In June we had Tahoe Blue PT resurfaced in our pool. There was a lot of pebbles in the filter upon start up. We have a Hayward Navigator that cleans the pool. After a week it lessened dramatically and we have no loose pebbles now. We probably had a few stones in the filter for a month. There isnt a spot in the pool that I would be able to determine where all those loose pebbles came out of. If I stare really hard maybe I can question one or two holes, but it i really hard to tell if stones are missing...because they arent. I distinctly remember when they pebbled the pool one man was on the stairs and one on the back ledge. They worked the whole time resmoothing these areas while 4 other guys worked on the remainder of the interior walls and floor. They had a few special tools for getting into the corners and for the edges, and those tools seemed to work very well at accomplishing what they needed to do. I would not say you got a substandard application or a sloppy job.....there could have been another factor for why it didnt adhere very well. Concentrate on recifying the situation instead of figuring out why it happened. I only say this because of how you described the relationship between the 2 companies. You dont want to point the finger, just get it fixed....it shouldnt be rough...just textured from the pebbles. The fact that a rep from PT is coming tells me they suspect a problem and need PT to authorize the warranty. Good luck! Can you post some pictures so we can see how bad the areas look?

Mark, I know how you feel. We had Wet Edge (a Pebble Sheen like product) installed 3 times! I have posted about it on this board, with pictures. The third time was the absolute worst. We had an incredible amount of loose pebbles and huge spots with no pebbles but you could see the little holes where the pebbles had been. We had Pebble Sheen installed the 4th time (the Sheen was our first choice anyway). There are a few areas in corners where it is more plaster than pebble, but it is smooth and the areas are small. Also, a few barer spots in the deep end and on the walls but again, smooth and I believe those areas are to be expected here and there. Having had the very poor previous 3 installations of the other product, I am pleased for the most part with the Sheen. They just need to patch one area where there is a chunk missing about the size of a quarter and about 1/4" deep. We have very few loose pebbles. For the other product, I had the pool builder out, the sales rep for the Wet Edge, the owner of the company that installed the Wet Edge. It was agreed that something had gone terribly wrong. I have heard that Wet Edge is a good product so I don't want to put a poor light on their product - we just didn't have luck with it. Our waterline tiles took quite a hit from all of this, as did our yard - I hope you can resolve your issues without draining and chipping out, and then installing again. It is a big mess. Good luck to you. I am happy to share pics if they would help you.

Thanks GK. Interesting about the special tools. I figured this had to be the case. That's just the MO of us primates. Thanks for the advice. I agree with you. And I will take some pictures and post as soon as it stops raining.

meowracer: Is your handle a reference to an automobile (like a Jaguar or a Cougar) or is kitty racing making a comeback? .

Man. ...and I was feeling sorry for _myself_. Maybe I should quit while I'm ahead! I probably would if I knew that the condition would not get any worse over time.

It would really help if you could snap some photos, especially some closeups of the coves and corners of steps, love-seats, etc.

Thanks again to both of you.

Mark--

Mark - Meowracer came about because I am a girl who has a black cat and used to race little 50cc motorcycles on go-cart tracks. We wore the full leathers, knee pucks (because you lean over and drag your knee around the curves, just like the big race bikes!) helmets, gloves, boots, etc. Well, I decided to name my "team" (of my husband and myself) Black Cat Racing. My poor hubby had to race a bike with black paw prints on it :) Anyway, then I needed an email address years ago, and then user names, so I put the meowracer together and have a name that is never already taken! So there you have it. . . . back to pools though. I will put together a site on Picasa and post the link here. I need to get some pics of what we have now and upload those. Look for it some time this evening.

Here is a picture of the guys when they were pebbletecing the pool. If you look closely you can see one tool hanging out of the bucket another is on the ground next to the roller. They are clear plastic. One is missing, its the one to do the inner corners...its just bent the opposite way.
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OK - here is a link to the two different products we have had. The first two pics are of the Sheen that we currently have. It was so sunny today that it was hard to get a clear pic but in one, you can see where the pebbles are not as consistent but the area is still smooth (there is a lot of reflection in that one - try to look past that and the movement of the water. The other shows the overall consistency. Between reflections and the water moving because the pump was on, these were as good as I could get. The other pics are of the other product and I think you will be able to clearly see what the problems were! Here is the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/meowracer1/ExamplesOfPebbleProducts?authkey=JxW7tFEmdj0

gk5040 - love that waterline and coping! Very elegant - stunning!

Thanks....meowracer. The tile was from Luv Tile, Piriti black. Did you see our pool finished. I posted pics the end of August. I cant believe those close up pictures of your wet edge. I saw a few when you posted months ago.

OK, I got some photos of my pebbletec issues.

Does any of you with aggregate finishes have this kind of bare spots on the corners of steps/benches, back coves, pool floor?

Steps

Bench

Pool floor

I have a few areas like that, but none (that I know of) have the divots where the pebbles have come off. My areas are on the step edges as the step meets the wall of the pool.

While I noticed a few spots in my pool, I don't think anyone else would, unless they were looking for them. I also have a few areas where the finish looks a bit lighter due to the pebbles not being as exposed as other areas. Some forum members have objected to this in their own pools and have had additional acid washes done.

To me, I think the finish in my pool is awesome and those couple of irregularities, well, it's just not a big deal to me and seems to add to the naturalness of the finish. To each his or her own...you paid for the finish and you should be happy with it.

Glancing at your first picture, I thought, wow, your stairs look better than mine. We have areas where its more cream and fewer pebbles came thru. I dont have areas that look like the pebbles fell out. I hava areas that arent perfect, I can only notice things on the stairs and bench. I can not tell anything thats further than 18 inches down below the water.

So far what others have said is that they also have "thin patches" in their finish. But have also stated that they see no visible places (or feel them on their feet) where the pebbles have fallen out leaving little craters behind.

If my issue was limited to the cove at the back of the steps, I wouldn't be concerned or have a problem with it, especially knowing that others have the same thing. The problem is that these areas are also on the front (outside corners) of the steps and benches as well as the pool bottom and are rough and there for you to step on.

I guess the pictures of the pool floor which I took are not clear enough to see the detail (I lowered the resolution before uploading them) but if I were to take close-ups of these areas they would look like the patches I have photographed above. You would know if you had those areas on the bottom of your pool because they are very rough and you would feel them. If you look at those pictures of my pool bottom closely, you will see areas which are grayer or darker than other spots, these have the little pock marks like the more obvious pictures above. The picture is just not clear enough to see them.

As for the acid washing. I think that mainly takes care of the spots where the pebbles are thin - not missing. If you imagine taking away the plaster where the dimples are in my photos above, you would still have craters because the pebbles are missing at that level. It may look better however to have one large, low spot by removing the plaster where all of the individual pebbles have fallen out. It is these small ridges which makes the surface rough.

My concern is that if I have lost all of these pebbles (where apparently none of you ever have) then who's to say that this will not continue? And if it's like this in 1 month, what might it look like in 1 or 2 years? Plus if it were to get worse and I waited for one or two years before saying something about it, one could call into question how the pool has been maintained over the last year or two with respect to water chemistry or other abuse such as hard metal objects in the pool or whatever.

I think you are correct to bring up any pool finish issue to your PB and/or PT rep now rather than waiting to see what happens over time.

Just to clarify...I was not suggesting an acid wash would correct or improve your situation. I only mentioned it in connection with another issue (lighter areas of pebbles not fully exposed).

As to the amount of pebbles lost, I can tell you that for the first 60 days, we only manually brushed the pool because our PB had yet to bring us our automatic cleaner! Once the Polaris 280 was installed, however, the bag would collect quite a number of pebbles for probably at least another month...maybe a small handful every few days.

So while I have, indeed, lost pebbles, I just don't see where I have the divots like yours. Maybe I have them and just haven't looked hard enough?

In any event, I hope your meeting with the PT rep goes well. From my limited contact with them (a regional rep had to help me with something prior to installation), they're an outstanding bunch.

Let us know what Pebble Tec says!