Tile grout failure after Finish pressure wash?

[pcollins22]

Hi all,

I had my pebble tec finish applied last Thursday, followed by a pressure/acid wash the following day.

I noticed during the pool filling that a bunch of areas of my waterline tile and step tile grout had been disturbed from the pressure washing.

I brought this up to the finishing company and the state that they will fix the steptile issues but they disagreed that the waterline tile is their problem, and tell me that the tile folks need to come back to fix that grout work because it “shouldn’t have come out with the power wash”.

Is this legit?

I have not paid the remaining 50% balance on my pebble tec finish work and I’m trying to decide if they deserve to have their feet held to the fire for this being their issue. Truth be told I don’t know what the grout should be able to withstand or not and I also don’t know what psi the guy was spraying at.

 

[AQUA~HOLICS]

Is the pool being constructed from a pool builder? If so, that’s who is ultimately responsible.
Do you have pictures of the same areas just after the tile was set? Possibly the grout was imperfect prior to power washing.
Still, this should not have happened. A power washer is more than capable of removing grout. Typically the water line tile is not washed as much as the new plaster and the new plaster is not washed hard enough to remove plaster, just the film left behind.

 

[pcollins22]

The grout was not like this after the tile work was done. This was confirmed both by myself as well as my pool “contractor” that’s been doing my inspections on my owner build.

I think I know what happened. They must not have masked well because there is pebble remnants at the bottom of my tile that are still there in many places today.

I think what happened was during the pressure wash the guy saw these spots and kept trying to blast them with his pressure washer, and instead eroded the grout line.

 

[AQUA~HOLICS]

That sounds very possible, you have to be so careful with those power washers around new grout .
What you just explained needs to be told to the plaster contractor. The grout not being damaged prior to plastering definitely points to one contractor.