I'm re tiling my pool myself after getting high quotes from a number of pool contractors
The pool is about 18 years old, the problem with the old tiling was on waterfall walls that are about 18 to 30 inches high out of the water, a total of about 48 sq ft. The tiles were starting to badly fall off, particularly at the 2 corners, the wall is in 5 sections, a sort of zig zag, the old tiles were 3x3, I'm going to be using 6x6
I got two main questions
1 - after removing the old tiles there was some damage to the gunite waterfall walls, I have been repairing the damage with mortar, with mixed results, not being an expert on mortar, when using the mortar to re-point some of the brickwork on the top and side of the walls the mortar goes off very hard and looks very solid
but when I use the same mortar to patch parts of the wall that had tile, in thichness 1/4 to maybe 3/4 inch, the mortar never seems to go off as hard and sometimes even days later appears to be weak, dusty and can be brushed off with a stiff brush or can be in dented with a hard object.
What I'm I missing about using mortar, do I need to use special mortar when patching a flat vertical surface, or is there some trick to getting the mortar to set really hard?
I've been using N regular strength mortar
2 - a friendly pool contractor who was working on the house next door recommended that I use Thoroseal on the walls after I had finished making repairs and before tiling - is this a good idea, will the tiles stick good to Thoroseal?
The pool is about 18 years old, the problem with the old tiling was on waterfall walls that are about 18 to 30 inches high out of the water, a total of about 48 sq ft. The tiles were starting to badly fall off, particularly at the 2 corners, the wall is in 5 sections, a sort of zig zag, the old tiles were 3x3, I'm going to be using 6x6
I got two main questions
1 - after removing the old tiles there was some damage to the gunite waterfall walls, I have been repairing the damage with mortar, with mixed results, not being an expert on mortar, when using the mortar to re-point some of the brickwork on the top and side of the walls the mortar goes off very hard and looks very solid
but when I use the same mortar to patch parts of the wall that had tile, in thichness 1/4 to maybe 3/4 inch, the mortar never seems to go off as hard and sometimes even days later appears to be weak, dusty and can be brushed off with a stiff brush or can be in dented with a hard object.
What I'm I missing about using mortar, do I need to use special mortar when patching a flat vertical surface, or is there some trick to getting the mortar to set really hard?
I've been using N regular strength mortar
2 - a friendly pool contractor who was working on the house next door recommended that I use Thoroseal on the walls after I had finished making repairs and before tiling - is this a good idea, will the tiles stick good to Thoroseal?
