Tile border on Pool

[nickreal]

I have a client that asked me if I could clean the tile that borders the water level on his pool. I told him I've never done it before so I would have to check to make sure the chemicals I use wont thrash the ph on his pool water. Anyone ever deal with this? Any advice would be appreciated.

thanks guys

 

[J Scott W]

You did not say what chemicals you would be using or what process you would clean with.

If you use a tool with a spinning water jet (SX-12, Turbo, etc.) it should be capable of recover almost all of the dirty cleaning solution along with the soil. Very little would get into the pool. The volume of water in the pool should dilute most products sufficiently that there will be very little effect on the pH of the pool water.

Applying a powdered oxidizer (Boost All) to the grout lines before applying your prespray will give a cleaning boost with no added chemical residue or effect on pool water pH.

Be careful when applying prespray to keep it on the surface you want to clean. This can be tricky if the cleaning is done on a windy day.

Scott Warrington

 

[Gary T]

How bad is it? Is there the usual white mineral build-up by the water line? If so you will be hard pressed to clean this with conventional methods. The best way to get rid of this is by physical means, usually by media blasting.

If you use chems, they will get in the water and will screw up the water balance. It doesn't take much to do it either. Pics would be great.

 

[nickreal]

looks like normal hard water build up around the edge of the water level. There is also a lot of buildup where the spa overflows (like a 48 inch wide 12 inch drop) into the pool. I was thinking of using a small tool I have that looks similar to the sx 7.

 

[alazo1]

A friend of mine does this with media blasting. Whatever the media is it goes to the bottom of the pool which then gets vacuumed out. He uses a wet suit as well. Like Gary said, keeping chemicals from ruining the water chemistry seems to be the challange with other means.

What about steam?

Albert

 

[Larry Cobb]

Rick;

If it has white deposits on the tile, you will need an acid prespray to remove it.

Spray an acid cleaner down and allow 10 minutes or so.

Rinse with a Turbo, which dilutes and vacs at the same time.

Larry

 

[Gary T]

If this is on the wall of the pool, which I believe it is, at and just above the water line, they will have to drain off 6" of water and all chems will get in the pool. It won't matter how much the turbo or hand tool vacs or dilutes, the chems are already in the water messing up the balance, and it doesn't take much at all. You will also have to refill and rebalance the water to make up for what was removed. More than likely acid prespray will not put a dent in these deposits. Media blasting is the most effective way to get rid of this, really. I'm not trying to discourage the guy, I'm simply speaking from experience.

 

[NuTech Floor Pro]

Media blasting is superior, but assuming you've got a tough glazed ceramic, you can acid wash the heck out of it if you want to make business. It will be handwork as in multiple acid apps, scrubbing, etc. We've done it many times over the years. The key is to prepare them to prepare their pool guy for the mess. I've never had a problem with thepool guy being able to vacuum the pool and rebalance upon completion of the work.

 

[Fon Johnson]

Pretty much anything you use will mess up the pH and the total alkalinity and affect the ability of the chlorine, bromine, salt, baquacil, etc. to do it's job. Check with a reputable pool shop as they SHOULD have cleaners that are designed to not mess up the pool's chemistry as bad as many of our cleaners would. I have always used a product from the pool shop and a brush. It is a real pain in the rear, but at least it is not as hot a job if you do it from in the pool..