Texas has traditionally not been a chip out state. By that I mean most plaster companies in Texas will not chip or grind a pool before re-plaster or resurfacing. Due to growing and ever present competition among companies for pool re-plaster and pool remodel or pool renovation work, 99% of companies have eliminated this key step in their renovation work.

Why is this important? For starters how many times has your pool been plastered? Was the home bought used? How can you know if it was purchased used? Why does it matter?

Pool plaster whether its white plaster, colored plaster, quartz mix, full quartz finish, pebble finish, or glass finish all share some key characteristics. First and foremost the plaster needs a solid rough gunite surface to adhere to; your pool plaster is the final stage that water proofs your swimming pool. When someone re-plasters a pool and they acid wash, roll a bond coat on and shoot plaster over the existing plaster they are creating a situation that can cause many unwanted outcomes. One of which is bond coat failure. What happens when the bond coat fails? Several things happen, you end up with hollow spots of delamination. The plaster is delaminating from the bond coat or old layer of plaster. When the bond coat fails in this manner it allows water to move in-between the layers of plaster. This can create a situation where algae grows with adequate water chemistry. As the water is moving in-between the layers it loses the chlorine and creates pockets of fungi growing in places you can’t see. One of the tail tail signs of a bond coat failure is calcium nodules or a swimming pool with high chlorine that has places algae never seems to go away. These are lumps of white calcium can form all over the swimming pool creating rough spots. Most companies will only removed the hollow spots they can audibly hear when the pool is empty or visually see when calcium nodules are present.

At Texas Trophy Pools we offer a 5 year warranty on our plaster surfaces because we prep every pool the right way by chipping and removing thousands of pounds of old plaster before we re-plaster your swimming pool. This adds some cost to the job however the final product is something that will last for years with out delamination issues, calcium nodules, or thin plaster issues.

The typically replaster shoots between half an inch and one inch of plaster over existing plaster. When we prep a swimming pool the right way and chip and prep the surface we typically shoot one and half inches to 2 inches of plaster. Approximately one half inch of the pool plaster is wet by that I mean the top half inch of any plaster job is always wet because the pool water is soaking through that amount. When your plaster is only shot a half inch thick on most companies skim coat plaster jobs the bond coat is almost immediately soaking wet before any wear takes place. This is why most companies re-plaster jobs have bond coat failure and don’t last very long before another plaster job is needed. I call this the replaster trap. Customers have been asking me for years. Why did the my orginal plaster job last so long and my replaster look like crap in 3 years. The answer is the replaster trap. All large companies in the Dallas Fort Worth area use sub contractors to plaster swimming pools. I had a conversation with the owner of a high volume plaster sub contractor one day. I said to him hey you know the way you are replastering 99% of the pools is creating bond coat failure and plaster issues in 2-5 years? He laughed and said of course I know but I make more money when they call me out to replaster it in a few years. This is not the way Texas Trophy Pools does business. We prefer to inform our customers and explain the process in detail so they understand what they are getting for their money. In the most simplistic terms if paint was flaking and falling off your home would you paint it without having it scrapped? If the answer is no; why would you plaster your pool without removing most of the old plaster?