Dissolving Tile Grout

[sterfrydude]

hello there, long time listener first time caller.

we recently purchased a new home and didn’t notice that the pool grout is pretty much all dissolving out. i think the owner tried to patch it to hide enough for closing.

anyway, i’ve noticed a lot of grout on the pool floor and the spa tiles on the spillover are even coming completely loose. this isn’t our first pool but it’s our first in ground pool so im trying to get the best information possible. i’ve seen some discussions here about regrouting and that’s something we can do but im also concerned about the top of the spillover if that should be replaced given that the tiles are coming loose and i’m not sure of the installation medium.

the main area of concern is the spa spillover but i can see all around the waterline the grout is dissolving. eventually it’ll all need to be redone but that might be able to wait for next season when it’s warmer. however, the surface coating appears to be in good shape so whatever i do i don’t want to mess it up.

i'm kind of wondering if the owner did the tile themselves. i have a receipt for resurfacing but it doesn’t appear that this company did the tile and i’m noticing that the grout is all the way up to the coping with no expansion joint. given the quality of work they did on the rest of the house i’m a bit nervous

any advice is appreciated

 

[ajw22]

A proper repair strips all the tiles off, cleans all the old thinset off down to the gunite, apply new tiles with pool thinset, then grout.

You see one of the problems with 1X1" tiles. They have many grout lines that can crack and allow water in and over time, erode the thinset, and loosen tiles.

It looks like the prior owner just smeared new grout over the old cracking grout. That does not fix the underlying problems once water is behind the tiles.

 

[sterfrydude]

thanks, yeah that’s sort of what i was afraid of. the wall tiles seem solidly intact minus the grout eroding. i may try to replace the tiles just around the ledge. i think the issue is caused by the design/operation of the pool also. they had it setup such that the pool would constantly push water through this small 16” spillover. so water has just been eroding that ledge.

i’ve changed the valves now to not have the pool run in that mode constantly so that may help slow the issue here.

if we do redo all the tiles i’m for sure going to look at larger tiles to minimize the grout lines. i dont even love tons of grout in the house tile!

 

[ajw22]

Water always erode grout and stone. That is what created the Grand Canyon.

 

[sterfrydude]

Sorry to bring this back but I've been busy with many other issues on this old house but I'm finally back to needing to deal with this. More tiles have come off, the grout is worn down in areas on the sides of the pool but not totally gone (but near).

I have a receipt that shows this was all done late 2019 but I think the owner didn't care for things well based on everything else in this house. So I'm wondering again if this is an entire pool re-tile or if it's possible to redo this spillover where the problems are and possibly grout fill the rest of the tiles that have good adhesion.

I'm adding new pics now that the tiles have fully loosened from the spillway. I was considering trying to find a solid piece instead to replace this one area but if we need to re-tile everything then that's a whole other thing. I'm also concerned that it looks like raw and not smooth concrete under this which makes me wonder if this was properly prepared in the first place. I tried finding videos of pool builds and it looks like the tile ledge is always smoothed over before adding thinset/tile.

FWIW this is also ceramic tile that's only glazed on the face. I'm wondering if this isn't part of the problem because water could get inside and then with freezing expand etc.

TLDR --
Is this something I might be able to diy repair and buy a little time before full re-tile; if so, what preparations does the ledge need before re-applying tile.
If I need to re-do all tile, does that also entail re-surfacing the pool (the pool is in good condition also re-surfaced in 2019 with aquabrite)?

 

[MsChessnudt]

I'm pinning this and I'll post my photos because I'm having EXACTLY the same problem. Tiles and grout all over the bottom of the pool, I think a sliver of something has punctured my sand filter, my pump skimmer has been full of debris and I'm hesitant to vacuum next week for fear of damaging it further. Thanks for posting this, I hope someone has a good suggestion.