Sloppy waterline tile install

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At least the flame thrower is a different person so there is hope he will do good work! I would make sure to be there to make sure they cover the tile up good to keep it safe.

If they had done the work right in the first place you would not have had to talk to them about it at all so............it is on them!

Kim:kim:
 
Well mappo. I'm told I'm a "you know what" everyday and I can tell you this... I already know I am. :mrgreen: If I had a pool build going, I'd be all over that build with a lice comb. They are suppose to be professionals and like previously mentioned... you're going to be looking at this pool for a very long time! Make sure you're satisfied with the workmanship. There is nothing wrong with making sure it's done right.
 
How much you want to bet NONE of them are on their payroll! My guess is they are all sub contractors of different trades. They work for all of the different pool builders and such on an as needed bases.


Kim:kim:
 
Teald024 said:
I’d ask him to meet me poolside and let him know the work quality was unacceptable. If the project manager didn’t fully agree and offer to replace it, I’d chew him up one side and down the other for the principle of it. Anyone who thinks that is even remotely acceptable shouldn’t be allowed on your property. Tell him you expect a different sub, his best available. Just WOW, that is clear cut a horrible job!! I feel bad with ya.
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I just reread your post #18 as I didn't see it before I posted my comments. I can guarantee that I would have put a blue piece of tape on EVERY tile in your pool. You can't just fix one or twenty tiles in my opinion. And based on some of your pics, I'd have zero confidence they were installed properly or that any tile guy with more than a weeks experience would call that an acceptable tile job. It sounds like you were more accepting than I would have been.
 
The tile job is bad...they have absolutely no talent or pride in their work. That being said, for water line tile, it is sometimes best to go with a larger format tile with the pattern you want rather than to try to cut and position smaller tiles into a desired pattern. There are many choices of tiles specifically made for pool water lines with repeating patterns and they are much easier to install and may look better.
 
skimmerswimmer said:
it is sometimes best to go with a larger format tile with the pattern you want rather than to try to cut and position smaller tiles into a desired pattern. T
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From what I understand, larger tiles are more difficult to place around bends in the pool shell, since a larger flat surface on a tile makes it harder to seat well around a curved surface. The smaller the tile, the more seamlessly they can be set around a curve. The tiles I chose come pre-set on a netted backing from the manufacturer to make spacing easier, which makes it even more dumbfounding that my installer messed it up. Note the net backing in the picture of my sample tile with sample Aquabright.
rcKnNzP.jpg
 
The mesh stops you from spacing too far, because the net won't let you pull them farther apart than the net allows, but it won't stop you from pushing them too close together if you don't use spacers. Which of course they didn't. Also, it's still on the installer to get the spacing right between each group of pre-netted tiles. Essentially, however much you thought they did an incompetent job before, they did an even more incompetent job than that.
 

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when u use mesh tile in a pool you have to be careful and CUT OUT any spacing issues and make the difference on next sheet up by eye and spacers. there is a certain consistency and certain mud to use so it doesnt slide out of whack on you. thats a rly bad job, either the helper did that work or the guy doing the work doesnt care, theres no way a professional tile guy can do that level of work and keep a business alive. As poolguy said the shell could be uneven, vairations in the combing, etc. is responsibility of the installer and if extra a change order should be written up
 
jimmythegreek said:
when u use mesh tile in a pool you have to be careful and CUT OUT any spacing issues and make the difference on next sheet up by eye and spacers. there is a certain consistency and certain mud to use so it doesnt slide out of whack on you. thats a rly bad job, either the helper did that work or the guy doing the work doesnt care, theres no way a professional tile guy can do that level of work and keep a business alive. As poolguy said the shell could be uneven, vairations in the combing, etc. is responsibility of the installer and if extra a change order should be written up
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Good post...
& don’t forget to nail a ledger board to the wall...
 
My waterline tile is also a mosaic with the mesh backing. The installers made all spacing absolutely perfect and very consistent. Your installers were probably not tile people just day-labor hired help. I can't imagine that being any more sloppy just a complete and total lack of care.
 
next up: bad grouting

My pool renovators finished resetting all the tiles I marked as unacceptable yesterday, and proceeded to grouting. And did a bad job at that as well. :( Despite multiple promises that of course before grouting they would be chipping out all the thinset that had been pushed up between the tiles, I can see plenty of thinset poking out from the grout. That would be bad enough, but the bigger problem is that they seemed to think they were mixing up whipped cream rather than grout, because the whole job is peppered with holes from air bubbles trapped in the grout. If I had to guess, based on their "Quickly > Correctly" work history so far, they used a paint stirrer on an electric drill instead of mixing the grout by hand.

I don't see how this can be repaired or touched up. The grout is terminally flawed, and has to be completely removed and redone. Yay!

UYsrd6Y.jpg
 
They corrected every tile I told them to, which, while tedious, got the job done. It was frustrating having them pretend they couldn't see their own sloppy work unless I pointed it out to them, but whatever.

I don't believe the grout can be patched. Each hole would have to be crushed out and re-filled, which given my installer's attention to detail, hahahaha no. And of course that's just the ones that you can see at the surface. There will be just as many under the surface that will eventually cause the grout above them to fail, and there's no way to find them.
 
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