What pool plaster day looks like

A video walkthrough of the day a pool finish goes on: how it's mixed, how two crews apply it, and why nobody walks on it afterward.

See how to replaster a pool, step by step for the full job, drain to start-up. This page is one stage of that sequence, zoomed all the way in: the day the actual finish material goes on, filmed and narrated by an owner-builder who was there for it.

The pool in the video got a StoneScapes Aqua White finish with a Puerto Rico Blend pebble and glass aggregate, not plain white plaster or quartz plaster. The industry still calls this stage "plaster day" whichever finish is going down, and the narrator describes the two-crew spray-then-trowel sequence below as what you usually see. The acid-wash step later in the video is specific to pebble and aggregate finishes and is labelled as such.

Source: Texas DIY Coach, "DIY Pool Plaster: What I Learned (Owner Builder Tips)"

Key takeaways

• The finish is mixed on site, right before it goes on. The crew keeps the mix consistent because inconsistent mixing shows up later as uneven color.
• Two crews work in sequence: a spray crew applies the material to the walls and floor, and a second crew follows immediately behind, making multiple passes to smooth it, compact it and work out air pockets.
• A glass additive, if the finish uses one, goes on during that last trowel pass rather than being mixed into the material, so it stays visible on the surface instead of buried in it.
• For a pebble or aggregate finish, a crew comes back the next day and acid-washes the surface to expose the stones. Wash it too much and the surface turns rough; wash it too little and the stones and glass never really show.
• Weather, heat, wind and rain all affect how the finish cures, and once it is down, nobody walks on it. One footprint on a still-curing surface leaves a permanent mark.

Mixing and applying the finish

In the video, the crew mixes the finish material on site rather than arriving with it premixed: cement, aggregate, pigments and additives, combined right before it goes on. The owner-builder narrating the video says the crew is deliberately consistent with the mix, because consistency is what keeps the color uniform across the whole pool.

Once mixed, the material is sprayed onto the shell. Guy wires and hoses go up first, then the crew sprays the material onto the walls and floor, a step the video's narrator compares to spreading frosting on a cake.

Two crews, one right behind the other

The video describes two crews working the pool at once. The first is the spray crew, putting the material on the walls and floor. A second crew follows immediately behind, and that is where the actual finishing work happens: multiple passes to smooth the surface, compact it, and work out air pockets. The narrator singles out troweling technique specifically as something that makes a real difference to the finished surface.

Adding the glass

The finish in this video included a glass additive. Per the video, the glass is not mixed into the material itself, since that would bury it where it cannot be seen. Instead, the crew throws it onto the surface during the very last trowel pass, then gives it one more smooth pass to bring out the aggregate and smooth out the glass.

The next-day acid wash (pebble and aggregate finishes)

This step is specific to pebble and aggregate finishes like the StoneScapes product in the video, not plain plaster. A crew came back the next day and acid-washed the whole surface, brushing it out to expose the stones underneath the top layer of material, described in the video as washing off the plaster "so that it doesn't look like plaster."

The video's narrator calls this step more art than science: wash too much and too much pebble gets exposed, leaving a rough surface; wash too little and the surface stays cloudy, with the stones and glass beads never really showing. A crew that gets the wash right is doing something genuinely skilled, not just following a fixed number of minutes.

Weather and curing

The video treats weather as a real variable on plaster day, not a footnote. Heat, wind and wet conditions all affect how the material behaves while it cures; the narrator says his own crew's foreman was specifically watching for incoming rain, and that heat on its own speeds up how fast the finish starts curing, which the crew has to account for as they work.

Don't walk on it

Once the finish is down, the video's one hard rule is straightforward: stay off it. The application crew wears spiked shoes so they can move on the surface while it is still soft, and the narrator warns that even one footprint from anyone else, on a surface that already looks solid, leaves a mark that then has to be fixed, at extra cost.

Watch the full video

Key moments

• 6:16 - Mixing the finish on site, and why consistency matters
• 6:34 - Spraying the material onto the shell
• 6:44 - Two crews: spray crew, then the crew that trowels behind them
• 7:09 - How a glass additive gets added, and why it isn't mixed in
• 7:33 - The next-day acid wash that exposes the stones (pebble/aggregate finishes)
• 8:16 - Why weather affects how the finish cures
• 8:41 - Why nobody walks on it once it's down

This page describes one owner-builder's own job, filmed and narrated by him, not a universal standard every crew follows the same way. For the complete drain-to-start-up sequence this single day sits inside, see how to replaster a pool, step by step.