Going to try to re-tile when pool has water.

[kevreh]

**** glass tiles! When my pool was empty a couple years ago I went ahead and took out the old tile and put it these cool glass tiles. Problem is they keep coming off, and it looks like its going to continue to happen.

I don't want to spend the time and money to drain my pool. Here's my plan, curious if anyone has any tips;

- Drain pool about 6" so its ~ 2" below the tile line.
- Chip/chisel off the glass tiles.
- Clean up mortar grout as needed.
- Install new tiles with a quality fortified thinset. This time each tile will be backbuttered too.
- Grout
- Cleanup

This will lead to a decent amount of debris in the pool, I'll just have to vacuum it out. However.....does anyone have any ideas on keeping thinset and grout out of the water? My best idea is to use a ~6" piece of plastic taped to the side of the pool, just under the tile edge and.....drum roll.....SUPPORTED BY POOL NOODLES! This will create a sort of catch basin for the thinset, old mortar, and grout to fall into.

Thats what I'm thinking, is there a better way short of draining the pool?

 

[jblizzle]

My concern is any glass shards flying off and ending up in the pool ... VERY hard to tell if you have removed all the glass pieces under water.

 

[kevreh]

Good point, but the glass tiles is coming off whole. Not one has broken yet.

 

[SuzfromTexas]

Can you post pictures of your pool and tile?

I love creative ideas to tricky issues!! Your solution of plastic sheets and noodles sounds good to me! Take care! Suz.

 

[duraleigh]

I would suggest you get a 3/4" styrofoam 4' x 8' board from HD/Lowes. (cut it to whatever size works best for you) Attach it to the pool sides like you are thinking but now you have a platform to work on. If you wanted, you could even glue a "lip" onto the wall side for extra help in catching debris.

There is a good chance your tile is coming off not because you didn't use enough thinset but because you allowed it to form a dry "skim" on the thinset before attaching the tiles. It's VERY hard to see that and very easy to make that mistake. Tiles must be pressed into the thinset with not much more than a minute of "open" time.

 

[kevreh]

Can you post pictures of your pool and tile?

I love creative ideas to tricky issues!! Your solution of plastic sheets and noodles sounds good to me! Take care! Suz.

Yeah me too....I'll make sure to take some pics soon.

I would suggest you get a 3/4" styrofoam 4' x 8' board from HD/Lowes. (cut it to whatever size works best for you) Attach it to the pool sides like you are thinking but now you have a platform to work on. If you wanted, you could even glue a "lip" onto the wall side for extra help in catching debris.

There is a good chance your tile is coming off not because you didn't use enough thinset but because you allowed it to form a dry "skim" on the thinset before attaching the tiles. It's VERY hard to see that and very easy to make that mistake. Tiles must be pressed into the thinset with not much more than a minute of "open" time.

Love the idea of using rigid foam, sort of like a little barge LOL. I think thats better than my idea. Would the lip be made of the foam, and what glue did you have in mind that isn't too permanant and would come off fairly easy?

Ok, so you touched on something that irks me with glass tiles. Your supposed to install them in a fairly shallow bed of thinset, maybe 1/8". If its too thick the thinset oozes out between the tiles and cleanup is a pain. Plus to what your saying, with such a thin bed of thinset it can skin over faster, which as you point out may be the issue.

As it happens, this thread (http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/87710-New-pool-build-in-Nicaragua?p=790546&viewfull=1#post790546) about a pool build in Nicaragua talks about a method they use. The mosaic tiles are embedded in a thicker bed of thinset. The important part is that since the same thinset is used for the grout, if the thinset oozes out between the tiles then no big deal. This ensures the tile is truly embeded in the thinset.

Any time I've installed tile in a wet area (eg. shower) they've failed. I think this method is superior and will help prevent failure (tiles coming off).

Stay tuned!

 

[Casey]

I'm tuned in and can't wait for pics!