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.