Lap Pool Renovation with Aquabright

[AmyJo]

My PB said a standard height of a wall like that is around 12-18" and I think for your pool, that would look nice. PB also said a lower height like 12 to 18" usually doesn't require a booster pump unless you have various features running.

This is our wall right after placing tile. It is 2' tall but with the waterline tile under it, it makes it look 2.5' tall. It has a 4' sheer decent in the middle. It will have stone columns on either side that will probably be 2.5' but we are going to play with the height once decking is in place to see how tall we want them. Then on top of the columns will be fire bowls.

Regarding your question of fire bowls, they don't have to be raised. I have seen many in photos that sit on the deck. You could even do one larger one in the center of the wall at the end of the pool, having the sheer decent under it.

Shantelly - I immediately start humming that song in my head every time I see your name! [emoji4] Chantilly is also a very pretty lace.

Thanks for your comments. I agree with the height for sure. But I'm now very annoyed that we may not be able to do it after all. We've been told by several people not to do anything that could introduce a hole in the original shell. Can't believe I didn't even think about recirculating the water! I kept thinking about bringing the plumbing up just beyond where the coping stops at that point. *Sigh* I've been told no on so many things. It seems if you have a pool in existence, you almost have to stay with the original configuration! Well, unless I win the lottery .....

Love your tile wall! I need to go back and reread about your build.

 

[AmyJo]

This is what I get for not sleeping and typing after midnight. The water feature will recirculate through the PUMP? Right? DUH.

I need sleep.

 

[bdavis466]

Thanks for posting! Is this the color that someone said looked like a cheap vinyl liner? I honestly would never think of that. What color would you recommend to go with my tile?

Yeah, I don't really understand the vinyl comment.

In my opinion the very light colors resemble white plaster. Why spend all the money on AquaBright just to have it look like white plaster?

Have you considered grey reef or blue granite?

 

[AmyJo]

Yeah, I don't really understand the vinyl comment.

In my opinion the very light colors resemble white plaster. Why spend all the money on AquaBright just to have it look like white plaster?

Have you considered grey reef or blue granite?

AquaBright in light colors looking like white plaster without the annoyance of plaster is a beautiful thing! But I do agree that if a color is possible, why not do one? I'm waiting to go look at some pools, but most of the ones around Atlanta are dark. There is, however, a neighborhood pool that will be doing Ice Ice Bay Bay in the next few weeks. I'm told that should be a contender. I will take another look at Grey Reef and Blue Granite too. Thanks!

 

[Big Will]

Thanks Will! I think that 12"-18" would be great. I like the idea of approaching 15"- 18", as it could then be used as a bench.

What brand did you purchase and where, if you don't mind me asking? Do you have lights with yours? We aren't able to add another light due to wanting to keep the shell intact, so I thought this might be a great way to get a little illumination at the other end.

DARN IT - I just realized when typing that, that this needs to be able to recirculate water from the pool, so it would have to be tied in directly to the pool. [emoji34] We are trying to avoid cutting or drilling in the concrete (gunite, or whatever we have).

My raised wall is part of the pool engineering so it's attached to the shell.
I have seen builds where people add a wall to the build and just attach it to the concrete. Because of the size of your wall it should t be to heavy and standard concrete should be able to support it. I would always double check with your PB and possibly an engineer just to make sure

 

[bdavis466]

AquaBright in light colors looking like white plaster without the annoyance of plaster is a beautiful thing! But I do agree that if a color is possible, why not do one? I'm waiting to go look at some pools, but most of the ones around Atlanta are dark. There is, however, a neighborhood pool that will be doing Ice Ice Bay Bay in the next few weeks. I'm told that should be a contender. I will take another look at Grey Reef and Blue Granite too. Thanks!

That's a good option as well. Around here it's really only been blue lagoon and Mediterranean blue

 

[AmyJo]

My raised wall is part of the pool engineering so it's attached to the shell.
I have seen builds where people add a wall to the build and just attach it to the concrete. Because of the size of your wall it should t be to heavy and standard concrete should be able to support it. I would always double check with your PB and possibly an engineer just to make sure

You make a good point here. If we built a wall, it could only be on the coping at the far end, as there is wood decking just beyond that. Thinking it through, it's probably not the best idea.

We would love to have a spa in this area, but that will need to wait at least another year.

Thanks Will!

 

[AmyJo]

There is a very loud BULLFROG in the bottom of our currently drained pool. [emoji33] [emoji196] [emoji33] He stops croaking when we go outside. Impossible to see him right now. It's going to be a longggggggg night .....

 

[AmyJo]

Hi everyone - one of our best employees has experience with tiling new pools. He and another employee (former roofer) are coming here tomorrow to remove our existing waterline tile. However, he has never removed tile on a pool - only tile in kitchens and bathrooms. My concern is protecting our integrated coping deck. I'm sure he will be careful, but I know accidents do happen. Do you have any advice? Thank you!

 

[AmyJo]

Bump bump. Sometimes I think my posts are under an invisibility cloak. [emoji12] Any advice on how I can protect our coping? My husband thinks I'm silly to be so worried.

 

[Big Will]

I wish I had some expertise in this area but unfortunately I don't
A lot of members are east coast and will probably be back early in the morning.
Best of luck . The one thing I will say when dealing with people you know is get everything in writing and make your expectations crystal clear

 

[AmyJo]

I wish I had some expertise in this area but unfortunately I don't
A lot of members are east coast and will probably be back early in the morning.
Best of luck . The one thing I will say when dealing with people you know is get everything in writing and make your expectations crystal clear

Thank you Will! So excited about your progress. Can't wait to see that water!

 

[Tony411LA]

Hi AmyJo,

I've only removed bathroom and kitchen tiles, but I think you'll be okay. Usually, there is an expansion joint between the tile and coping, so as long as they remove the tile starting from bottom (where the tile meets the plaster) they should not cause any damage to the coping.

 

[bdavis466]

You would have to try pretty hard to damage that coping. Don't worry about it.

 

[AmyJo]

You would have to try pretty hard to damage that coping. Don't worry about it.

Thank you. It's actually going really well.
My concern stemmed from several things - not least of which is that I don't want to have to also redo the coping!

What would you do about the crack in the corner of first photo - far lower right? Fill it? Leave it alone? Is there another way to repair it without an unsightly patch?

It has rained a great deal here since we emptied the water - so we now get to empty this lovely green mess.

 

[bdavis466]

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Nearly Any repair you do is going to be unsightly though...

 

[AmyJo]

Hi AmyJo,

I've only removed bathroom and kitchen tiles, but I think you'll be okay. Usually, there is an expansion joint between the tile and coping, so as long as they remove the tile starting from bottom (where the tile meets the plaster) they should not cause any damage to the coping.

Thank you Tony! You and Brian are so right. I was overreacting, but I didn't want anything to go wrong. Our guy in charge of doing this is our head operations guy and has great attention to detail. He and my husband pretty much rolled their eyes at me over this - but I've seen crazy things happen on job sites when people toss tools around and are careless. We are spending much more to do this little renovation than we originally thought - and I don't want to have to think about changing decking/coping too!

Don't you think the bench and steps at the end are just crying out for tile?? [emoji4]

 

[AmyJo]

 

[AmyJo]

Driving myself (and a few others) crazy rethinking tile selections. I may also need to mention that I've been recuperating from surgery, which is why I've had time to obsess. [emoji85]

I want a more mid-century feel than I want bling, though I LIKE bling! The iridescence of most of these isn't showing up in the photos. I also feel like we need to incorporate white since we have to keep the lovely white plastic expansion joint thingie. Thoughts?

 

[AmyJo]

In case anyone would like to see this color - these are photos of our AB contractor's recent installation of AquaBright "Ice Ice Bay Bay" in a neighborhood pool. I don't think its aqua/turquoise enough for us, but it's pretty. Don't you love the attitude of the little boy? He reminds me of one of those little fountain cherubs ...