Hi-
Brand new to the forum, and hoping for help.
We’re having our pool replastered and retiled with 3 inch square ceramic tiles, spaced at 1/16 inch.
I’m wondering about the best way for the tile to be laid across the top of a one-foot wide, five-foot long curved wall in the hot tub.
Does every tile need to be trimmed at a slight angle? Would it look too cheap if the grout lines just got thicker as they run to the outside edge?
Is there some standard pattern or formula for figuring this out?
Thanks!
Replies
You could do it either way, but I bet that right now you want the perfect look, thus you're shooting for each peice being perfectly cut into the perfect wedge shape, so you can maintain that perfect 1/16th-inch grout line around that perfect radius.
I only say that because I went through the same thought process with my pool last year, though I used slate instead of ceramic tile.
Fuggedaboutit.
Run the 3" uncut square tiles along the radius, and accept the wedge-shaped grout lines between adjacent tiles.
For one, cutting the tiles will be time consuming, and two, the cut edges will have to be treated, perhaps with a carborundum stone, to soften the edge. Glazed or ceramic tiles with snapped or cut edges are a bad thing to have around bare feet, or worse...bare bodies.
Day One of the intallation you'll yearn for the perfect grout line. From Day Two onward, you'll wonder what the concern was all about.
From the unsolicited useless information department: I plastered my pool with a medium gray plaster. Looks totally fabulous, and the unheated water temp stayed right around 89 degrees all last summer from straight solar gain. Slightly warm for me, but perfection for the missus. I'm in CT.
Thank you so much for the good advice!!
mosaic
"My life is my work"
Consider having curved capstones cut to the curbe. bullnosed on both sides, set then in with a small notch to allow spill into pool. This will create a little waterfall for you, enhance the "skimming" action in the spa, look GREAT, be safer than tile (slippery when wet, people will walk on the wall), and in many freeze/thaw climates, last longer.