free, That's what I've been saying all along. Personally I think the "expert" is scamming. Maybe Pebble Tec wouldn't have him as an applicator? He got very defensive with me on another thread when I suggested he had an agenda. Here is a link that might be useful: I will answer pool plaster questions

Hi Shelley, I think you'd want to do both. We have a similar setup and I know it would drive me crazy to have two separate finishes. The pebble is not too rough for us, we don't even notice it. Good luck, Marta

We are a few weeks away from our pebbletec finish and as many, it is a difficult decision. We have a lagoon style 20' x 40' with a raised spa and waterfall. We chose a gold tumbled marble coping and deck...it's actually multi colored tan,gold some light brown and we chose a small 5/8" tumbled marble tile that has all the shades of the coping/deck. My wife seems to be leaning toward Black Pearl, as she thinks the contrast would look great... but I am more in favor of either midnight blue or tahoe blue - not a "black hole", as I think that with a lagoon pool the darker colors suit it. Now someone also suggested emerald??? I have seen on this board alot of tahoe blue, but not much of the other darker colors. Has anyone seen many midnight blue, or emerald pools? Decisions...decisions

We are having our pool re-plastered and upgrading from the previous plaster to pebblesheen. We initially were looking at pebbletec and when we opted for sheen instead it was the same cost, no upgrade. I'm thinking you might want to check with a different company. There should not be an upsale cost between tec and sheen unless you are including additives that were not present in the tec.