It seems that a lot of the blotchiness could be acid washed out, however problems like this are tough to deal with over the net.

Thank you for your posts.

The plaster was finished on Tuesday of last week and filled by Wednesday evening. Thursday the crew came by and dropped the acid in...

We were not told to brush until late Saturday night when the pool company called to check in and assumed we had already been brushing it. We were also not advised about cleaning our filter. Very poor communication with this company.

Talked to them again today and they are coming by to do another acid wash this week, but are still not overly concerned about the streaks and spots.

Maybe I am misunderstanding:

First post: "It's been five days since the acid wash, and we've got white spots and streaks."

Second post: "The plaster was finished on Tuesday of last week and filled by Wednesday evening. Thursday the crew came by and dropped the acid in... "

Acid washing is when they scrub the surface down using brushes or sponges and muriatic acid. This is done before the pool is filled. It's typically done with pebble finishes, but not quartz plaster. Now if what you mean is what you said in your 2nd post, that they added acid to the water, that is not acid washing. That is simply adding acid to adjust the water chemistry (lower the water PH). The PH tends to climb the 1st week because of the new plaster. You have to add acid to bring the PH back down.

Quote: "We were not told to brush until late Saturday night when the pool company called to check in and assumed we had already been brushing it."

It was filled Wednesday and someone told you not to brush until Saturday??? Good grief! That was bad info. The most important time to brush is in the first few days, that's when the majority of the cream residue is removed.

Quote: "Talked to them again today and they are coming by to do another acid wash this week"

Again, don't confuse adding acid to the water with acid washing, they are two different things. They are probably just trying to keep the PH from elevating.

If you still have streaking you need to do something about it right away. Tell them you need the plaster guy out there to look at it ASAP. He will probably suggest lowering the PH to well below normal and doing some aggressive brushing, possibly with a 50-50 wire/ nylon brush as I mentioned in the other thread. The streaking is not going to magically disappear after 2 weeks, the appearance of our pool plaster didn't change significantly after day 3.

Good luck!

i too wonder about our new black plaster....applied on thursday in 100 degree heat and although immedialty filled and brushed vigorously, it has many blothcy areas and streaking. My husband thinks it dried too fast (due to the heat) and although the color is beautiful, i am a bit distressed about the finish. they did dump 2 gallons of acid to it and are coming tomorrow for the "chemical start-up". i will be asking many questions then!

It looks pretty bad looking at the pool fill picture. However, having said that when our neighbors got their quartz aggregate pool plastered with blue quartz, it was green for the first 4 days and you couldn't see any blue.

When our pool company signed our contract we told them we wanted 20-30% grey and they said no problem. Then when it came time to pick out the tile and certify our plaster choice they told us that Grey with cause a lot of molting of the color as a result of the white plaster cream coming to the top and suggested it was not a good idea and then gave us a piece of legalise document to sign that basically said we were aware that it was going to look bad but we still wanted to go forward with it. We didn't sign it and later on fired the pool company and went with a pebble finish which is what we would have done originally if we were told this at the contract sign.

I think you are getting the "acid startup" confused with "acid wash". The only way to do a "true" acid wash is to empty the pool, put on rubber boots, gloves and hip huggers, pour muriatic acid down the side and then with a brush, brush the side of the pool with the acid. The acid will bubble and steam comes up and you can see all kinds of things getting dissolved. Starting a pool up with a very acidic pH is pretty standard. However, with pebble finishs where the pebbles are not affected much by the acid, an acid wash helps clean off the plaster glaze off the rocks. With plaster, even the color quartz, they typically just fill it up and you brush all the loose plaster glaze over the aggregate into your filter. I guess there is some times an option with darker high quantity quartz aggregate to expose the quartz aggregate with a post-plaster acid wash as an option.

It doesn't sound or look like thats what they did though right? I believe that with a strong acid startup and lots of brushing, much of that white plaster "cream" will brush off and you will see the grey color beneath it and it will look much better than the first picture. However, my understanding of the grey colored plaster is that you still will see color variations and it will never be perfect as it just part of the problem with going with colored plaster and quartz aggregate finishes. I'm sure that there is a skill of not working the plaster too much to cause the white cream to come up over the grey but some variations will always be apparent even if the plaster'r was an expert.

BTW, I don't see the spider web cracks...those sound like more a problem to me. If you PB waited too long to fill your pool and you had a bunch of very hot days with the pool sitting, I think this could happen.

If you are still around, did you ever get this resolved? My new grey plaster job looks just like this. Thanks

The first 2 weeks my med grey plaster looking great> i added muriacti acid each day and brushed to keep the PH in line. After about 6 weeks as I was keeping the pH right I started getting white streaks. PLaster guy said its my water. Water test say its ok. It has gotten worse now white blotches everwhere esp on steps and walls. Itook the PH down to 7.2 and added Jacks MAGIC Blue stuff and been brushing daily for 3 weeks, Its getting worse no idea what to do . At this rate the whole pool will be white by the end of the summer...HELP

They make a brush that is half nylon bristles and half wire bristles. Get one of those, lower your PH and brush it more aggressively. That should take care of it. Brushing with a regular brush won't have much affect after the plaster is cured.

My pool looks exactly the same way. Did you find a solution? I had my med grey plaster done last summer and every day it seems to get worse..

That's from low calcium fill water my guess is you did not add calcium chloride at startup like the national plaster council website perscribes in the start up guide. Heat a small section with a torch to 225 degrees for 2 hours if it starts looking normal that's what you have. It could be plaster dust did you use a sequestering agent at start up?

I had my pool replastered french gray approx 4 weeks ago, it was filled and i noticed the bottom of pool looked turquoise compaired to the rest, i noticed some mottling also, i thought well I can live with it i guess, three days later the owner came and poured 4 gallons of muradic acid in the pool, later that day when i got home i saw what looked like actual pour streaks all around the sides and bottom of pool, Imagine it were empty and someone stood at the top and poured it all over walls and as far out as the arm would reach, i was sick to stomach, i called the owner and he called the plaster guy, Plaster guy came out and said hes never seen that happen and they will acid wash it. They drained pool acid washed it I refilled AT MY EXPENSE and it looked awesome. Little by little now i see streaks forming and spots on floor of pool that look like sand sitting there, I didnt look at the pool the last two days but today the owner came by and poured conditioner and chlorine into the pool so i went out to inspect and it looks bad again. not the same bad, its spotted and streaked. i called owner and he said it looked fine to him that french gray is supposed to do that. I am really unhappy with the pool I payed all that money and my pool looks old and like it needs to be replastered again.
can anyone tell me if this is acceptable?
I am not going over to spell check, i apologize