Yes, I'm still here

Well, things have been crazy over the last few weeks. I did get the acid washing done right after my previous post, but not much has happened since then. Between bad weather and some health issues I had to deal with, there have only been a few days I could work on the pool. I also have been suffering from a lack of motivation - I admit I was a little overwhelmed when I saw how much patching had to be done. The good news is, I'm healthy again, the weather looks decent, and I'm motivated to get this thing finished within the next few weeks (before the heat gets miserable).

For the patching process, I will mostly be using the concrete mix recipe posted on the Ultraguard website. This mix consists of 2 parts screened sand to 1 part white cement, mixed with acrylic admix to a pancake-batter consistency. This appears to work well for the floors - for the wall I will have to mix it a little thicker, which is somewhat problematic because this stuff sets up very quickly.

I did experiment a little with this mixture and noticed a couple of things. First of all, I wasn't able to fill the deep holes in the plaster AND obtain a smooth, even surface with one coat - the holes are just too deep. So I will have to fill in the holes first, then go back over with a top coat to get the entire surface smooth and even. Second, when you mix this stuff thick enough to stick to the walls, it sets up VERY quickly (like 3-4 minutes after emptying it from the bucket). The first time I mixed it, I did a big batch and ended up scraping half of it off and pitching it because I couldn't work it fast enough. So patching the walls will be a somewhat lengthy process, because I will have to mix small batches over and over.

One more tip - at first I had trouble finding the white cement, so I bought a regular bag of portland cement instead. I wouldn't suggest this in hindsite. The chemical properties should be the same, but the darker cement is harder to work with, because for me at least it was harder to see how well it blended with the existing surface. Also, I started worrying if the Ultraguard would cover up the dark color completely (I'm still not sure about this). Fortunately, I was able to find some white cement last weekend, so I can start using it instead and will cover up the few areas I've already done with the darker stuff.