Google the product with the words 'reviews,' 'environmental impact' and any other terms that apply to what you want to know. You should be able to find plenty of info on it.

Thank you hayleydaniels for the helpful suggestion of using Google to find my answer. Google has a wealth of opinions and "facts" about swimming pool finishes. The 3M Colorquartz we used is extremely well regarded and noted for its stain resistance. In our application however, it completely failed not lasting 5 years and causing no-end of day-to-day labor costs. I have spent hours on the phone with various product manufactures and they all claim that their product is the answer. I hope a Houzz user with the same swimming pool use factors can weigh in with what works best for them. At this point I am going back to fiberglass as it cleans up in a jiffy every spring.

Beautiful house with lovely views! I don't have a pool but I do have a spa and acrylic fiberglass is very easy clean up. I'd go with that.

Do you have a winter cover? A solid safety winter cover will keep debris from getting in the pool and can prevent hours of labor cleaning the pool when you are ready to open it in the spring. Also adding stain and scale products throughout the year in conjunction with the cover will help maintain the beauty of the plaster finish. Muriatic acid directly on the plaster surface will etch the plaster decreasing its lifespan. Bio Guard and Jack's Magic make quality stain and scale products that you can purchase from your pool store. Loop-Loc make a quality winter covers that will pay for themselves the first spring. The water will look as good as the day you covered it.

We highly recommend Pebble Tec products. This is an exposed aggregate plaster with an excellent warranty.

Thank you for your feedback. We tried a custom cover ($$$), but the otters found a way under or chewed through it every time. (FYI-Boats also cannot be left out in the Sound as they too are appropriated by the fauna.) As the only freshwater source in the area, the pool is a daily stop for a plethora of wildlife. We prefer to leave it to them for the majority of the year. I just want to find an easy-clean stain-proof finish to make my spring clean-up a one day job instead of a one week nightmare.

Proper maintenance will hep you prevent staining. A white plaster will show the most stains. Gray plaster on the other hand will help hide stains. A tile pool will probably be your best bet in the long run.

Contact us for a free quote at info@californiapools.com.

http://www.californiapools.com/

Thank you California Pools for taking time to answer, but I don't think you actually grasped the gist my query. "Proper maintenance" is impossible 9 months of the year. As I look at the pool today there are 3 otters in it along with their food stash of little halibut, dungeness & red rock crabs, and some salmon of indeterminate variety.

A tiled pool would look lovely. I do have pool tile around the waterline but they crack and split from the freeze/thaw/storm cycles. We are used to having to chip out a dozen or so tiles a year to replace. This spring we had to take out 179 tiles as winter storms dumped a bunch of logs and driftwood into the pool.

Hi!! What an interesting dilemma. Your pool is absolutely stunning but I can understand the maintenance you have. Would a robot cleaner survive the winters?

We have a Pebble Tec finish in our pool in a very light gray, and it doesn't seem to stain. The texture is nice as well - it's small smooth round pebbles embedded on the surface. Good luck!

I understand your dilemma ! We live in Maryland and we have oak trees all around our pool. We have a self cleaning salt water custom shape gunnite pool with white plaster. It needs a lot of maintenance. First of all we open it after the oak beards are down from the trees and the water is almost every year, green ... a pond color... We always clean and blow the leafs around it so it won't stain the plaster...But it still does a little .... We don't have a cover as we should though... Would be easier ... We do winterize it .. I think that a well winterized pool will keep wildlife away... We do have a 5 feet tall fence around it.. Over the winter the water is clean... In the spring as the temps are raising we add some more shock to it and stays clean . We have two sets of filters . We use the old ones to filter all the green oak beards and pollen green water . When that is done we do put the new set of filters for the summer. Keeping it clean minimizes staining. The chlorine shock and the chlorine ( salt) cleans some stains but not all... Muriatic acid we used to clean the jacuzzi because it was easier to empty and also dirtier from leafs stains... What my husband wants to do with the stains is to call a company to acid wash the whole pool and then to put a cover on it ... When we don't use it from sept-may... The chlorine in water over the winter might keep some of the visitors away and water clean.That is what we do about stains and keep the pool clean...I know it is not a answer to your situation but if you do the expense of refinish it ,maintenance is the key to have it always clean...otherwise you can try the dark bottom plaster color the kind that looks like a natural lake look more than the blue look given by the white plaster...good luck with your project!

I highly recommend the Pebble Tec. We had our pool remodeled about 9 years ago. It was installed in 1964 and we purchased the home in 1991. We did have it replastered in 1993. The Pebble Tec has held up great and looks beautiful.