I've decided to bite the bullet and resurface our rental houses white plaster pool and spa, as it has some chips and various stains from over the years. The pool was built in the mid 80's with the house and has somewhat of an odd feature where it has 2 rows of tile at the top of the pool. The bottom row is your standard water line tile, but the top row of tile is actually where the pool coping would normally be. The tile is actually adhered directly to the pool deck and is flush with the waterline tile.
My concern is durability of the tile and actually being able to replace it. Since the top line is flush with the pool deck and has no coping, it has lead to a lot of chips/cracks in the tiles for when people stand at the edge of the pool. I actually pulled one of the cracked tiles off and instead of being flat, it is actually rounded on the top and bottom. So the actual cool deck vertical surface that the tile is mounted on is rounded as well. I don't want to pay to replace with the same rounded tiles (if i can even find them) if they are going to have the same problem of cracking. On the other hand, I don't know how to use a flat tile without somehow adding coping above it.
I obviously plan on asking this of the different pool builders, but I also want to be prepared to understand whether this is really something that will add substantially to the cost or if I'm overthinking this and it can be fixed quite easily. Has anyone seen this type of tile line or dealt with this before? It doesn't seem like a common feature in more modern pools.
My concern is durability of the tile and actually being able to replace it. Since the top line is flush with the pool deck and has no coping, it has lead to a lot of chips/cracks in the tiles for when people stand at the edge of the pool. I actually pulled one of the cracked tiles off and instead of being flat, it is actually rounded on the top and bottom. So the actual cool deck vertical surface that the tile is mounted on is rounded as well. I don't want to pay to replace with the same rounded tiles (if i can even find them) if they are going to have the same problem of cracking. On the other hand, I don't know how to use a flat tile without somehow adding coping above it.
I obviously plan on asking this of the different pool builders, but I also want to be prepared to understand whether this is really something that will add substantially to the cost or if I'm overthinking this and it can be fixed quite easily. Has anyone seen this type of tile line or dealt with this before? It doesn't seem like a common feature in more modern pools.
