Pool acid wash in Los Angeles

From $749, with a typical private pool between $749 and $1,250, and $1,650 and above for large pools, heavy staining or difficult access. It is priced per pool rather than per square foot, because the work is mostly time. Weekly maintenance customers take 20% off.

When the surface itself is discolored and the discoloration is organic or general: algae shadows left after the water cleared, black algae in the pores, or plaster gone blotchy over years. Not for metal staining, calcium silicate scale, or a finish worn through to the aggregate.

Yes — muriatic acid is diluted hydrochloric acid, and it is what is sold as pool acid. A small measured dose lowers pH on a service visit; a 50/50 mix with water strips a layer off drained plaster. The fumes damage lungs and eyes, which is why this is not a weekend project.

Chlorine wash first, wherever it will work: it bleaches out organic staining and removes no plaster at all. An acid wash removes material, so it is the stronger and more costly option. If the staining is set into the pores, acid is what will move it.

There is a no-drain technique, and it has a real use for descaling. It will not remove a layer of discolored plaster, so it does not bring a blotched finish back to one color, and it puts the whole body of water into an aggressive state that has to be corrected afterwards.

One properly done wash will not — pools are plastered with at least half an inch of reserve. The damage is cumulative: each wash leaves the surface more porous, so it stains faster and the next wash arrives sooner. On vinyl-liner and fiberglass pools it is destruction, not damage.

Five to seven years apart at the very closest, and two to four times in the whole life of one plaster finish. A pool is built with about half an inch of plaster to spend and every wash spends some of it. A pool that seems to need one every couple of years is not dirty — it is telling you the chemistry or the circulation is wrong, and washing it again only treats the symptom.

It is good for one particular job and bad as a habit. For organic staining set into the pores it is the only thing that resets the color, and the pool looks years younger the same day. As routine cleaning it spends a surface you cannot get back short of a replaster. Send a photo of the stain and a calcium hardness reading before you book one — the quote is free, and a fair share of what people ask a wash for turns out to be a chlorine wash or a tile job.

One day for the wash itself: drained in the morning, washed section by section, and refilling before evening, because bare plaster left standing dry in the sun crazes. Refilling a typical pool then takes the best part of a day on a hose. Swimming waits until the water is balanced, usually two to three days from the drain. A heavy wash exposes fresh plaster, so it is followed by the same programme we run on new plaster.