Need to finish pool refurb fast. Thoughts on painting over tiles and grout?

[james63]

Plaster pool, I believe built around 1990, right now I have it mid-refurb, emptied, some piping dug up, waiting for weather to get down to double digit temperatures and a dry week for scrubbing and epoxy painting. Suddenly I've got 30 days to finish. Around 5 years ago I replaced the waterline tiling and must have messed up the grout because lately it's softening and releasing fine powder into the water. I'd planned to grind it out and redo it but with 30 days in Florida in July/August, that just isn't going to happen. I feel kind of done screwing with this anyway so my thought is to scrape and refill just the very soft grout areas, epoxy paint right over it and the tiling and be done with the tiling for good, painting right up to the lip/rim. Does that seem like a reasonable fix for dying grout? Should I expect trouble from the waterline being over epoxy vs. glazed tile?

I have 30 days because the insurance man showed up and said my pool is unusable and the fact that it is unusable because I'm in the middle of performing maintenance is not acceptable. They are apparently desperate to drop people going into hurricane season. My carrier options here are severely limited.

Other option is to re-assemble the piping and fill in all the digging I've already done, fill it back up ugly, call the inspector back out, and start completely over, but I really don't want to do that.

 

[1poolman1]

Plaster pool, I believe built around 1990, right now I have it mid-refurb, emptied, some piping dug up, waiting for weather to get down to double digit temperatures and a dry week for scrubbing and epoxy painting. Suddenly I've got 30 days to finish. Around 5 years ago I replaced the waterline tiling and must have messed up the grout because lately it's softening and releasing fine powder into the water. I'd planned to grind it out and redo it but with 30 days in Florida in July/August, that just isn't going to happen. I feel kind of done screwing with this anyway so my thought is to scrape and refill just the very soft grout areas, epoxy paint right over it and the tiling and be done with the tiling for good, painting right up to the lip/rim. Does that seem like a reasonable fix for dying grout? Should I expect trouble from the waterline being over epoxy vs. glazed tile?

I have 30 days because the insurance man showed up and said my pool is unusable and the fact that it is unusable because I'm in the middle of performing maintenance is not acceptable. They are apparently desperate to drop people going into hurricane season. My carrier options here are severely limited.

Other option is to re-assemble the piping and fill in all the digging I've already done, fill it back up ugly, call the inspector back out, and start completely over, but I really don't want to do that.

Don't do it. Paint (epoxy) over the tile and you will only be done when you move or tear it out. In general, painting a pool is a bad idea anyway.

 

[ajw22]

I would put it back together ugly and get your insurance. That is more important then a pretty pool.

 

[james63]

Don't do it. Paint (epoxy) over the tile and you will only be done when you move or tear it out. In general, painting a pool is a bad idea anyway.

Have to agree painting is a bad idea generally but if I can pull 3-5 years out of the pool I'll be happy. I've done about all I care to with patching concrete cracks and plaster myself over the years. I expect to have moved to a new home and am going to keep this one as a rental property and don't think the small bump in rental value justifies the hassles of renters and pools, so the plan is to just fill it in when that time comes. Quotes for fill came in less than half those for re-plaster.

Knowing I fully intend to remove the pool within 5 years, is it still crazy to epoxy paint the tiles?

 

[Bperry]

Have to agree painting is a bad idea generally but if I can pull 3-5 years out of the pool I'll be happy. I've done about all I care to with patching concrete cracks and plaster myself over the years. I expect to have moved to a new home and am going to keep this one as a rental property and don't think the small bump in rental value justifies the hassles of renters and pools, so the plan is to just fill it in when that time comes. Quotes for fill came in less than half those for re-plaster.

Knowing I fully intend to remove the pool within 5 years, is it still crazy to epoxy paint the tiles?

Yep, why spend money painting something you’re going to tear out?

 

[MAPR-Austin]

Paint over glazed tile isn't going to stick no matter what kind of paint it is. I would acid wash and pressure wash the grout, get rid of as much as will come out. Then re-grout with a grout designed for immersion.