How To: Pool Plaster Start Up with NO Plaster Dust! (The Right Way)
Pool plaster start-up, done the right way — with no plaster dust.
The first 24 hours after plaster goes on decide how that finish looks for the next decade. Most start-up dust is not bad plaster, it is bad chemistry at fill. Here is the tank system I use to dose chemicals before the water ever touches the new surface, and how I test and adjust calcium for the specific pool right as filling begins.
If you own a pool being replastered, this is the conversation to have with your plasterer before the truck shows up.
I'm Randy Beard, a licensed swimming pool and landscape contractor with 40 years of building behind me. This channel is where I show how pools, water features, and hardscape actually get built — the decisions that matter, the shortcuts that cost you later, and the details nobody explains until something fails.
"Ok, what we're setting up here is our new startup system. So we've got a large tank here which
allows us to add the chemicals directly to the tank here so we're not trying to add chemicals to
the water itself. Where there are only maybe 100 gallons of water in there. Because of the
chemical concentration gets too intense right at that one point. It's critical that we test the
calcium literally right as we are getting ready to fill the pool. And what we do, we got a bag of
calcium right here. We will actually adjust per the Orenda app, is what we use, we'll adjust per
this specific pool. Exactly how much calcium is going to be needed. We'll add it to the bucket
here and it will actually be just slowly trickling down into the pool. While we've got other hoses
going to we're not adding in too hard of a water, too much chemicals at any one point. And this
allows us to balance the water as its filling. As opposed to coming in a day or two later, which
we found to be pretty problematic. We can actually do some of the damage, right on the initial
filling. so we started doing this system now.
Pretty basic system, we just have a hose bib hooked up with a line going down it's just filling to
the bottom of this tank so that we are constantly getting the mixing. A traditional pool vacuum
hose is all we're using. And then the other end is just going to suspend down into the pool. I
always like to put a couple of floats on here, as the pool starts to fill, the hose will actually lift as
well. And so we're not having the hose sitting on the bottom for any length of time.
Alright so right here at the beginning we're using the Orenda SC1000 today. And this really
keeps all of the calcium and everything in suspension and it really cuts down on the plaster dust
and all of that
As opposed to the calcium that we always want to add in the bucket back here. The SC1000
we can add right to the pool, and that's the recommended way to add is right during initial fill up.
We've already got our mark ticked off on the bucket, we know exactly how much we're adding.
Just pour it right down the drain there, really simple but it will make the overall plaster
appearance be so much more clean and uninformed. Makes the startup procedure so much
more pleasant.
Alright, so we are gonna get ready to test the fill water. So we have filled up our bucket, this is
with the fill water for today. And so, again it's real critical that this water gets tested at the point
of startup. We've seen calcium fluctuations even between a couple of days. So I always like to
test it right here in the bucket using a good high-quality test kit.
Alright, and as expected we got a calcium hardness of 110. Which is well below National
Plasters Council standards. We want to have at least 200 parts per million, so we will no use
the Orenda app to figure out exactly how much calcium we need to add to the bucket here. And
then we'll get this running so we are starting to fill the pool."
More plaster, tile and finish work: / @varx1com
Subscribe for new builds and breakdowns: / @varx1com
#PoolPlaster #PlasterDust #PoolStartup #PoolRemodel #PoolConstruction #PoolMaintenance