From Newsgroup: talk.origins

This may or may not be off topic. It looks like the DC reflecting pool
paint peeling is due to science denial. Everyone understood what they
had to deal with, and even though the company failed initial tests to
seal and paint the joints effectively in May they went ahead and painted
the reflecting pool knowing that they were likely going to have
expansion and contraction issues as the joints expanded and contracted
with changes in temperature.

I found this out when I asked Google why the damage looked so regular.
The paint peeled off in long evenly spaced horizontal strips. It turns
out that the coating failed at the joints of the concrete slabs. The
pool was designed to remain water tight under extreme temperature
changes so the joints between concrete slabs is at least 3/4 of an inch
wide and filled with a synthetic rubbery sealant. Each slab transverses
the reflecting pool and is 160 feet across and 60 feet wide. Each slab
is maintained level by resting on wooden pilings that have been driven
to bedrock so that there is no chance of uneven settling into the DC soil.

The company involved in the 2011 restoration of the reflecting pool
refused to paint the pool. It is reported that to correctly do the job
they could not meet the July 4th deadline, and that they did not have a
viable plan for painting over the joints, so they refused the contract.

It turns out that Trump may have initiated the failure by driving his
heavy motorcade onto the newly painted reflecting pool before water had
been reintroduced. It was a stupid stunt, and would have placed
differential pressure on individual slabs of concrete. The reflecting
pool was not designed to bear the weight of multiple armored SUVs
rolling and parking unbalanced on the painted concrete slabs.

It is a fiasco where just "repairing" what has already come apart is not
going to solve the issue. If Trump wants the pool painted he will
likely have to settle for removing this paint job and then painting each individual slab after properly preparing each slab to absorb the paint
(there probably was not enough time to properly prepare the concrete to
absorb the paint before the deadline). If he wants the joints to match
in color he will have to have the sealent removed and replaced by a
matching colored sealent.

Some of the joints are 4 inches wide and filled with sealant, so Trump's motorcade could have severely stressed those larger gaps between
concrete slabs. The paint and sealant would not have be able to take
the weight of an armored SUV across a 4 inch expanse.

Ron Okimoto


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