Existing fiberglass pool adding waterline tile

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dmcconnell68

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Jul 15, 2017
89
Fort Worth, Texas
Hi,

We have an existing Leisure Pools fiberglass pool in blue sapphire and are going to be adding tile (NPT Jules Rustic Blue Blend). I was wondering if anyone else has this tile with a sapphire blue pool that might be able to send me a photo of how it looks on the pool.

Thanks,
David
 

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I do not have that tile, but, I will recommend you require a silicone grout be used. Not cement based. Novagard is one that I have used for repairs. My FG pool had 2x2 tile installed with regular cement grout. What mess. It is cracked and much has failed.
 
David:

What kind of coping do you have? If the "overhang" is not enough the tile will sit flush with or a little proud of the existing coping.

I had the same idea with my Leisure Moroccan - do the tile myself after. Turns out the cantilevered coping I had would not allow sufficient space for the tile after the fact.

Luckily for me, I had a coping issue for several years (like 5 or 6) and my builder just ripped it all out and poured a new one at no cost to me. I took that opportunity to have tile installed by them prior to the new coping pour.
 
Winger 03 said:
What kind of coping do you have? If the "overhang" is not enough the tile will sit flush with or a little proud of the existing coping.
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Hey Jim,

Yes, I'm afraid I may run into that issue as well. Currently it's concrete coping... I may squeak by when the plumb strip is removed, but I will probably have to have someone cut the existing concrete border out and replace it with something else with a bit move overhang for the tile. I could kick myself for letting people talk me out of waterline tile when the pool was installed.
 
Of the few regrets I have in getting a pool, not getting tile the first time around was the biggest. I guess that says I have a good builder who did not talk me into spending more when I was already over budget.

I did luck out in that I got a do-over last year, but the difference in having and not having tile is like night and day to me.

If you end up getting tile and if you are using a pattern of some sort (that is what we did). Make sure they lay out the pattern first and place the beginning end in an area you do not see. Our skimmer side is the side everyone sees coming down to the pool and they have the beginning / end there so the pattern is off a little. Of course, I am the only one who probably notices.....
 
With tile on a FG pool, does the pool have a recessed "notch" for the tile to be set into, or is it applied on the face of the FG? I'm assuming the latter, which means you would have a ridge the thickness of the tile along the bottom edge - I guess that doesn't cause any issues?

I have no experience with FG pools but didn't realize tile was added in them, so I'm just curious now.
 
There is no "notch", the tiles just are fixed to the side of the shell, so yes, there would be a ridge at the bottom. My PB display has the tiles, and they have not had any issues with the ridge. They look great, but I just remember the absurd pricing Latham wanted to have them installed at the factory so I passed.
 
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dmcconnell68 said:
Hi,

We have an existing Leisure Pools fiberglass pool in blue sapphire and are going to be adding tile (NPT Jules Rustic Blue Blend). I was wondering if anyone else has this tile with a sapphire blue pool that might be able to send me a photo of how it looks on the pool.

Thanks,
David
Click to expand...
What did you end up doing? We have concrete coping and are thinking of now adding glass tiles.
 

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Poolguy2021 said:
What did you end up doing? We have concrete coping and are thinking of now adding glass tiles.
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They finished our tile install last weekend. We ended up going with a 1"x1" porcelain tile that was thinner than glass tiles. I was concerned that the concrete overhang in out pool might not be enough for the tile to go under but it was fine for tile we picked. I'm not sure that the glass tile would have worked since it's at least twice as thick (front to back) as the porcelain tile we got. All in all, I'm happy with the result, it looks 100% better than the bare fiberglass that was just getting dull and ugly looking, I guess from the Texas sun beating down on it all day.
 
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dmcconnell68 said:
They finished our tile install last weekend. We ended up going with a 1"x1" porcelain tile that was thinner than glass tiles. I was concerned that the concrete overhang in out pool might not be enough for the tile to go under but it was fine for tile we picked. I'm not sure that the glass tile would have worked since it's at least twice as thick (front to back) as the porcelain tile we got. All in all, I'm happy with the result, it looks 100% better than the bare fiberglass that was just getting dull and ugly looking, I guess from the Texas sun beating down on it all day.
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Can you post some pictures?
Also what tile brand did you go with?
 
Poolguy2021 said:
Was this installed before the pool was put in or after? How low does my water have to be? We want to just add 6" waterline tile.
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The waterline tile was just installed a couple weeks ago, the pool has been in since September 2017. What you see on my pool is approximately 6", each square is approximately 1" plus the spacing. They dropped the water level in my pool maybe 5" below the bottom of the tile.
 
That looks great, I’m thinking about doing the same thing but I will need to solve some out of level issues by selectively trimming the underside of my existing coping. Do you have any pictures of where the tile meets the coping so I can see how they finished it off? Thank you!
 
dmcconnell68 said:
The waterline tile was just installed a couple weeks ago, the pool has been in since September 2017. What you see on my pool is approximately 6", each square is approximately 1" plus the spacing. They dropped the water level in my pool maybe 5" below the bottom of the tile.
Click to expand...
If you don't mine me asking, how much did it cost to add that tile?
 
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