Need opinion on this large grout line...Please!

KDubYa

New member
Jun 20, 2019
4
Nor Cal
Hi, so we are having our pool resurfaced and retiled. As you can see, the tile has been installed with a 1” to 1.5” grout line between tile and coping. It has already started to crack and chip two days after installation. I know they mentioned Caulking along coping, I’m sure they still intend to do that....but isn’t that usually about 1/4”? Isn’t this a lot of grout to crack/repair down the road? I’m trying to take care of this before we install the new pool surface. Is this repairable? Should it be re-installed? Thank you!
 

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Opinions are easy. That looks terrible.

I don't know what the standard practice is for pools so I can't comment on the workmanship. I looked at mine, and it's not even 1/4"

I have tiled a shower and a gap that wide would call for a piece of tile, not a giant grout line.
 
Why was it installed that low to begin with? Is the coping not level?
I believe the coping is level....on a couple small areas, there is a small gap between the cement and the top of the pool since we had the deck/coping replaced a few years back. That is why I was advised to go with 6” tile. Otherwise I have no idea. I’m just trying to see if this is some standard practice...haven’t seen it before.
 
Take a pic of the skimmer so I can see relation to height of tile at waterline. 1 of 3 things happened......Either your tile guy started tight and stayed level and ended up with a gap trying to keep level. Or he lowered tile to keep it under the waterline. Or hes terrible and shouldn't be tiling anything especially a pool. I think it's the first and 3rd. Have them RIP it out and redo it you will stare at it forever. Idk how ppl do this kind of work and stay in business. It would be one thing if you were out of level and it was explained to you and you agreed to this

If its out of level you are better off with a half tile added and trim tiles to fit the slope then do a nice taped off caulk joint to hide the seam at coping
 
Take a pic of the skimmer so I can see relation to height of tile at waterline. 1 of 3 things happened......Either your tile guy started tight and stayed level and ended up with a gap trying to keep level. Or he lowered tile to keep it under the waterline. Or hes terrible and shouldn't be tiling anything especially a pool. I think it's the first and 3rd. Have them RIP it out and redo it you will stare at it forever. Idk how ppl do this kind of work and stay in business. It would be one thing if you were out of level and it was explained to you and you agreed to this

If its out of level you are better off with a half tile added and trim tiles to fit the slope then do a nice taped off caulk joint to hide the seam at coping
Here is a pic of skimmer. Let me see if I can clarify a couple of points and hopefully make sense. The pool itself is 14 years old. We had all the concrete in the back yard and all the pool deck redone about 5 years ago. At that time when they made the new pool coping, there was a gap, roughly .25-.5” in the deep end and again shallow end between the coping and the pool itself. We originally tiled over it ourselves. Of course that is where we kept losing tile. Forward to today, we obviously decided to redo the whole pool, tile and resurface. The gentleman who did the tile said he is staying at the highest point he can without covering that gap. Again, it doesn’t gap all around just a couple small areas. I could most likely live with that large area between the tile and coping if I had to because of what I stated above. My fear is the cracking and chipping already happening. He came out yesterday and said that most likely due to heat it cured improperly. He took off all the grout above and redid it. He had to remove the existing mastic and will do a sanded polyurethane caulking under the coping. And explained why he felt he needed to go low on the tile. Ok....fast forward to this morning and I went out to find, big surprise .....more cracking. I’ll post another pic.
 

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