Bristol pool tiling, indoors and out.

Bristol pools

In the city there are hotel and spa pools, health clubs, public leisure and school pools, and university pools. Out across the surrounding counties, plenty of private homes have pools, some indoors and some outside with tiled surrounds and terraces.

Indoor pools here have the usual issues: grout loss, scale at the waterline, loose tiles on the steps. Outdoor pools are another matter.

How outdoor tiles fail

Water gets behind a tile through an open joint or a crack. In a cold snap it freezes and expands, and over a few winters that pushes tiles off and breaks up the bed beneath.

Weather also decides when the work can be done. Adhesives and grouts need the temperature to stay within the maker's range while they cure, so outdoor work is usually planned for the milder months. We would rather wait than rush a job into the cold.

• Open or missing grout on copings and surrounds
• Tiles lifting after a hard winter
• A crack running in a line across several tiles
• Water ponding on the surround after rain

A short checklist for outdoor pool owners

• Check copings and surrounds for open joints and loose tiles
• Clear drains so water runs off rather than sitting
• Look for movement joints that have been filled with grout
• Photograph anything that has changed since last year

Movement joints

Movement joints around the pool and across a large terrace need to stay flexible. A joint filled with rigid grout cannot do its job, and the stress tends to come out as cracked tiles. Opening those joints back up and sealing them properly is often part of the repair.