Stone Turning White

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Burnthorne Pool Service

Burnthorne Pool Service

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In The Industry
Feb 3, 2017
47
Flower Mound
Hello everyone!

I have done my best to research this, but I have come up empty handed. This is the first time that I have seen this at one of my customers' pools, and the best that I can liken it to is perhaps calcium deposits. That wouldn't make much sense because it is actually on the surface around the pool. It is all around the pool. I've tried brushing it with water, and it looks like it goes away... but as soon as it dries, it's back. I usually toss my chemicals from one location, so I do not think it is from any chemicals that I have put in. If it is even relevant, the calcium level is approx 200.

Has anyone ever seen this before? Or does anyone have any suggestions?
 

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It's called efflorescence. It's the infiltration of water THROUGH porous stone that evaporates and leaves behind mineral deposits. It's very often seen with flagstone, brick and any soft limestone and it's more prevalent when it's periodically wet out (rains) with a climate that is dry (fast evaporation). Stone work that is properly sealed both in its presenting surface and it's buried surface will not show this.

You need to find out if there is water in the ground around the stone work from natural rainfall or from a leak. Controlling water flow behind the stone may or may not be possible.

There are cleaners that can remove it. One such product is from a supplier called Hannafin and it's called DryTreat Eff-Erayza. However, after cleaning, the stone must be sealed or it will simply return.


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I think it might be worth the effort to try managing the CSI slightly negative, between -0.3 and 0, to see if it helps. I had white haze on my waterline tile that turned that eventually turned into a line of scale. Once I started managing my CSI better the haze also disappeared. Dallas water is very prone to scale as seen in coffee pots and showers everywhere.
 
When I posted last night, it was late and I was heading to bed so I only briefly looked at that picture. Now that I'm up (and have coffee on board), I can definitely say it is efflorescence. You can see how the flagstone has "wet spots" on them. That's from pool water soaking those pieces of stone as well as the stone veneer on the wall next to it. Over time, the water that soaks into the stone comes back out again and as it evaporates it leaves behind minerals on the surface. The design of that ledge is nice but I would never have used flagstone that close to the water and tile would have worked better around the diving board then the stack stone as tile is a dense ceramic which is impervious to water. Being at a point of entry/exit and being near a diving board, that area is going to be continually flooded with water and the efflorescence will continue.

The only option is to clean the efflorescence away with something like Eff-Erayza and then seal the stone with DryTreat 40sk (or DuPont StoneTech). Either that, or just live with it that way.
 
Thank you, everyone, for your input. JoyfulNoise, after a bit of research, I believe that you are correct. From what I have come to understand about this formation, there are different ways to treat this issue, but proper treatment will depend on the source of the water, correct? For example, planters behind retaining walls would need to be sealed from the back, correct? With this being the case, I'm not quite sure what to recommend as a treatment for the issue.

Again, thank you.:)
 
Burnthorne Pool Service said:
Thank you, everyone, for your input. JoyfulNoise, after a bit of research, I believe that you are correct. From what I have come to understand about this formation, there are different ways to treat this issue, but proper treatment will depend on the source of the water, correct? For example, planters behind retaining walls would need to be sealed from the back, correct? With this being the case, I'm not quite sure what to recommend as a treatment for the issue.

Again, thank you.:)
Click to expand...

Yes, the treatment depends on the structures involved. If you have planter boxes that act as part of the pool wall design, then they should be sealed from the inside to minimize water infiltration. Depending on the design of the planter box and the plants within is, accommodation may need to be made for irrigation water to drain out (some plants need soil that drains easily). For the flagstone that makes up the coping, you would need to make sure the mortar joint between the coping and the bond beam of the pool does not have any cracks in it or ways for water to penetrate the area between the coping and the bond beam. Any cracks would have to be sealed. Then the FS coping can be cleaned of the efflorescence and sealed from the top.

However, sealing stone can change it's look. As well it is expensive to do (sealers generally run about $150 per gallon) and it must be re-applied on a regular basis (sometimes as much as every 18 months if the sun is strong). So before you embark on anything, you'll want to inform the customer of the pro's and con's.

Typically that type of efflorescence on the FS coping shows up in the winter time (that's what happens for me here in the desert) and it goes away in the springtime and summer. So rather than drop a lot of money on sealing the stone, I just leave it as-is and consider it a part of "the look" of the pool. Sealers wouldn't last more than two years for me and I'd likely need a minimum of 4-5 gallons of sealer to just do my coping so it's a very expensive proposition to fix what is mainly a cosmetic issue.
 
JoyfulNoise said:
Yes, the treatment depends on the structures involved. If you have planter boxes that act as part of the pool wall design, then they should be sealed from the inside to minimize water infiltration. Depending on the design of the planter box and the plants within is, accommodation may need to be made for irrigation water to drain out (some plants need soil that drains easily). For the flagstone that makes up the coping, you would need to make sure the mortar joint between the coping and the bond beam of the pool does not have any cracks in it or ways for water to penetrate the area between the coping and the bond beam. Any cracks would have to be sealed. Then the FS coping can be cleaned of the efflorescence and sealed from the top.

However, sealing stone can change it's look. As well it is expensive to do (sealers generally run about $150 per gallon) and it must be re-applied on a regular basis (sometimes as much as every 18 months if the sun is strong). So before you embark on anything, you'll want to inform the customer of the pro's and con's.

Typically that type of efflorescence on the FS coping shows up in the winter time (that's what happens for me here in the desert) and it goes away in the springtime and summer. So rather than drop a lot of money on sealing the stone, I just leave it as-is and consider it a part of "the look" of the pool. Sealers wouldn't last more than two years for me and I'd likely need a minimum of 4-5 gallons of sealer to just do my coping so it's a very expensive proposition to fix what is mainly a cosmetic issue.
Click to expand...

Thank you! Yes, I assumed that it would be expensive, and I was going to mention that he may not want to seal it because of how it would look. Nonetheless, I don't do these applications; his builder would likely be the one advising him on this stuff.

By the way, I think sealers can be found for $70ish if you look in the right places. I can't mention details, but I have access to a decent-quality brand that could easily turn a profit at $70/gal. Never used it before, but I just checked a dist.
 

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Burnthorne Pool Service said:
Thank you! Yes, I assumed that it would be expensive, and I was going to mention that he may not want to seal it because of how it would look. Nonetheless, I don't do these applications; his builder would likely be the one advising him on this stuff.

By the way, I think sealers can be found for $70ish if you look in the right places. I can't mention details, but I have access to a decent-quality brand that could easily turn a profit at $70/gal. Never used it before, but I just checked a dist.
Click to expand...

Ok. My price quote was simply from Amazon. For the residential, do-it-yourself pool owner, we have little to no access to wholesale suppliers or distributors that only sell business-to-business. In fact, finding many of these high-end sealer products locally is next to impossible. A few years back, I checked with several masonry suppliers in my local area that deal with contractors and do sell to the public and none of them carried these products as stock. They would have to be ordered specifically for a customer and ordered in a quantity that made shipping it worthwhile. So, unfortunately, if I only need 5 gallons, they're not going to order it unless I buy a palate of the stuff.

As well, DryTreat and DuPont are the top-of-line sealers that are classified as penetrating sealant. That is to say, the chemical penetrates into the microstructure of the stone and creates a bond with the stone itself but does not leave any film on the surface. They are typically applied by dip coating or flooding with a mop and then the excess is sponges off the surface. There are cheaper sealants available for sure, but those are typically surface sealants that leave a film over the surface of the stone. The surface sealants also tend to change the color of the stone dramatically and will often develop a yellow haze over time as they get blasted by UV. The penetrating sealants don't change the stone color much and don't typically yellow with age.

This is why you'll find most here will recommend either DryTreat or DuPont. Yes, they cost a lot more, but they are a much better product.
 
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