Using tile to cover concrete deck cuts?

[JohnT]

A friend of mine just redid all the return plumbing (due to leaks) on his IG pool while getting his home ready to sell. He's got the holes backfilled with rock and is ready to pour concrete. While brainstorming with him about how to keep the new concrete from looking so out of place, I suggested pouring concrete to with a half inch or so of the existing concrete, then laying outdoor ceramic or stone tile to bring it up to level. Sure seems like this would look a heck of a lot better than mismatched concrete, and it probably wouldn't be insanely expensive or time consuming.

Anybody have any thoughts?

 

[duraleigh]

Good idea, John. He could even use brick pavers if he didn't like ceramic....or slate or stone. All better choices than mismatched concrete.

 

[sredish]

I would consider lowering it, keeping the finished floor a bit lower than the existing, in case of pool flood or something. Also, you need a little bit more than 1/2"; tile is generally 3/8" and you'll want a 1/4" of thinset for floor tile. That puts you at 5/8", so do with that what you will.

If you want it to be super trick, pop out some of the tiles along the edge and sand down the existing tile set to reveal the concrete, and have the guy pour the concrete level to that and continue the tile so it looks like it was that way from the get go. I'd either do that or drop it a little, but if you do 1/2" it'll probably be a tad higher, like an eighth.