Greetings TFP forum. First post here, and IMO it's a doozy.
Having my circa 1974 kidney shaped concrete pool re-plastered and re-tiled. I'm also replacing the monolithic concrete deck + coping with a poured concrete coping that's as wide as the pool's bond beam. The original mosaic tile was removed, and the original mortar was mostly blasted off via ultra-high pressure washing.
The problem I'm having is determining if my pool contractor (PC) installed the waterline tile correctly. I don’t believe the mortar coverage is adequate between the tile and the concrete shell per ANSI A108/TCNA. As far as I can tell they only used a single application of Laticrete 254 Platinum. They didn’t tidy up the surface with a mortar bed first. I talked in person with the PC and we popped a couple tiles off with a screwdriver to check. He thinks the coverage is fine. From my research it is not. He suggested having the local Laticrete rep come and look. I said that’s a great idea, but he hasn’t come out yet. This is after addressing some tiles that were laid crooked, wrong spacing, lippage, etc. Thankfully the PC has been respectful and we've been working together towards an agreement/path forward. Also, to be fair to the tile layer, 6"x6" tile on a curved pool isn't the easiest to lay.
In the meantime here are some pictures:
Here is the tile the PC popped off and we looked at together.
This is after they took a tile off they replaced because it was not lined up well. This makes me question ALL the tile that was laid before any fixes were made.
Top-down look of what I'm seeing in many places.
Underside of one tile looking up.
Corner work.
Any and all thoughts are much appreciated!
-Jon
Having my circa 1974 kidney shaped concrete pool re-plastered and re-tiled. I'm also replacing the monolithic concrete deck + coping with a poured concrete coping that's as wide as the pool's bond beam. The original mosaic tile was removed, and the original mortar was mostly blasted off via ultra-high pressure washing.
The problem I'm having is determining if my pool contractor (PC) installed the waterline tile correctly. I don’t believe the mortar coverage is adequate between the tile and the concrete shell per ANSI A108/TCNA. As far as I can tell they only used a single application of Laticrete 254 Platinum. They didn’t tidy up the surface with a mortar bed first. I talked in person with the PC and we popped a couple tiles off with a screwdriver to check. He thinks the coverage is fine. From my research it is not. He suggested having the local Laticrete rep come and look. I said that’s a great idea, but he hasn’t come out yet. This is after addressing some tiles that were laid crooked, wrong spacing, lippage, etc. Thankfully the PC has been respectful and we've been working together towards an agreement/path forward. Also, to be fair to the tile layer, 6"x6" tile on a curved pool isn't the easiest to lay.
In the meantime here are some pictures:
Here is the tile the PC popped off and we looked at together.
This is after they took a tile off they replaced because it was not lined up well. This makes me question ALL the tile that was laid before any fixes were made.
Top-down look of what I'm seeing in many places.
Underside of one tile looking up.
Corner work.
Any and all thoughts are much appreciated!
-Jon
