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Hydro Demo Replaster

This pool has been replastered 2 times with our Hydro Demo Replaster process in less than 3 years. When you own the company you can change your mind once or twice. Especially when you own the best prep process on the market.

The latest finish in the pool is Arctic Coast, from Universal Cement, and it is a keeper. It was drained in January during freezing temps to polish the surface after 3 seasons of use. Doing this gives it the look of a brand new finish with Arctic Coast.
The telling part of this story is the polishing of this surface with the pool empty during freezing temps for 2 days. The gentlemen in the picture are well traveled experts in plaster finishes from Universal Cement. They came to Carrollton, TX to help me with this process. Kelly, with Universal Cement, told me not a single inch of my plaster was hollow. In reality I knew that, but I love to hear that from someone with whom I hold so much respect for. 

This would be a major gamble to try with any other replaster prep process(bond coat or chip out).  Considering the pool had been replastered 2 times and  was drained and left empty during freezing overnight temperatures. 

We guarantee our prep process to not be hollow. Our Hydro Demo Replaster process is unmatched in the pool industry. G&B is now going to start offering our Hydro Demo Replaster process for hire to other contractors for their prep jobs.

 

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Replaster Investment

Pools that have been replastered in the past must have their previous plaster layer removed if you expect your replaster investment to be enjoyed for any length of time. 

Take the pool in the picture for example. This franchise pebble company felt it was sufficient to only remove the hollows spots from this previously replastered pool.  From the photo you can see there were dozens of hollow spots in the plaster.  Can you guess what happened to this homeowner’s replaster investment? It failed, which should be of no surprise to anyone. The company had to come back, drain the pool and patch the de-bonded areas of the homeowner’s replaster investment.  Do you think the homeowner was happy with patches in their supposed best pebble finish?  No!  G&B was contacted to perform our Hydro Demo Replaster prep on the pool at the original company’s expense. Our pool finishes do not de-bond. We guarantee it!

Previous replaster layers must always be removed.  This is due to the homebrew bond coat that was used when it was installed.  Homebrew bond coats do not work and must be removed from our industry. If they worked they would be guaranteed by the companies that sell them.  Currently no company using homebrew bond coat offers a guarantee.

Has your pool been replastered in the past?  If you are not sure, there are some visual signs that will give you a hint if it has been replastered before or not.  If the pool is 15 years old and you cannot see the substrate showing anywhere through the plaster in the pool, it likely has been replastered. Plaster around the lights and pool returns will make those fixtures look recessed in the pool wall on a pool that has been replastered with a homebrew bond coat. 

Pools that have been replastered in the past are not a good substrate for your new replaster investment. If a company tells you it is not a problem, demand they warranty their statement for 5 years.

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Homebrew Bond Coat

Are you planning to invest in a pool replaster?  If so, the best decision would be to choose a plaster finish that will last longer than the current plaster has lasted in your pool. Choosing white plaster is not a good investment for a pool replaster. White plaster will not last more than 5 years. By that we mean when it is 5 years old, it will look double its age and be nearly worn out in visual appearance.  The companies that offer white plaster in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area will be the same companies guaranteed to be using a homebrew bond coat to improperly secure your investment to the substrate.

The most important part of a pool replaster is the surface preparation. How will the new plaster be bonded to the substrate? Most companies think this is the least important part of a replaster. Most, if not all of them, use homebrew bond coats.  The primary component of homebrew bond coats is glue.  Cheap glue. Companies use homebrew bond coats to be able to save the most money possible on their replaster jobs. They use the cheapest glue they can get. They use glue that is not designed to be submerged in water.

Pool plaster is not waterproof. It is water tight. Pool plaster is semi-permeable, water will get to the back of the plaster. Once water gets through the plaster, it goes to work on the worthless homebrew bond coat. If by chance the plaster was bonded to the homebrew bond coat, the water will re-emulsify it. That means your plaster is no longer secured to the pool shell.  A hollow spot will develop. Water will continue to separate the plaster bond and discolor the new pool replaster investment. Overtime unexplained water loss, stains, and black algae will develop.

Homebrew bond coats must be removed from our industry. They simply do not work. The companies that use them do so to save money for themselves, not for the pool owner. If you get a quote for pool replaster, demand that they give you a 5 year warranty. Otherwise what is the point of spending your money with them?

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Gunite Company

The last straw has officially broke! On a major structural repair to a pool, a local gunite company thought it made sense to finish the gunite with a slick steel trowel finish. Plaster will lose its bond to smooth substrates in short order.  This speaks to the lack of knowledge that exists on with this particular crew in this local gunite company which employs several gunite crews. The issue with the gunite was reported immediately. It has been 2 weeks and they have yet to come and look at the pool and correct the issue to the pool. This speaks to their apathetic approach of taking responsibility for poor quality workmanship. They will never be involved in another G&B project. In fact there are several local gunite companies that are not welcome on my projects due to the lack of knowledge and constant bad short cuts they try to take. We will have to Hydro Demo the pool again to correct the blunder made by this gunite company.

As the only plaster applicator in DFW that guarantees the adhesion of the plaster to the substrate, G&B demands newly placed substrates to be finished in accordance with standard quality practices. I cannot get that from the gunite companies G&B has used.  The only way G&B can get quality work over the last 10 years is when we’ve stood on the beam of the pool the entire time the gunite company is working on the pool and managing their process.  We have to stay there until the gunite crew is finished and packed up.

With that in mind, G&B is starting our own Shotcrete operation. We will do our own projects and stop offering them out to any other gunite companies. By doing the Shotcrete in-house, G&B can guarantee the quality the same way we do in our 5 Year Replaster Warranty. G&B will master the Shotcrete process and begin offering our services to other quality conscious contractors in 2015. G&B is a member of the American Shotcrete Association (ASA).

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Pool Cracks

As I have previously mentioned, there are many reasons why a pool cracks and what may have caused the cracks to develop. One of the major reasons points to the original construction of the pool. If the soil where the pool was built was not sufficient to support the weight of the pool, the pool will move and crack.  Soil in North Texas is known to move.  If it is too wet it swells. If it is too dry, it shrinks.  If you are a homeowner, undoubtedly have been told to put soaker hoses around your foundation. Do you know why you were told that?  If you also have a pool, why has no one told you to do that around the pool as well?  Soaker hoses around your home foundation are meant to keep the soil around the foundation moisture consistent. The problem arises when the soil dries out and compacts or shrinks away from the foundation. When this happens there is nothing supporting the concrete. The foundation then shifts or moves and cracks. Why do you think there are so many foundation companies in North Texas?  The same problem exists in swimming pools. Which is compounded if a leak develops from the pool cracks.

How do you repair pool cracks? To do so with success you must understand the cracks are a symptom of a larger problem. If you do not address the problem, the cracks will return. There two options for pool stabilization that G&B has utilized with success. We have placed piers in pools to stabilize the shell against future movement. We have also stabilized the soil under the pool to prevent future movement. There becomes a point in crack repair that the soil must be addressed if you expect the pool to become one you can enjoy rather that put up with.

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Crack Repair

 

What do you do if you had crack repair done with epoxy injection on your pool and it failed?

First, you must consider if other options were presented and did the crack repair company give any insight as to what might have caused the cracks? There are several reasons why the pool may have cracked in the first place. Pool cracks are generally a symptom of a larger problem with the pool. To properly repair a cracked pool the issue that caused the pool to crack must be identified and corrected. There is not a “one repair fits all” in regard to pool crack repair. Experienced companies will inspect the pool to identify the best repair methods and then provide you with some options. If a crack returned, it is either due to the wrong repair method being used or possibly the issue that caused the pool to crack is still present.

Epoxy injection repair is limited by the crack it is repairing. If the crack is not clean inside the crack, the epoxy will be bonding contaminated walls of the crack together, not the pool shell.  There essentially is nothing repairing the crack if that is the case. This is the case in most pools over 5 years old. Epoxy injection should not be done without also including staples in the repair. Most staples on the market are about as good as epoxy inside a dirty crack. They are worthless. G&B uses our own proprietary staples. We use a process like no other company with our staples. We open up the pool shell with our Hydro Demo process where the crack is located and find the structural steel on each side of the crack. G&B then saddles the steel with our G&B staples and secures it in place with epoxy. G&B’s staples are then tightened to put post tension strength on the shell along every 12” of the cracks. That same crack is also epoxy injected for a double repair effort. Keep in mind if the pool shell is sitting on unstable soil there is another option that must be utilized. If not the crack repair will likely fail regardless of the use of G&B staples or not.

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Crack Repair

Pool Patch Manufactures

 

 

Pools crack for several reasons… but how do you repair them? To understand who you should hire to perform crack repair in your pool you must understand these simple issues.  First of all, there is no such thing as “just a plaster crack”. All pool cracks are structure cracks. Second all pool cracks leak. It may not be a fast leak, like a tub drain, but it definitely is a leak. It should be dealt with sooner rather than later. The pool gunite or substrate is not watertight. If the plaster has a crack, it means the pool has a leak.  Once the plaster is cracked the pools’ ability to be watertight is compromised. There is an exception, homebrew bond coats allow the pool water to separate the outer plaster from the under plaster layer. When that happens a debonded hollow spot in the outer plaster layer can crack due to pressure from the water between the plaster layers. These cracks generally look like spider webs or crow foot pattern cracks. Homebrew bond coats do not work.

 Pool crack repair cannot be done with much success without understanding these issues. Most repair techs offer epoxy as the repair option, these same companies also use homebrew bond coats.  To understand how to successfully repair pool cracks you must realize that the crack is always a symptom of a larger problem. If you simply repair the crack with just epoxy you most likely will not be addressing the issue that caused the crack at all. There is a very good chance that epoxy alone will not repair a crack at all. Pool water has Total Dissolved Solids. A crack that is leaking will have that same TDS inside the crack. The epoxy works well, only if it bonds to clean concrete. The likelihood that a pool crack in 5 year old pool will not be contaminated is slim and none. It definitely won’t be clean concrete. That is why most techs include a coat of polyurethane over the crack repair in case the epoxy fails. This is also why crack repair with epoxy should not be done without also incorporating quality staples.  G&B uses our own propriety pool staples for crack repair.  They are the only staples on the market that properly address the goal of including staples in crack repair.

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Introduction to Repair of Pool Cracks

 

 

Pool cracks develop for several reasons, such as:

  • Inadequate bearing of the soils or soil related issues. Pools are built all of the time without anyone even considering the soil in which the pool is built on.  Consider the weight of a diving pool.  A diving pool can hold +/- 30,000 gallons of water, with the water alone weighing +/- 240,000 lbs.  When you consider all of the construction material and the water, a diving pool can weigh in excess of 450,000 lbs.  The reactive soils in North TX assure most pools will be built on soil that is not suitable for the pools weight unless the soil is properly prepared or construction efforts are in place to deal with the soil issues.
  • Inadequate tensile strength, and/or lack of, or improper placement of reinforcing steel. The rebar installed in older pools varies on its placement. I have seen rebar installed in larger than 10”x10” on center grid patterns which is bad. 8”x8” on center grid pattern is standard in today’s pools.
  • Inadequate compressive values of the gunite. Gunite application can be great and perfect for pool construction, as long as all rebound and trimmings are thrown out of the pool during construction. The reality of that is that the total cost would increase if that were done. So most companies do not throw any of that dead material out. It winds up in the pool floor, steps, and benches of the pool and spa. There is no compressive strength to rebound and trimmings. The areas of the pool that have rebound in them have no compressive strength and the pool structure is weak in that same area.

Add water loss or improper drainage to the equation and the above issues are compounded. Pool cracks consistently develop under skimmers and it is always due to a leak in the grout where the tile meets the actual skimmer. If you are losing water in your pool, it must be considered a major problem. You must be in control of the water in your pool. When you have a leak, it will soon be in control of you.

G&B does not use the same repair methods that every other company offers. We understand and respect the power of water.

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Chlorine tablets create high CYA

 

 Chlorine tables increase CYA 

The use of chlorine tablets are a problem for swimming pools. They work well as a sanitizing system if your pool water is perfectly balanced. However the use of those tablets ensures your pool will soon be out of balance. This is due to the CYA and other chemicals that are built into the tablets along with the chlorine. 

If your pool water is out of balance, the chlorine tablet is not as effective. You think using more and more chlorine will solve the constant algae issue your pool has, but is doesn’t get any better. You will eventually figure out that the CYA is too high which limits the chlorine effectiveness.  You are forced to drain your pool and dilute the CYA that accumulates by adding fresh water. It is necessary to do this to protect your plaster, but it is not an environmentally friendly action.

Commercial swimming pools are required by the health department to keep the CYA in the pool below 100 ppm. If it gets over that level the health department will force the closure of the swimming pool until that is corrected and re-inspected. The only solution for high CYA levels is to drain the pool and replace the water with fresh water. This has been the norm for several years, but environmentally it is not a good idea to continue this practice.

 Every time a chlorine tablet dissolves CYA is added to your pool water.  Several other chemicals that allow the chlorine to have a longer shell life are built into that tablet and are also added to your pool water. The lack of those chemicals in your pool water when you use a salt system are actually the reason the pool water in those pools feel much better than pools on chlorine tablets. It is not because of the salt in the water

CYA, commonly sold as a stabilizer or conditioner will damage your pool plaster investment if left unchecked. Pools with colored finishes cannot maintain their intended color in high CYA level pool waters. Every time a chlorine tablet dissolves and every time the pool is shocked with granular chlorine the CYA value will increase.  Your plaster investment must be protected against high CYA values.

Chlorine tablets cause cya damage to groutChlorine tablet cause cya damage

Stay tuned for a solution to wasting water and high CYA values in your pool.  G&B will be releasing this must have information on Wednesday the 12th. 

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Problems with Salt Systems

 salt system will damage this feature

 

There are problems with salt systems in swimming pools and it seems as though most want to ignore those issues in spite of the damage being caused. As the only plaster applicator In Dallas/Fort Worth with the courage and conviction in our services to be able to offer a 5 year warranty on our plaster services, I feel it is necessary to help identify other services and products that offer similar value to our customers.

At the 2014 Pool/Spa/Patio Expo in Orlando, I came across two such opportunities that every pool owner should have in their pool to improve their chance to enjoy their pool rather than put up with it.

I have never been a fan of Salt Systems due to the damage the salt causes to the pool and the back yard environment. All of the positives that companies push out on salt systems are not at all true. It does not pay for itself, it does not make the water chemistry easier, and it does not make your water feel better.

Salt systems will damage coping regardless of its expense. Brick coping survives well on salt system pools, but it is not currently desirable in the marketplace. Salt systems require salt to be in the pool. Salt is corrosive. Salt systems as the sanitation system in the pool showed an increase in surface deterioration at the National Pool Industry Research Center when compared to pools without salt. Salt systems cause the pH to constantly rise which requires twice a week pool chemistry adjustments to prevent scale developing…so much for being easier. The reason the water feels better is relative to how the water felt when the pool was on chlorine tablets with all of the junk that is added to those tablets to give the chlorine shelf life, not because of the salt system.

For a solution to the challenges salt systems cause to your pool and backyard, stay tuned…