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What's new for 2010 - Feb 15th, 2010 We are changing some things around here, and for the better. In the past, we used to acid wash the new interior finish before filling the pool. The purpose of this was to dissolve the slight cement film caused by the finishing process that covered up the aggregates and color chips. This is why these finishes are called "exposed aggregates". This should create a more even appearance with more luster of the color chips when the pool is filled and properly brushed and maintained. But, there is considerable risk when using strong acid on a brand new uncured cement surface. After doing a few thousand of these, I had a system that was second to none and satisfied 98% of my customers. (You can't please all the people all the time, but I try anyway.) There were several issues that had to be addressed, and the more immediate one was the disposal of this acid, at least 4 gallons of it. Back in the day, everyone would just pump it out with the ground water, either into the street, a body of water, or into the woods, usually insufficiently neutralized or not at all! Mind you, when I say everyone did this, I meant it. Sure, the acid was significantly weakened by the process but it could still kill some grass. Try not to blame the pool industry exclusively for yacking up the rivers. Another issue that was initiated by acid washing was the production of plaster dust. Remember plaster dust in an earlier rant? To summarize, when water or fluids come in contact with the new cement surface, calcium carbonate blooms out and leaves a layer of white dust on everything. After the pool is filled, this dust layer needs to be brushed away and filtered out entirely or else the dust will harden and leave a thin opaque layer over the new finish. Not only was the brushing phase, which lasted daily up to a month, physically tiring, but it also fouls out the filter equipment requiring almost daily attention. Because of the effort required, most pool owners still ended up with some hardened dust covering up the finish, defeating the purpose of acid washing to begin with! And yet another issue that had to be dealt with was the very high ph levels of the water for a month or so. This required the pool owner to add up to two cups of acid daily for as long as a month or so until ph would stay down to normal levels. If the pool owner neglected this high ph, he could end up with a nasty calcium scale problem. All this is what all pool owners and contractors had to deal with, until now. For several months, we have been doing what is called an "acid start-up" on all our pools with very good results. Instead of acid washing the bare cement before filling, we fill the pool first and add the acid the next day. We also add a stain sequester that helps control the plaster dust. We let the pool sit for up to five days with the filter equipment off. All the pool owner has to do is brush the surface once or twice a day and allow the lowered ph water to passively dissolve and eliminate most of the plaster dust and cement film. We come back to turn on the pump, bring the ph back up, and the pool is ready for chlorine and swimming. So, no more acid mishaps or environmental pollution. No more clogged filters. No more dealing with high ph and potential scaling. In the past, my job was done when I started filling the pool. Even though now I have to travel back to the pool a couple of times after it's filled, I'd rather do that than continue business as it was. Look, I'm not really on the "Go Green!" bandwagon, and I rarely recycle, and I'm skeptical of the global climate alarmists, but I know for a fact this is better for my pools, my environment, and thus for me. View All News Stories
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