Get in the pool, put your hand flat against the wall below the waterline, and run it sideways. If it feels smooth, you are fine. If it feels rough, gritty, or like coarse sandpaper, the plaster is etching and it is time to plan a replaster.
That is the whole test. It beats looking, because plaster usually fails by texture before it fails by appearance, and by the time it looks obviously bad from the deck you have been swimming in a rough pool for a couple of seasons.
The other signs worth knowing
- Staining that does not brush out. Ordinary discoloration lifts with brushing and chemistry. Staining that stays is usually in the surface, not on it.
- Chemicals that will not hold. Etched plaster has far more surface area, so it eats chlorine and fights pH balance. A pool that suddenly costs more to keep balanced is often telling you about its surface.
- Visible aggregate or dark patches. That is finish worn through to what is underneath.
- Rough spots that scrape feet. Once people start wearing water shoes in their own pool, the decision has effectively been made.
For timing: most plaster lasts ten to fifteen years, and where you land in that range is mostly water chemistry. A pool that has been consistently balanced sits at the top of it. One that has spent summers swinging between too much chlorine and not enough sits at the bottom.
Resurfacing, replastering, remodeling
Mostly vocabulary, and worth clearing up because quotes use the words inconsistently. Resurfacing and replastering are the same job: chip out the old interior finish and apply new plaster, quartz or pebble. Remodeling usually means that plus some combination of tile, coping, decking or equipment.
We quote whichever pieces you actually need, itemized. If your tile is fine, we will tell you your tile is fine.
The waterline tile is worth doing at the same time. The pool is already drained and the scaffolding of the job is already paid for.
What it takes and what it costs
A replaster-only job runs five to seven days from drain to refill. Add tile and it is seven to ten. A full renovation with equipment, surface and decking is two to three weeks. You get a written schedule before we start, same as a new build.
Replaster alone typically runs $8k–$18k depending on size and finish. A full renovation with equipment, tile and decking generally lands between $25k and $60k. One site visit and you get the itemized number.
Renovate or start over?
Almost always renovate. Demolition and rebuild costs three to five times more and takes twice as long. Unless the shell is fundamentally compromised — which is genuinely rare, and we will say so plainly if it is — an older gunite pool can be made to perform like new.
We work on pools regardless of who originally built them. The assessment tells us what we are dealing with, and the quote covers what needs touching and nothing else.
