeing it in person.
 
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Yes the stain I showed looked permanent. It didn’t seem to change no matter the weather and I was told by PB it was normal discoloration of the gunite shell. It may be a coincidence that the sloughing is in the same spot but I’m not sure.

Is the sloughing something that can be fixed?
 
The areas of concern can be removed and replaced but often times they will not match with the surrounding colors.
Your concern at this point should be why this occurred in the first place. Was this due to over hydration or improper application or both. Then a proper solution can be reached and that will have a greater chance of success and not recurring again.
 
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Thanks for your help @AQUA~HOLICS. PB is coming today to wash and fill. I’ll ask what they plan to do about the issue but I’m not sure if they’ll want to push forward or pause and repair the issue before wash and fill or even which is best for the overall surface.
 
amillionvoices said:
Thanks for your help @AQUA~HOLICS. PB is coming today to wash and fill. I’ll ask what they plan to do about the issue but I’m not sure if they’ll want to push forward or pause and repair the issue before wash and fill or even which is best for the overall surface.
Click to expand...
I wonder if they can sand the boot mark away before filling?
 
Sanding the are of concern may help but the depth of sanding would be a challenge. The surrounding surface area would not have the same texture and possibly not the same look due to the removal of surface rocks.
Unfortunately the boot mark may be even more noticeable when the pool light is on depending upon its location.
 

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Yeah good idea to sand the mark. I felt the boot mark and it is very subtle and most of the shape is coming from the white plaster itself. The pebble underneath seems relatively flat so I’ve asked them to gently polish the step to see if it looks better. Luckily it’s above the spa light and probably won’t catch much light at night.

The bigger concern is the sloughing and cracks. It appears they did not get any worse overnight. We’ll see what PB says once the crew is here.
 
It’s frustrating because they wore protective footwear for the whole job to prevent things like this. Then 40 minutes after they finished and we’re done packing up, one of the crew went into the spa to clean out the pipe edges with a razor wearing his normal shoes and stepped right in that spot as he was getting out.
 
As the plaster sat in the sun all day today, it developed several new hairline cracks there and on another spot. The crew finally showed up at 5:30pm, ~30 hours after the plaster job was done, and started the acid wash despite the cracks. They aren't going to fill the pool tonight and instead plan to re-assess in the morning and potentially patch the cracks by hand. When I complained that the pool could become stained over night or continue to crack they said it would be better to deal with any new staining with targeted acid, etc. tomorrow before filling the pool.

At this point I'm feeling like I can't stop them from doing what they want because they could claim that it was my fault that additional problems occurred but I am not happy. This is after the subcontractor got cement residue all over the marble deck tiles and then poured muriatic acid on them to try to clean them. Still waiting on them to fix this after the pool is filled.

Any advice? At this point I'm wondering if I let them fill it and then deal with the aftermath once the water is in.
 
Hair line cracks are common.
You should let them attempt to correct the situation on their own and then reassess, just for the reason you stated, to see what occurs and then make a plan to correct it.
Even a targeted acid wash is considered a second wash that is going to remove the plaster that holds the exposed aggregate in place, so this should be avoided if possible or at least your last choice.
 
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Yesterday they did a plaster patch with a little hydraulic cement mixed in and started the fill. Appears to have worked well but there are smudges where each patch was put in. They said some of it will come off with brushing and any that remains will be polished or acid washed off. Most of the other issues were taken care of by the initial wash and the pool was filled yesterday and started today. Looking great so far!
 

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Update. So the patches are fairly visible but not too bad. I'm hoping the PB can polish them down a bit to make the finish look consistent in those spots. However, I'm seeing a few concerning things so wanted more advice. This is with the light on at night to show them in full relief but I'm not sure what's normal and I have to live with it versus not.

First on a bench in the spa there appears to be a section here that is completely stripped away? Which makes me worry that it's particularly thin here, but there's black underneath and I'm not sure if that's the gunite or something else.

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It's really hard to get a picture of this next issue, but it looks like ~6 nickel sized chunks of the surface.
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Here's the same image but shrunk down to a thumbnail so you can see the spots more obviously.

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And finally, there's a spot not far from the image that has several areas that are about 8 inches in diameter that look like they are etched / not smooth. Ignore the light parts, that's just from the pool lights.
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Going back to my original post, you can kind of see the issue from the third pic here. It looks like tiny horizontal white lines but after the acid wash it must have cleared that plaster "butter" away to show the issue.
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The first picture from today’s post may be of concern.
This is hard to comment on without seeing in person. If this is a crack in the plaster that is deep then the integrity of the plaster is compromised.
The other pictures show imperfections that are common In this trade due do the fact that it’s being hand troweled.
 
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