Spa Tiles Falling Off

[CTPools]

New pool owner. Recently had a handful of tiles fall off the exterior spa wall (pictures attached).

This happened after opening the spa and after several heavy rains where the level of the spa was too high up to the top. A small stream of water was actually leaking out of the wall where the tiles fell off into the pool.

What's causing this and what's the right repair? Currently I see the following issues and potential repairs.

- Grout between the coping is cracked and / or missing - planning to replace this.

- Grout on the inside of the the spa between the coping and the tile line has a small gap but is otherwise in place. Planning to caulk this gap and/or seal the grout line.

- Some hollow sounding in coping but no coping is loose. No action planned.

- Planning to drain Spa below tile line and check tile Grout for issues / if needs to be resealed / patched anywhere.

- After the above, plan to reset the tiles and clean the white residue (not sure what I should use to clean).

Anything I'm missing, or other reasons this happened?

 

[ajw22]

First, reattach the tiles. Clean off the old thinset from the gunite using an oscillating tool with a grout blade and clean off the back of the tiles. Mix a batch of thinset and apply it to the pool using a notched trowel. Butter the back of the tile and press it in place. Use plastic spacers to maintain the grout lines. Let it set for a day.

Tile

e-zpatch.com

Clean off the scale from the tiles.

Waterline Scale Removal - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Then identify all the cracked grout lines. Remove any loose grout with a grout saw. Mix a batch of grout and cover the fixed tiles and all the grout lines that need repair.

Check the interior of the spa and bottom of the coping for cracks where water is getting through and fill it with grout.