Our Old, Charming Anthony Pool (with photos)..advice please?

[dieterhansi]

Hello all. New to the site. Seems an excellent resource.

I figure why be shy, might as well let it all hang out....

We have some issues with our pool. I am interested in any advice anyone might have, from just letting it ride until we have the funds to redo it right, to little tips about making it look better on the cheap, things we should be worried about (in terms of causing damage that will cost us more if we dont deal with it now), etc etc etc. Many thanks in advance.

So here are some photos of our pool (click on the pics to get a better view). We are in north jersey.

The entire thing.



It is clearly old school, anthony pool as I understand it. Was installed in the early to mid 1960s. I learned from my neighbor that it pre-dates the town pool in our town which dates to 1967. It is 20x40.



Tiles have been falling off since we moved in. We thought of it as something we could do little about (something someone told me at some point made me think that). I assumed that at some point we would just redo the coping and the tile at the same time, maybe redo the deck too.

Time has passed (our first summer with the pool was 2006) and we have done nothing. I'm getting concerned that we maybe need to do some maintenance now or face bigger problems later. So I guess that is question number one.

We have problems with the space between the coping/deck--that is, in many cases there is nothing there.




For what its worth, I can't say that we have seen tons and tons of tiles fall in the pool, considering we are now on our sixth summer. We got a new cover right after we arrived, which was far superior to what was there before. This may have helped. Still looks terrible though.



In some places we have sealant (or whatever it is called) that has been applied. I am thinking this is not particularly effective, or at least it doesn't seem to be. Doesn't look good either.

I spoke with the outfit that opens and closes the pool for us, they would charge $1800 to put in new sealant (I don't remember the technical term) between the coping and the deck. This would (according to him) stop the tiles from falling off.

Of course as you can see from these photos, we need to do more than that, we'd need to put tiles back on too if we really wanted to make it look good….

and while you are at it, why not redo the deck?



and the fence looks terrible! I tried to find some plastic covers at home depot for the rusted part but no luck. Any suggestions here would be appreciated. I was thinking of painting it.



Thanks again to all, I'll be sure to update as to our progress once we decide what do to. In the meantime, its 103 degrees at home do who cares what it looks like....

dieter

 

[duraleigh]

Re: Our Old, Charming Anthony Pool (with photos)..advice ple

Welcome to the forum :lol: It seems like most of your issues center around the tile. I would contract someone to fix all those issues once you can get it in the budget. You really aren't hurting anything by letting it go (unless you have rainwater getting down through the deck....I cant see those pictures, they're too small) so fixing all those issues at once should involve only one crew and you'll have a fresh new look.

You don't comment on the condition of the plaster finish within the pool....how does it look?

 

[dieterhansi]

Re: Our Old, Charming Anthony Pool (with photos)..advice ple

duraleigh,

thanks for the feedback. if you click on the pictures they open up in a larger form.

The guy who opened our pool said that the tiles are falling off only because of water getting in the gap between the deck and coping, which is poorly sealed (and in some places now there is pretty much nothing there). So i guess its fair to say that rainwater is getting in those places, if thats what you mean.

The finish inside the pool isn't aesthetically perfect, but overall i think its ok. There is nothing visually that suggests to me that we need to get it redone, though we would be careful to check that out.

 

[duraleigh]

Re: Our Old, Charming Anthony Pool (with photos)..advice ple

thanks for the feedback. if you click on the pictures they open up in a larger form.

Oh, yeah...of course I already knew that and was just checkin' to make sure you did...DOH!

Picture #3 in your group interests me the most and may be a problem. It looks like there is a seam or joint behind the tiles and the tiles were placed directly over that joint....is that the case?

 

[PoolGuyNJ]

Re: Our Old, Charming Anthony Pool (with photos)..advice ple

The space between the coping and the deck is called the expansion joint (EJ). This is supposed to be sealed with a self leveling caulk top keep water out.

The tiles are popping for a couple reasons. First, because the EJ isn't sealed, water can get in the gap. The mortar holding the coping is wicking in moisture, letting it get behind the tiles and deteriorating the thinset. Second, when winterized, the water level must be kept below the tile line. Water expands when it freezes, Then the ice is thick enough, pressure is exerted against the tile. With weakened thinset, tiles pop. With non deteriorated thinset, tiles may crack instead..

The coping, with the EJ unsealed, is also at risk. Again, the mortar deteriorates and gets weaker, allowing the coping to come loose. If there is a water filled void in the mortar, when it freezes, additional coping sections may pop loose also.

The backfill behind the shell can also start to wash away. Mason sand can usually be used to refill this area. This is often a time consuming task and can use more sand than you thought, depending on the severity. Some people just put a foam backer in the crack, pressed about a 1/2" from the surface and re-caulk. This approach's success is dependent on the severity of the lost backfill, something that is, often times, very difficult to gauge. Too much lost backfill means lost support to the shell.
I urge you take a bat and tap the coping. Listen for hollows. They are your first clue if the coping is still attached. If there are no hollows, the coping is sound.

Lots of hollows equals new coping, expansion joint and tile for your situation. I think the tile line is gone beyond patching and the expansion joint needs to be redone (typically lasts about 5 to 7 years).

Scott

 

[dieterhansi]

Re: Our Old, Charming Anthony Pool (with photos)..advice ple

Thanks. On the tiles, we weren't in the house for installation, but it definitely looks to me like a horizontal seam (as you point out) behind the tiles. I am guessing this is a no-no?

and thank you Scott for your feedback. I suspect the EJ hasn't been touched in way more than 5-7 years, based on the way the rest of the house was kept up (we moved in 6 years ago, and the coping/tile never looked good).

It sounds like we need to do an overhaul. Do you think if we wait say 2 years to do that, we should still have the EJ sealed now, or is there not much risk to damaging the pool itself? or if that were to happen could that be repaired too?

I don't want to spend a lot now only to undo the work in the near future, but I don't want to have my head in the sand either. My nightmare is to find out next spring that we need to spend thousands of dollars just to make the pool workable, or spend thousands more than we otherwise would once we do the repair, simply because we didn't do simple maintenance earlier.

 

[duraleigh]

Re: Our Old, Charming Anthony Pool (with photos)..advice ple

As long as the base (the ground underneath the decking and behind the pool wall) isn't washing out from water getting down in to it, I think you're OK, I'm not sure I'd wait as long as you want but you can simply wait and watch.

Yeah the joint under the tile is an ABSOLUTE no-no. There is not a tile on the face of the earth that can "stretch" over a joint as the joint moves...however small the movement. You can probably still put tile above and below that joint and then fill the joint with polyurethane caulk so it looks pretty much like a grout line but it will take some planning and a good installer.

 

[chiefwej]

Re: Our Old, Charming Anthony Pool (with photos)..advice ple

That pool looks exactly like the pool at my old house in MA, including all the problems. Even the exact same tile pattern and coping with an exposed aggregate deck.

I just got a few sheets of the matching tile, and kept patching the tile voids using a very good modified thin set. For the coping i cleaned out the outer joint where it meets the deck, then went around with a sprinkler can (with out the nozzle) filled with sand. Kept tapping on the coping to get as much sand as poss to fill the voids. Blew the excess away w a garden blower then filled the joint with the self level sealer. You can buy it at a pool supply store, and you just pour it in with a ketcup dispenser like tip on a gallon jug. I also had some bad areas in my plaster and ended up filling and smoothing w the same thin set, then epoxy coating the pool.

The house and pool (in my case) were both built in the 1970's and I don't think it had had much care. Are any of the concrete sections in the pool deck sinking? That might indicate some of the fill around the shell of the pool washing away. My pool had that but it was only down a max of a couple inches and only in one area.

A proper repair will include pulling out deck, removing all coping and stripping all the tile off. The plaster is probably also in need of being redone. All pretty expensive, but you have a brand new pool. For now you can do what I did and just patch tile, fill and seal the coping joint and enjoy the pool.