Crack or just missing tiles

[Bafrye]

So this was the first year opening the pool ourselves (our second season), we noticed the pool company went through maintenance staff last year and someone new closed the pool. I questioned the water level - hoping it isn’t the cause of the following….

now that I have gotten the pool clear and vacuumed - I found this - is it as simple as just reattaching tile or is this a bigger issue?

 

[zea3]

I think you are going to need to determine why the area is cracked and patch it first, then reattach tile.

@JamesW @jimmythegreek

 

[JamesW]

Can you show more pictures of everything?

 

[Bafrye]

 

[JamesW]

It’s a structural crack.

The tile has already been replaced once.

You can see that the tile is different.

The crack has probably been there for years.

How old is the pool?

Has the deck been replaced?

 

[JamesW]

The plaster looks like it is getting old.

Has the plaster ever been replaced?

You are probably due for a full renovation including coping, tile and plaster.

You should remove the bad gunite bond beam section and redo it as part of the renovation.

Make sure that the coping has an expansion joint to separate it from the deck.

For now, you can just replace the tiles and regrout.

Is the water level perfectly level hitting the tile at exactly the same place everywhere?

 

[Bafrye]

Can you show more pictures of everything?

It’s a structural crack.

The tile has already been replaced once.

You can see that the tile is different.

The crack has probably been there for years.

How old is the pool?

Has the deck been replaced?

The plaster looks like it is getting old.

Has the plaster ever been replaced?

You are probably due for a full renovation including coping, tile and plaster.

You should remove the bad gunite bond beam and redo it as part of the renovation.

Make sure that the coping has an expansion joint to separate it from the deck.

For now, you can just replace the tiles and regrout.

I’m thinking we are going to have to have the plaster done next year, we had two companies come to look; however only received one estimate as they other said they were too busy with installs.
We believe it’s original, Pool was installed in 1988.
Previous owners were slowly changing the tiles out as they fell off.
I will make note of all of this for when we choose a company.
For now, do you have recommendations for a product for attaching the tiles.

 

[JamesW]

A white cement or white thinset mortar should work for reattaching the tiles.

You are likely to find more structural cracking when you remove the tile.

You will probably need to remove all tile, coping and plaster and then any bad bond beam and redo everything.

 

[Bafrye]

A white cement or white thinset mortar should work for reattaching the tiles.

You are likely to find more structural cracking when you remove the tile.

You will probably need to remove all tile, coping and plaster and then any bad bond beam and redo everything.

Thank you for your help! I appreciate it. My other half isn’t going to like this news, but I suppose this comes with owning a pool!

 

[jimmythegreek]

I agree looks like the bond beam cracked or possibly where they added on to it for finish height. It's been repaired several times. Get some white thinset and clean out the areas well and stick them on until you get to the full reno point