Standard Plaster Pool New Startup $650
Sierra Pool and Spa has been starting up new plaster pools for many years. We have done a minimum of 50 different new plaster start ups. This level of experience is rare. We have seen many start ups that were not done right and many start ups where the customer unfortunately did not understand the long term effect of hiring a service company that did not understand the risks of trying to rush the process. I have also seen damage due to the customer not understanding their responsibilities, and the causes of not having proper running equipment, not brushing, or swimming too early. We will explain in great detail what is included in a swimming pool start up, and why it needs to be done properly and why the costs cannot be less than this to do the job correctly. Please be aware, in order to prevent equipment issues unknown on first trip, we recommend a minimum one week prior to have an Equipment tune up $99. In order to inspect all the main components of the pool to be sure the pool is ready to start up. We have seen a lot of pools that were not ready that effected the final result. Please read through this completely as I believe it is about the most concise information you will receive in regards to the do’s and don’ts of new plaster.
Limitations:
Pools less than 35k gallons, ($79. per additional 10,000 gallons) Pool needs to have proper running equipment. Pool must be filled with water to middle of tile line. Excessive Iron on fill water may require additional stain protection. Any and all repairs are at an additional charge. Pool start- up needs to begin within a maximum of 2 days of filling, we prefer to not wait more than 24 hours.
Includes:
3 to 4 on-site trips in the First week
1 month free chemical only service. We on-site as many as 9 times in the first 5 weeks.
Initial startup:
Complete Testing of Chlorine levels, pH, Alkalinity, Calcium Hardness, Cyanuric Acid (conditioner), TDS levels, phosphate levels.
Sequestering agent as needed.
Adding Cyanuric acid (conditioner) through skimmer to bring to 30-50 ppm for regular chlorinated pools.
Adding Cyanuric acid (conditioner) through skimmer to bring to 30-70 ppm for salt pools.
Adding Calcium Chloride in order to raise calcium hardness to 150-200 ppm
Adding large amount of Acid in order to lower alkalinity to pH (this will rise quickly)
Adding phosphate remover as needed.
Priming of pump, looking over system, and setting all flow to main drain. (may need float valve, (extra charge) we bring an extra one with us in order to make sure that we filter from bottom of pool as it is essential to filter plaster dust out quickly.)
Setting system to run 24 hours a day, it is critical that the pool does not shut off, and it is critical that all surfaces are brushed by customer a minimum of 3 times a day.
Brushing down some of areas of pool in order to see how plaster is curing and how much dust is in pool.
Leave customer FREE corner brush so that client can brush inside edges of corners, around lights, or any other small areas a normal pool brush cannot reach.
It is critical that a customer has a good pole and brush or they will not be able to brush the pool well which can cause some of the conditions I am showing at the end. it is recommended that you have a new brush and a working pole. If you do not have either, one will be provided and included in your startup fee
Brushing, it is not Sierra Pool Masters responsibility, nor can we provide the total pool surface brushing that needs to be done by the homeowner. We cannot provide this service as there is no way to free up enough time in order to go to a pool as many as 30 trips to the home spending up to 45 minutes each trip. If brushing will be an issue, we recommend that you consider one of the upgraded aggregate surfaces that eliminate the need for this to be done. See aggregate surface start up. Make sure you have a new brush to and a good pole for this, as it is critical.
Repairs to equipment, new filter cartridges separate trips in order to repair something that prevents pool from operating properly. For example we show up first day and the equipment needs a new filter cartridge, or needs a Pump o-ring we do not have on our truck, in these cases, We will make every effort to repair the problem quickly. If it needs major repair, we will have to quote the repair and there may be an emergency service charge if we have to rearrange our repair schedule to accommodate the need to put this repair in front of repairs already scheduled. This can be as much as twice our published rates which is why we strongly encourage to have us do an equipment Tune up, at least a week before pool will be re-plastered. See Equipment tune up.
Extreme Iron and Manganese in fill water that can stain the pool prior to us arriving on the jobsite. We recommend looking in the back of your toilet where the fresh water tank is. Look at the color of the porcelain where the water is, if it brown it is critical that you purchase a pre-filter to put on the end of the hose prior to filling of the pool. Anytime that the pool has extreme Iron in the fill water we may add extra qts. of Sequestering agent and will leave the extra bottles that were added to verify that the pool needed them. You will know as the water will have a brown tint upon filling. We then will add 2 extra qts. of sequestering agent and will add cellulose fiber #138 to the filter system to allow it to absorb the minerals which will to help prevent staining, and help the cartridges form staining also. You are only charged for the extra materials only.
Salt for Chlorine generators: An average of 250-350 pounds of salt are needed. Be aware do not just use any salt, the salt we sell for has been kiln dried and has stain inhibiters to lessen the chance of staining. It is also finer in grains allowing it to dissolve. Staining can occur if the wrong salt is added, or it is not brushed down completely. I must warn people not to use a Chlorine generator on Black or very dark Pebble-Tec surfaces, it is too easy to form very visible scale on the surface of the rock. I have seen this happen on almost every Black pebble that has had a chlorine generator.
Diatomaceous earth filters: Sierra Pool Masters will not start up pools with either of these types of filters. In this region we have Iron in our water and we have had bad issues arise when we have accepted to do start ups with either of these types of filter systems. The sand filters will not filter fine enough and the D.E filters may have holes in the grids and Diatomaceous earth will not absorb Iron.
Adding Water:
Sierra Pool Masters does not add water on start ups, we are not on-site for any length of time to allow for this to be done also the pool industry insurance has always stated that it is never worth their liability to add water to any pool.
Pictures of what will happen in certain conditions; we include these photos in order to make sure you see the results of action or in-action during the early stages of plaster cure. Yes! These images are meant to scare you a little, as that is the best way to have you understand the risks of a poor start up. These are all actual issues that we have seen firsthand and our images of the incidents.
The Pool is approximately 10 years old. Notice the distinct patterns of modeling that was caused by areas of the pool that were not brushed during the critical stage of swimming pool plaster start up. These patterns sometimes take months to start to show as the different alkaloids that were not swept will cure slightly different causing these patterns that are quite clear that were not brushed.
The pool is the same pool as before. This pool is very large and this area is in the middle of the pool. They needed to have had a 16-32 ft. t-pole in order to be able to brush the middle of this pool. If you look carefully, you can see the distinct areas where the pool was not brushed well, notice to the right of the photo shows a pool that has normal coloring.
This pool is a situation where the pool had people swimming in the pool when the plaster start up had not been completed. The damage that is done does not show up right away. It shows up and gets worse and worse over time. It is CRITICAL to never swim in a pool until 24 hours after the pool sweep has been put into the pool and chlorine was added. Usually on the 4th trip.
This is a pool that was not balanced, and had High iron levels that were ignored. The damage here all occurred in the first year of the pools life.
This is what can happen to a pool that did not have the pH balanced. Large scale had formed all around pool.