Pool Acid Wash & Drain-and-Clean FAQ

Most residential acid washes run $300–$800. Larger or heavily stained luxury pools run $700–$1,200 or more. Price is driven by pool size, plaster condition, and stain severity. Quotes are flat from photos, and free.

It's a periodic restoration, not a weekly cleaning. The pool is drained completely and the bare plaster washed with a diluted muriatic acid solution to strip stains, calcium, and algae plus a thin layer of old plaster; then it's neutralized, given a chlorine bath, refilled, and rebalanced.

Roughly every 3–5 years for a plaster pool, or as a rescue when a pool goes green or gets badly stained. It's not something to do more often than needed, each wash removes plaster, so over-washing shortens the surface's life.

Only a handful of times over a plaster surface's life, because each wash removes a thin layer. Once the plaster is thin, mottled, or showing aggregate, another wash does more harm than good and it's time to resurface. We will tell you plainly when you've reached that point.

The City of Chandler asks that pool water stay on your property or go to your sanitary sewer cleanout, typically a black 3 or 4 inch capped pipe close to the house, and it recommends a flow of no more than 12 gallons per minute. Pipes hard-plumbed to the street are prohibited, and if you cannot find your cleanout you can request an exception from the city to drain to the street. That is how we drain.

No permit is needed if the water goes to your sanitary sewer cleanout or stays on your property. If you can't locate the cleanout and need to drain to the street, you request an exception from the city first. Talk it through with whoever drains the pool, us included, before drain day.

Sometimes a lightly green pool can be recovered by balancing chemistry and running the filter. But a pool that's dark green, black, or full of debris is usually faster and cheaper to drain and clean than to chemical-treat. A photo usually shows which your pool is.

Calcium scale from Chandler's hard tap water. As pool water evaporates in the heat, calcium concentrates and cements onto the tile and plaster. Brushing won't remove it. It needs bead blasting or acid treatment. See calcium and scale removal.

A drain-and-clean drains the pool and pressure-washes the surface without acid, good for debris and mild algae. An acid wash goes further, using acid to strip embedded stains, calcium, and a thin plaster layer down to fresh white surface. Acid wash costs a bit more and does more.

The drain, wash, and neutralize is usually a day of work. Draining takes several hours on its own, and refilling from the hose takes a day or more depending on pool size, so plan on a couple of days from empty to swimmable.

Not when it's done right: kept wet, worked in sections, in the cooler part of the day. Done wrong (dry plaster, too strong a solution, uneven application) it can etch the surface unevenly. That's the whole reason to hire someone who does this constantly rather than a generalist.

Yes, but carefully and usually at a milder concentration than bare white plaster. Pebble and quartz finishes are common in newer Chandler pools, and calcium and light staining come off well. Heavy calcium on pebble is often better handled with bead blasting on the tile and a gentle surface treatment.

The water is on your city bill. A residential refill uses several thousand gallons and typically adds $60–$200 to your Chandler water bill depending on pool size and rates. Ask for an estimate before draining. Truck-delivered water is an option for large pools at several hundred dollars and up.

No. We do acid washing, drain-and-clean, calcium and tile work, and resurfacing prep, periodic restoration jobs. For weekly service, look for a pool-cleaning route company; that is a different kind of business.

Spring through early summer is peak season: pool openings, algae blooms, and less overnight evaporation. Fall and winter work fine and often schedule faster. We work year-round; the main thing is to acid wash during the cooler part of the day so the plaster doesn't dry out.

Ask any crew, us included, for its license and a certificate of insurance before it drains anything. Every quote is free and flat. You get a real price before any work starts.

Chandler and the surrounding southeast Valley: Gilbert, Sun Lakes, Ahwatukee, and Tempe. All four sit next to Chandler, so a green or stained pool can usually be seen quickly.

Four filters do most of the work: confirm the crew is licensed and insured, insist on a flat written price from photos rather than an open-ended hourly rate, ask how they drain, the right answer names your sewer cleanout and Chandler's recommended 12-gallon-per-minute rate, and ask whether your plaster can even take another wash. A company that answers all four without hedging is worth hiring; one that dodges them is practicing on your pool.

If you're in Chandler, yes: Ocotillo, Fulton Ranch, Clemente Ranch, Circle G, and the older central neighborhoods off Arizona Avenue, Alma School, and Dobson are all covered, along with Gilbert, Sun Lakes, Ahwatukee, and Tempe. Include your cross streets with your photos so we can confirm a scheduling window.

When the plaster still has healthy thickness, very much so, a $300–$800 wash can make a tired surface look near-new, while a full replaster runs thousands. The math flips once the plaster is thin: at that point a wash buys almost nothing, and the smarter use of the money is resurfacing. Find out which side of that line your pool is on before you spend anything.

Photos of the whole pool, the worst staining, and the waterline are usually all we need, so there is no site visit to wait for. Scheduling the work depends on the season, spring and early summer book fastest, but the quote itself doesn't wait.