Pool repair - tiling and grouting question

[malcomtent]

Hello,

Our pool needs some repair work and I am hoping that the experience of the folks in this forum might be able to prevent me from making a costly error.

Tiles have been falling off our pool for a while. Someone came round to check it out and noted that the grouting below the waterline was basically gone. His suggestion is to repair the missing tiles and also to regrout the pool (drain it, clean it, fix tiles, regrout).

He says that the grout plays a decent part in keeping the tiles in place. This sounds reasonable to me, but I am new to all this. I also don't want to waste money on a short-term patch-up. (but cannot afford retiling this year).

If anyone has had regrouting done, or has any advice I would be really grateful. Even if just a very ballpark figure on cost.

Additional context:
We moved into this house about 2 years ago and the previous owner was obviously not a member of this forum! TA and Calcium levels were not good when I started managing the pool, which could explain grout problems.
I have kept on top of it since then. Pool is pretty old - guessing 15 years.

 

[Texas Splash]

malcom, are you still working on the tile/grout issue? Since no one has replied, I want to try and get you some help if still needed. Let us know please. Sorry for the delayed response. Lots of folks over here getting ready to close, so traffic is a little bit hit & miss right now. Thanks for posting.

 

[malcomtent]

Hi. thanks for your reply. I've been away the last couple of weeks so I am sorry I didn't see this earlier.

We decided to go ahead with the re-grouting and actually just drained the pool. It is now quite easy to see that there is basically zero grout in the areas where the tiles have been falling off. I attached as pic of the side of the pool, where we can see that above the waterline the grout is old, but still exists. Below the waterline the darkness between the tiles is because there is no grout.
I think i might start a post to track the renovation, we are also going to get a heat-pump put in and some solar panels so we can afford to run it! Should be all sorted to start swimming in mid-november.

 

[malcomtent]

Update - have refilled the pool and checking out & balance the various 'ingredients'. I confess that I know it is just a matter of time before we start losing tiles again but I am dreading the first one. We will save up a couple years for a complete re-render/re-tiling as it is extremely costly.

 

[kimkats]

Here is hoping those tiles stay on a good, long time!!!