Anthony & Sylvan Pools Nightmare Spa Plaster Annapolis Junction Maryland

We contracted the remodel of our pool by Anthony and Sylvan (A&S) on July 5,2011. This remodel included plastering the interior of the pool and spa and this plaster work was under a three-year warranty but the work wasn’t completed until 2012. On June 30, 2013, Bill wrote an email to Hart Berkowitz at A&S stating that the “plaster on the seat [of the spa] was extremely rough, not smooth like it used to be. So rough, we couldn’t even sit on it. Very disturbing. Is it ruined? How could something like this occur?”

Hart replies, “Not to worry, Spa plaster will be fine. Most likely from a fluctuation in the PH. Happens in spas sometimes over the winter. Keep the PH on the low side (7.0-7.2) by adding muriatic acid to the spa water. Then brush the areas a few times. Repeat brushing will help smooth. Then after return PH to normal range (7.2-7.6).” My husbands worked over 5 hours to remove the “scale” (rough surface) and followed all the instructions as given and got the plaster smooth enough so we could use the spa that year.

In July 2013, we received another email from Hart regarding the rough spa surface that said, “Don’t worry. More than likely this issue won’t happen again.” UNFORTUNATELY, THIS SPA SCENARIO HAS REPEATED ITSELF IN 2014, 2015, 2016, AND NOW AGAIN IN 2017. THIS IS NOT WORKING AND NOW THE PLASTER IS SO DAMAGED IN THE SPA THAT IT NEEDS TO BE RE-PLASTERED. Our pool was built approximately 25 years before our remodel with A&S and not once in that 25 years did the spa EVER have a rough surface. Evan at A&S said it would cost between $4,000-5,000 to re-plaster the spa and suggested sandblasting the finish to make it smooth because it would be cheaper.

We tried to explain that the spa is too damaged for any more erosion of the finish to be helpful as there are now spots where the concrete is showing through and that re-plaster should be under warranty since we’ve had difficulty with it every year since the remodel.  We tried to file a BBB complaint but were told we are outside of warranty and over 12 months old, so our next stop is the Consumer Protection Agency at the Attorney General’s Office for the State of Maryland.  The Consumer Protection Agency told us that since the difficulty occurred within the warranty period they would still help us with our complaint.

Sean from A&S warranty says scale is not covered.  Here is the wording of the warranty on our contract related to the plaster in the spa: “WARRANTY ON INTERIOR FINISH, TILE AND COPING. To the extent we install the following items, we warrant that the interior finish, tile and coping will be free from defects in materials and workmanship for three (3) years from installation.”  There are “DEFECTS IN MATERIALS” used to plaster our spa.  Before we hung up the phone with Sean, he admitted that scale is damage to the plaster. 

Just to recap our process this year to date:  On April 17, 2017, we had our first contact of the year with A&S when Bill spoke with Brian and expressed our current distress over the continuing difficulties with the plaster in our spa.  Brian passed us to Evan, who promised repeatedly to “send someone out” to look at our spa and make recommendations.  When it was clear after 2 months of patiently waiting that Evan was not going to send someone out or even put us on the calendar for such an appointment, I left an intense message on Friday, June 16 with Evan and asked him to return our call. 

He called back that day and since we did not want to either pay $4-5,000 to have our spa re-plastered or pay to allow someone to sandblast our already severely eroded plaster finish further as Evan offered, he said he could pass us on to the warranty department.   So, next we spoke with Sean from warranty and it appeared we were once again getting stonewalled as promises were made to “send someone out” with no definite date given.  So, I submitted a negative review (the review was similar to the first paragraph written here) on the Consumer Affairs website on June 22.  We spoke with Sean at length on Friday the 23^rd and he said he was unable to offer us any help with our situation and passed us to his supervisor, Tara. 

Tara immediately set up an inspector to come out and look at our spa scheduled for the following Monday, June 26 and this inspector, Hugh, subsequently informed my husband that he would recommend a hydro-sanding and patches for the bare spots where the concrete is showing through.  However, on Monday, June 26 all communications once again broke down with A&S as Tara informed us because of our Consumer Affairs review that was published on Sunday, June 25, that neither she nor Sean would be dealing with us and that “someone else would contact us”.  Again, we don’t know who, when or if.  We haven’t been contacted as of today, June 28, 2017.  Below is an excerpt from an email sent to Tara before we were informed that she would no longer help us:

“Since we already know the recommendations your inspector will make, we want to communicate our position as best we can before you call us.  I happen to communicate better in writing, so here goes:

1.      We NEVER had any damage to our spa surface in the approximate 25 years of owning this pool before the remodel and we NEVER ONCE had to adjust the PH levels in the spa over the winter months.  We did NOT spend $35k remodeling our pool to turn it into a high maintenance burden, but that is exactly what happened.  BEFORE THE REMODEL, THE POOL REQUIRED ZERO MAINTENANCE FROM CLOSE TO OPEN EVERY YEAR.  We NEVER expected to have to deal with the electricity costs and maintenance of pool cover pumps, let alone PH adjustments over the winter months.  On Friday, June 23, 2017 was the first time that A&S is making it clear that in their opinion the spa PH levels REQUIRE maintenance over the winter in to avoid damage to the spa surface.

2.      IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MAINTAIN PH LEVELS IN OUR SPA OVER THE WINTER MONTHS.  The ONLY way to keep the PH appropriate to avoid damage to the CURRENT SPA PLASTER PRODUCT would be to keep the spa completely DRY.  But A&S has been closing our pool since the remodel and has insisted that proper maintenance requires us to keep water in the spa over the winter.  However, as soon as the temperature goes below 32 degrees the water in our spa FREEZES.  We CANNOT maintain the PH balance of ICE.  We could attempt to use a pool cover pump inside the spa to keep water out of the spa over the winter AGAINST ALL PREVIOUS A&S RECOMMENDATIONS since there is NO DAMAGE TO THE SPA PLASTER ABOVE THE WATER LINE, but we cannot pump out SNOW or ICE.  For A&S to keep pushing the responsibility to us for the damage to our plaster is adding insult to injury.  And now, after several years of extreme winter conditions that act like coarse sand paper to the surface of our spa followed by A&S RECOMMENDED springtime muriatic acid treatments that act like fine sand paper used to smooth off the roughness but further erode the plaster finish, the plaster is so damaged and diminished that concrete is showing through in spots and it needs to be replaced.  My husband has spent DAYS of miserable hard labor during his rare and precious time off to perform the required muriatic acid treatments.  HE DOES NOT DESERVE THIS SITUATION. 

3.      We do not for one second believe that PH has ANYTHING to do with the reoccurring condition to the finish of the plaster in our spa.  My husband tested the PH of the POOL after the heavy rains this spring and the PH was up over 8.  THERE IS NO DAMAGE TO THE PLASTER IN THE POOL.   If PH were a factor, the pool would have damage to the plaster as well.  We believe the reason we continue to be told that PH is the reason our spa has damaged finish is because A&S is attempting to push the responsibility for this result onto us.  In our experienced opinion, the difference between the pool and spa that is causing this re-occurrence is that the spa FREEZES over the winter while the pool does not.  Even with our best efforts, we cannot keep snow and ice out of the spa during the winter months, NOR SHOULD WE BE REQUIRED TO, when in the past this was never a concern for us as we NEVER had damage to our spa plaster for over 25 years, whether dry or rain or snow or ice or high PH or low PH.

4.      The current plaster product installed in our spa may be FINE for Florida or even other spas in our area that don’t FREEZE over the winter months, but this product is in NO WAY APPROPRIATE for OUR spa and should have NEVER been installed in the first place.  After we had the bad result the FIRST YEAR, A&S should have IMMEDIATELY removed this faulty plaster and installed something like what Blue Haven Pools used when the pool was built around 1990.  For A&S to re-plaster with the same product that has been unsuccessful for the last 5 winters would be extremely foolish.  There is no reason to expect a different result from the exact same product.  For A&S to sandblast and patch, resulting again in another winter with the exact same plaster material in the spa, again is just foolish.  Again, there is no reason to expect a different result from the exact same product.  If A&S does not currently sell a product that is appropriate for our conditions then they need to refund us $5,000 (Evan at A&S quoted a price of $4-5,000 to re-plaster our spa with what we can only assume would be the exact SAME product) so that we can purchase an adequate product from another company.  THAT IS THE VERY LEAST THEY CAN DO FOR ALL THE DIFFICULTIES WE HAVE HAD IN THIS CIRCUMSTANCE.”

At this point, A&S has given us no indication that they would consider re-plastering our spa on their dime.  We can “wait until the cows come home” and I don’t even expect to hear from them.  It is the end of day, 6/28/17 and still no attempt to contact us by A&S as promised.  If we want to be able to use our spa this year, we are forced to go to another company to have our spa re-plastered and file a complaint with the Consumer Protection Agency to get a refund of $5,000 from A&S.