finishguy

If your looking for a natural look go with the rocks slightly under water. You dont want them sitting above with tile showing. I have plastered over 12,000 pools and Im sure I know what your looking for. I have not seen very many that look good sitting over tile, they always kinda look like a pile of rocks. A dark finish with rocks is hard to beat for a natural look. Good luck

I am a plaster contractor in Mi and see guys do it different all the time. I would wait a minimum of 21 days because after 14 its cured. Its important to get the equipment running and Ph at around 7 asap. Brush it at least once a day and get all the plaster dust out. A lot of companies dont wait to add the salt and im not to sure if its good or bad. I would go with whatever the contractor that did your pool says, that way you wont have any problems if any thing goes wrong.

They dont want to fix it because they will have to re plaster it and possibly fix some of the shell. If it is structural the cracks will open up. If its 12 ft long thats very big for check cracks. Check to see if its hollow around the cracks or if its actually lifting up. !2 ft is too big to be normal and I missed that part earlier, egg shell looking cracks are normal looking cracks.

I would also agree that River Rock is supperior to Pebble Tec. I have applied Pebble Tec to thousands of pools and used River rock on hundreds. Its just expensive compared to Quartz finishes and the quartz finishes last a long time. I would not pay extra for any pebble product for the longer warranty, nobody is going to honor it after 1 year.

Yes you can tell if its in the mix or not. I will tell you I plaster for a builder and they always charge for Silicon Shield, the homeowner never gets it. The water will bead off of the plaster like rain x on a windshield if its in.

Plaster has been used forever and is a proven material. I wouldnt go with Hydrazzo because its not worth the money, I do apply it every year on pools. I would look at Diamond Brite or Sunstone Quarts Finishes. If you just want to see some color have your plaster guy add a couple bags of 3m Quartz in each batch of your plaster. The 3m can be bought for less than 200 bucks and there is nothing different about applying it. If you cant get them to add it to the mix find another plaster comp.

cracks are normal if they dont open up, they should be hairline cracks. They also shouldnt be hollow around them. If the plaster is solid around the cracks your ok. Slow filling is the common cause for cracks, usually on the upper floor and step areas. The coping stains need to be sanded off, fine wet and dry sandpaper will do it

There is only 2 good reasons it would do this. If it was a replaster job you must fill it as fast as possible. They should warranty it if it was full within 24 hours. The other reason would be it wasnt wet prior to shooting on the plaster and it has hot spots, very thin spots will also crack. If it was full of water within 24 hours they should take care of it. They can tell if the water was turned off because there will be tub rings, guarranteed.