I Fear It's Still Reflecting

After graduating college, a roommate and I considered joining the military together, visiting both the Army and Navy recruiting centers to enquire about the commitment.  Which even at that time were not my thing, explaining my accidental tourism through paint. 

Which, like serving in the military, can be a person’s destiny.

So when the paint used at the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall in Washington, DC began to peel, I again felt called to service.  To protect that sacred site from our nation’s contractor-in-chief, whose record in construction is not what he thinks.  And with NACE certification requiring fewer push-ups than the Army and Navy recruiters demanded, I’m already fit enough to serve.  

All coatings inspections begin with the product data sheet, which among other information contains the specification for its use and preparation.  Standards which a coatings inspector marks to, though the data sheet for the Pipeliner 5000 used at the mall was insufficient for that task.  Lacking any mention of surface preparation the inspection would fail there, though this one had further to fall as the data sheet made no mention of a primer being needed.    

Though video evidence shows that one was used.    

The data sheet also makes no mention of the product’s suitability for an exterior exposure, perhaps confident that the name Pipeliner was enough to make that point.  A polyurea “specifically designed for potable water applications” it fails inspection again as its resin is ill-suited for an exposed installation, a failure so conspicuous it’s likely to prove inculpatory when this case makes it to trial.

Monty, that means they should have read the label.

But it was not those deficiencies which brought on our national paint shame, though they would have at some point when cracking, chalking and fading led to delamination in small pieces.  Which would have happened had the coating system stayed in place long enough, which it did not do, leaving many to wonder what went wrong.

Though they were asking the wrong person.

Not cut with a knife, there’s a chance that incompatibility between the primer and finish coat is to blame for the rapid-onset peeling, though I make those odds low as it’s a hard mistake to make and one which requires the applicator to ignore observable effects such as wrinkling or crawling while laying down their coating.  And the Pipeliner 5000 is 100% solids, making that effect even less likely.    

More likely is the peeling is caused by an another application error, one which was observable on a timelapse video taken every moment of that job, recorded from the top of the Washington Monument and available on EarthCam. 

Polyureas such as Pipeliner require a seamless application, a monolithic film absent any overlapping areas, each of which would constitute an application failure for a product category not known for intercoat adhesion.  But a review of the timelapse video shows that the pool was painted in sections, with new sections overcoating those previously painted, outside of the product’s four-hour recoat window. 

An application error which would manifest in sheet peeling.   

With the overlaying coats assured to delaminate at some point, separation was hastened when an algae bloom required vacuuming, sweeping and scraping of the pool, dislodging any coating which was not otherwise adhered.  Terminal for this or any paint job, though that’s not where this job’s problems end. 

To prep for painting, the pool was drained and the limestone cleaned using high pressure water, driving moisture and likely other contaminants into the soft stone.  Sealed in by the Pipeliner coating, which is not as beneficial as it sounds.  Because when the sun warms that stone the water will try to evaporate, creating as much as 500 pounds of hydrostatic pressure on the back of the coating’s film, more than enough to force mechanical separation. Though that type of delamination would typically take longer, keeping my money on the application error as that genre has been the cause of all but one coatings failure over the span of my career.  

Conspiracy theorists on TikTok blamed the peeling on the 12% Hydrogen Peroxide, which was added to the water in an effort to treat the algae in advance of the country’s 250^th birthday celebration.  Which might have contributed to the problem had the coating stayed in place longer, like the sun exposure the peroxide manifesting in cracking, chalking and other signs of degradation before peeling off in smaller pieces months and years from now.   

The #ReflectingPool was the topic on my podcast this week, where I offer a few more theories of what went wrong and discuss what can be done to fix it.  Which might explain why the episode is so short, as removal of all the coatings is the only path to repair.  A process which the 100-year-old limestones of that pool are under no obligation to survive. 

Though if they have been destroyed, the pool will once again reflect us.

Listen to the episode here or watch here.