PartyPool

I have the same problem. I did some reading and think it's because of the ground around the pool moving and cracking the grout and popping the tiles off. The last few years I would lose maybe 6 or 7 tiles a year, and I would put them back up with silicone grout I got at Home Depot (I forget the brand, but it said "Marine" on it). However, the tiles I put back up would not stay up. Plus I was losing more tiles - last winter was brutal for some reason, and I lost over 50 tiles. I have put the tiles back on this May with a product I found called E-Z Patch (http://www.e-zpatch.com). It's a flexible mortar/grout specifically for pools. It's much more expensive than the stuff at Home Depot, but it works really well, plus you can buy a clean-up product that you can use to wipe off the excess really easily. It has only been a month or so, but I have not lost any tiles. The argument for the silicone-flexible grout is that it will flex with temperature changes and earth movement. Concrete/thin-set is brittle and will crack if anything flexes. One caveat: I ground off the old grout and thin-set to make room for the new grout and to start with a clean surface. All the ground-up concrete/thin-set/grout dust got into my water. And now I can't get it out (see my post "Get Fine Dust Out of My Pool!"). And it might have damaged my sand filter. Ugh!

AN UPDATE: I took a sample to the local Leslie's, and they say my sand filter has come up apart! The fine dust I see in there is not just the result of my grinding, but also sand from my filter. So I now I need a new filter. Any recommendations on a model? And did the ground concrete/thin-set/grout break my filter (which means I need to solve that before replacing the filter)? Regarding the filter model: I am looking at DE vs. sand/Zeolite. Thanks again for taking the time to read this.

Here's what I do: Birds in my neighborhood like to use my pool as a bird bath. So when I shock the pool, I sprinkle a little bit of shock all around the edge of the pool. The birds stay away from the pool then.

Hello, Pool & Spa Forum - I have an in-ground, gunite pool. I have tile running around the top edge of the pool. A lot of tiles fell off. Before I put replaced the tiles, I ground off the old grout so I'd have a better surface to work with. I used a power grinder, so the grout was ground into a fine powder that fell into the pool. I have been unable to get this fine powder out of the pool - I think that it's too fine for my sand filter or the bag in my vacuum to catch. I tried putting panty hose over the jets to catch the sand, but that isn't working too well. I've been Googling, and found a product called the Slime Bag (see http://www.cleanerpools.net/index.html). It claims to catch particles as small as 1 micron (a blood cell is 5 microns). Does anyone know if this is the best solution? Or should I just face the music, drain my pool, and scoop out the dust? Thanks in advance for any advice!