Sky Blue Pool Replaster

First, the admissions:
1. I have just ended an unpleasant conversation with this contractor (a pool plasterer) that may make what follows sound angry, perhaps intemperate.
2. The contract I signed with the plasterer goes to some lengths to warn of the possibility of discolorations in new plaster.
3. I paid the $ 5000+ bill in full before closely examining the quality of the job.
On to the details:
We decided to replaster our 30-​year-​old, dark-​bottomed pool because it had begun increasingly to show broad, white discolorations that resembled calcium deposits.. On May 24 the owner of Sky Blue, Mr. Young Kwon, came to our home to give us an estimate on replastering the pool. We authorized the work a few days later, telling him we wanted the plaster to be of the same color as that he would be removing. Mr. Kwon’s crew appeared about ten days later.
Though the crew worked diligently both to remove the old plaster and to apply the new, Mr. Kwon was almost never at the job site. As a result, he was unable to address the flaws that appeared later, saying that he had no idea how they had occurred, but noting that all the flaws of which I complained were covered by the disclaimers in the contract.
Because the pool is located at the bottom of a steep hill on our property and, at the time, I was suffering from a bad back, I was unable to examine the job for several days. When I saw it up close, I was troubled by several things I saw. First, the plaster showed the same kind of white, calcium-​like discolorations that had prompted us to replaster in the first place. Second, there were several small, very bright white spots, perhaps two or three inches across, in the deeper end. Finally, there were scratches along the steps at the shallow end of the pool.
The day I examined the pool was also the day our pool man customarily serviced it. When I pointed out the spots, he said that they were not within the range of normal discolorations and that he had telephoned Mr. Kwon to describe the problem on the first day he had serviced the pool after the replastering was completed. Mr. Kwon had done nothing in response. The pool man telephoned Mr. Kwon to report our conversation.
After Mr. Kwon and our pool man had an extended conversation (which I was unable to understand due to language differences), our pool man handed me his telephone to speak with Mr. Kwon. Initially, he attempted to attribute all of the problems my pool man identified to the normal properties of the plaster. He also suggested that something had dropped into the pool to cause the white spots or that our pool man might have improperly administered chemicals after the pool was full. He said he had no idea of what had caused the problem because he wasn’t present at the site. He ended the conversation by saying that he would come to my home and examine the damage.
Today, June 26, 2013, Mr. Kwon and I examined the pool. When I pointed out the three white spots he said this was normal discoloration. However, when I suggested that this meant logically that the replastering job could have come out with a pool bottom that looked like it had white measles, he said that was «impossible.» I took another run at the proposition and he deflected the question, saying only that discoloration was to be expected and that the contract I had signed protected him from any claims to the contrary.
When I pointed out the white scratches on the pool step, plainly not discolorations, he said he had no idea how they had been caused and suggesting that our pool man was responsible. I noted that the scratches had not been there when our pool man last visited, but my comment had no impact.
Finally, I asked what Mr. Kwon was going to do about the problems. First, he began to recite the contract litany once again. Then he said he wanted to try something. He went to his truck and came back with a wooden device that looked like a paint scraper. He focused on one of a cluster of tiny discolorations on the pool steps and attempted to scrape them away. When they didn’t disappear, he said they were granules of sand.
That was the end of our interchange. Mr. Kwon did not say he was willing to do anything else for us, even if we were willing to drain the pool (all 40,000 gallons of it). He also did not offer any partial refund (though I would not have accepted it — I wanted the problems repaired). We walked up the stairs from the pool to the street without exchanging another word, in large part because he was occupied on his cell phone.
As you may infer from the foregoing, I am not a happy camper. When a vendor falls back on his contractual rights to deal with a customer who has complaints about his job, it is a sign of either indifference or arrogance. At this point, it doesn’t matter to me which of these explains Mr. Kwon’s conduct.