Pool Drain and Acid Wash in Shady Shores, Texas

The Town's pool drainage ordinance

Ordinance 396-11-2024, passed on November 11, 2024, amended the Town of Shady Shores' article on swimming pools and spas. It made a permit explicitly required for every on-ground storable pool, and it sets rules on how pools must be plumbed to drain. Anyone planning to empty a pool here, for an acid wash or any other reason, should read that article, follow it, and ask the Town how it applies to the property before any water comes out.

Lake Cities water and drought stages

Shady Shores gets its water from the Lake Cities Municipal Utility Authority, whose service area also takes in Hickory Creek and Lake Dallas. The utility buys treated water from the Upper Trinity Regional Water District, drawn from Lewisville Lake and Lake Chapman, and adds water from three wells inside its boundaries during summer peaks, its 2024 report says. Its drought plan counts filling, refilling or topping up any pool as non-essential use, encourages all users to drain and refill pools less often in Stages 1 and 2, and in Stage 3 asks the towns it serves to stop issuing permits for new pools, hot tubs and spas. Ask the utility which stage is in force before a drain is booked.

Draining is not routine care in any case. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's pool guide expects a well-kept pool to go 3 to 7 years between drains to hold down total dissolved solids, so an emptied pool is the time to do the acid wash, repairs or refinish together.

Flower Mound Pool Resurfacing will talk through the timing of a drain around the Town's rules and the utility's stage.

How a drain and acid wash is done

Before the water comes out

An empty pool is exposed in ways a full one isn't. River Pools, a fiberglass pool maker, explains that groundwater around a pool pushes up on the shell, and with too little water inside, the shell can bulge, crack or even float; it says the same holds for every type of pool, concrete included, and advises owners to leave draining to an authorized professional. The Pool & Hot Tub Alliance tells pool operators not to empty a pool without precautions, the first being working hydrostatic relief valves, and to finish the work and refill fast. Pentair's main drain guide says such a valve relieves the uplift from groundwater into the pool or spa; Hayward's model threads into the drain sump with a slotted collector tube beneath it. The National Plasterers Council adds that every drain carries some risk to the interior finish.

The USDA soil survey maps 19 soil units inside the Town's boundary, led by Gasil (about 23.0% of the mapped land), Birome (about 20.5%) and Callisburg (about 16.5%). Gasil is a well-drained fine sandy loam with a linear extensibility of 1.8 percent, low on the 1980 Denton County survey's scale, and NRCS rates it "Not limited" for homes without basements; about 18.9% of the mapped land sits in units rated "Very limited" for shrink-swell. These are general ratings for each soil, not a reading of any yard.

The wash itself

"Acid wash" covers three jobs in the National Plasterers Council's glossary: dissolving material on a cement finish to remove efflorescence, dirt or stains; etching a fresh coat to expose its aggregate; and using a weak, diluted acid that lifts certain stains while leaving the surface largely intact. SGM's procedure for its quartz finish has the crew in proper safety equipment, starts in the deep bowl and works toward the shallow end to keep streaks off the floor, leaves walls and steps for last, never lets the solution puddle in the bowl, and uses an additive that reduces fumes. Acid left on the surface is neutralized with soda ash and water, and SGM has the wash solution neutralized and discarded according to local requirements, which in Shady Shores starts with the Town's pool article and a call to the Town.

When an acid wash is the wrong fix

Not every finish takes acid well. SGM found that on traditional limestone-based plaster, acid washing gave only temporary relief and sped up erosion, though its quartz-based Diamond Brite can stand several acid washes during its service life without permanent harm. Universal White Cement warns that frequent drain-and-acid washes strip years off plaster for a short-lived whiter look, and that metal brushes, razor scrapers and harsh scrub pads gouge it and leave weak spots. For abnormal discoloration, the Council's torching method heats the drained plaster slowly over a number of days, and the pool is first emptied completely and given a light acid wash.

Flower Mound Pool Resurfacing will look at the finish and the stains before recommending an acid wash at all.

Fishing camps, a 1932 subdivision and pancake suppers

In the mid-1920s, Dallas contractor John William Franck built a fishing camp of about ten wood-shingle cabins on the north shore of Lake Dallas as a weekend retreat, the Town's history records. In the 1930s many of the camps gave way to permanent homes, some still standing, and a subdivision named Shady Shores began construction in 1932. Town leaders incorporated in 1960, mostly to avoid annexation by Denton, and took the subdivision's name; the Handbook of Texas dates incorporation to October 1960 and counts 543 residents in 1970, 1,045 in 1990 and 1,461 in 2000. Until tax collection began in 2000, road repairs and police and fire protection were paid for with building permit and franchise fees, pancake suppers and residents' donations.

Shady Shores is a Type A general-law town with a council-mayor government, the mayor and five aldermen elected at large. Fire service comes from the Lake Cities Fire Department and police protection from the Corinth Police Department; our page on pool tile repair in Corinth covers that city, about 2.4 miles to the west-southwest by our calculation from the Census Bureau's center points. Along the water, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decides which activities are allowed on the Lewisville Lake shoreline under its master plan and publishes guidelines for adjacent landowners, and camping is not allowed at Big Sandy Access.

A drain and acid wash, step by step

1. 01

   Ask the Town and the utility

   The Town’s pool article sets how pools drain, and the Lake Cities utility’s drought stage governs the refill, so both are checked before a date is set.

2. 02

   Judge the finish

   Limestone plaster, quartz and pebble take acid differently, and some stains call for another treatment entirely.

3. 03

   Drain with the shell in mind

   Hydrostatic relief valves are checked, and the pool is emptied only for as long as the work takes.

4. 04

   Wash from the deep end up

   Diluted acid goes on the deep bowl first, then the shallow floor, with walls and steps last and no puddles left standing.

5. 05

   Neutralize and clean up

   Soda ash and water neutralize the surface, and the wash solution is handled as the Town requires.

6. 06

   Refill without delay

   The finish goes back under water as soon as practical, the way the National Plasterers Council recommends, and the water is balanced.