If you compare the samples of both side by side Pebbletec is slightly smoother and the same with the Pebblesheen.
Gemstone isn't any cheaper in Orange County.

Not available in my area, but I checked out their website.

Gemstone is the company name so you could be looking at a different product from the line. Hope this helps.

http://www.gemstonepools.com/home.aspx

SDkath:

You must be in the San Diego as well (South Dakota would be a less likely guess.) We have had Gemstone (the finer variety, similar to pebble sheen) for two years and are very happy with it. I researched this and concluded that Gemstone is equivalent to Pebbletec. Hope this helps.

Yes! We are in San Diego. Looks like Gemstone is a local company servicing So. Cal. So far so good from the 2 pools my PB showed me. THey are also willing to "mix" colors. So we can get a nice dark water and add a little "gold" pebbles to it to match our neutral stone coping.

Katherine

That's cool that you can customize it some...I don't think PebbleTec lets you do that, except for adding in the Shimmering Sea sparkles. I had considered asking PebbleTec if I could choose one plaster color and another pebble mix, but finally just chose one of their chips so I couldn't goof it up too much and wind up with brown water accidentally!

I forgot to add that Gemstone will let us customize our color choice by adding colored stones and abalone so our pool will have more color. We saw one in San Diego (where we live) that was spectacular, so we're doing the additions too.

Our first message must not have be added. We too went out for bid with both PebbleTec and Gemstone. The PebbleTec bid had a lot of variations: cost A for X color, a different cost for another color; one cost for tiling, BUT if we wanted another tile, it was cost B, another tile choice was cost C etc. The price went up significantly. It was $7000-10,000 more than Gemstone for the equivalent look. We do have a huge pool (44x24), but that's an enormous difference. We went and looked at and FELT both Gemstone and PebbleTec surfaces...most of our neighborhood has pebble surface pools now, so that was east to do and nobody minded us stepping into their pools. They both looked and felt identical. Gemstone was much more willing to work with us with colors and tile options. We were just much more impressed with them overall too -- very knowledgeable, very professional.

jonfin, please show us a photo of your pool! would love to see it! pebbletec was our only option here, so i am interested in what other pebble options look like. :-)

Gina,

You'll have to wait a few weeks for my pictures -- we're under construction. Gemstone is doing it. We've chosen a tile called African Slate -- olive and rust tones to match our brick coping - it's up and spectacular! Very Zen. Will take some pictures soon.

Jonfin

Jonfin -- love to see some pix! Thanks, Katherine