What Are Pozzolans?
What Are Pozzolans?
Pozzolans are siliceous or siliceous and aluminous materials found in geologic deposits and are an effective method used to improve the quality of cement.
Pozzolans additions to the cement in plaster finishes were tested at the National Pool Industry Research Center (NPIRC). The testing was done to see if the addition of pozzolans improved the performance of the finish, if at all. Pozzolans were also evaluated to determine if they improved the performance of standard plaster.
The Pozzolan additions to plaster were shown to reduce surface deterioration by up to 30% when compared to standard plaster without pozzalons. This is very important information as the cement in a plaster mix is generally the weakest link as measured by the Mohs Scale of hardness.
Cement manufactures were charged with making their manufacturing process of cement “greener” to the environment. This created a challenge in the pool plaster industry. Manufactures were allowed to use “filler” material in the production of cement to achieve this goal. This does not have much effect on the cement used for sidewalks and driveways, but pool plaster is all together a different animal. Pool plaster has to stand up to the most powerful element in the world, water. Chemically treated water to boot.
Adding pozzolans to these “greener” cements many not give you the results those tests proved at Cal Poly, but your plaster investment will benefit from using them.
Most plaster companies utilize the least expensive cement to reduce their expenses. They do not utilize the valuable information the NPIRC produced during the extensive testing done at Cal Poly. The testing done at Cal Poly is invaluable to a plaster company that intends to improve their services they provide to their customer base.
G&B uses the best cement on the market for pool plaster. It is a high performance patented pozzolans enhanced cement. Our standard finish is not standard at all. We offer the Finest Finish Series as our standard plaster.
