Swimming Pool Tiles: Basic and Key Purposes
You must be proud of having a swimming pool in the exterior space, as the installation adds glamour to your entire property. Isn’t it? There are many ways to install, decorate, and renovate swimming pools. Installing swimming pool tiles is among the most preferred methods.
Selecting pool tiles that enhance the elegance of the swimming pool is a difficult decision to make. You get enormous varieties in swimming pool tile in terms of colors, patterns, finishes, materials, and styles. However, to beautify your swimming pool and retain its beauty for years to come, you must understand the fundamental purpose of a pool tile.
Blue Yellow Modern Modular Glossy Glass Mosaic Tile — MTO0090
Purposes of Swimming Pool Tiles
While planning swimming pool installation and tiling, we usually consider different expectations from the swimming pool tiles to install. We measure the area to be tiled and decide on the tile colors and aesthetics. Similarly, we expect the pool tiles to last longer.
To quickly analyze the purposes and expected properties of swimming pool tiles, let’s divide the swimming pool installation into three segments:
- Wall and floor of your swimming pool
- Waterline- where the swimming pool meets the coping
- Pool deck- the area around your pool.
In the next phase of this article, let’s analyze the purpose of the swimming pool tile in the sections mentioned above:
- Pool Tiles for Swimming Pool Walls & Floor
The pool walls and the floor is the core portion of a swimming pool. Most importantly, the tiles on these surfaces remain underwater almost throughout their lifecycle if the swimming pool is functioning. The purpose of these pool tiles and the tile material are correlated. Let’s understand the purpose and the expectations from the pool tiles covering the floor and walls of your swimming pool.
Excellent Aesthetics
The pool tiles you choose must add aesthetic value to your pool installation. There are many attributes involved in making these swimming pool tiles decorative in all respects.
Tile Color
Most homeowners prefer blue pool tiles as they resemble the color of the sky and ocean and enhance the elegance of water. However, you can try other colors, like aquamarine, green, cobalt, and colors other than blue also.
Pool Tile Finish:
You get pool tiles in various finishes, such as frosted, glossy, metallic, iridescent, polished, translucent, and more. The pool tile finish should complement the overall aura created by the swimming pool. AS it is usually an exterior installation, choose a tile finish that makes the swimming pools elegant through the lighting effects and natural sunlight.
Swimming Pool Tile Patterns:
Pool tile patterns play a vital role in making the pool look fascinating. Intricate geometric patterns, such as modular (shown in the implementation image above- at the beginning of the article), hexagon, stacked square, linear, French patterns, chevron, herringbone, and more, can enhance the visual appeal.
Outstanding Durability
The most significant purpose of swimming pool tiles is to retain the elegance of the pool for years ahead. Therefore, the pool tiles you choose must be highly durable. Usually, your swimming pools are in the exterior space. Thus, the pool tiles need to sustain extreme temperature changes, continuous pressure exerted by water within the swimming pool, and other aspects.
The swimming pool tiles should be least porous so that the water doesn’t spill to their bottom. They must have adequate load carrying capacity to sustain the pressure of water. Moisture deteriorates various materials and elements. Pool tiles should sustain continuous contact with water in the long run.
The pool tiles should be made of materials, such as ceramic mosaic tiles, glass mosaic tiles, porcelain tiles, marble tile, stone tiles, and river rock tiles to serve these purposes.
2. Waterline Tiles
As shown in the image below, waterline tiles cover the surface where the vertical pool tiles on the pool walls meet the horizontal space around the pool. Ideally, waterline tiles should cover a surface of about 6 inches from the top of the swimming pool.
Grey White Modern 6X6 Square — Matte Distressed Porcelain Mosaic Tile — MTO0343
Waterline tiles create an outline of the periphery of the swimming pool with an adequate breadth. These pool tiles join the pool wall with the coping of the deck. Let’s understand the purpose of these tiles:
- A Glamorous Outline for the Pool
Waterline tiles are to create a beautiful outline for the pool. Plan the width of the waterline tiles where the pool wall joins the deck. The transition between these two surfaces becomes smooth when installing waterline tiles of a suitable color, finish, and pattern.
White Yellow Cobalt Blue Modular Glossy Translucent — Glass Mosaic Tile — MTO0114
- Avoiding Permanent Watermarks
Another purpose of waterline pool tiles from a maintenance point of view is to avoid watermarks. Waterline tiles should be installed at a 6-inch band at the water level. Water in the pool should ideally cover half of this band. Thus, you can avoid the yellow scummy waterline along the pool wall.
3. Pool Deck Tiles
Pool deck tiles are usually floor-grade tiles suitable for exteriors. Technically, these tiles don’t fall under the category of swimming pool tiles. However, their purpose benefits the overall aesthetics and durability of the swimming pool installation.
- Sustaining Foot Traffic
Pool deck tiles should sustain moderate to heavy foot traffic. If the floor tile has adequate thickness and coefficient of friction, the pool deck tiles can serve these purposes effectively.
- Coordination Between Pool & Surroundings
The pool deck tiles should bridge the gap between the pool and the surroundings visually. The marble mosaic tiles in the basketweave pattern shown below can merge well with the walkways, landscaped lawn or park, driveways, outdoor kitchen, and other installations in the exterior space.
Beige Gray Modern Basketweave — Natural Marble Mosaic Tile- MTO0030
Mix and match the tile pattern, finish, and color to pick the most-suited floor tile to install your pool deck.
- Add Glamour to Swimming Pool Installation
As the pool deck covers the immediate surrounding of the swimming pool, you can try a contrast to elevate the visual appeal of the swimming pool amid the deck. You can plan your decor innovatively and add an accent wall lifting one side of the pool.
Browse through an exclusive collection of swimming pool tiles from a reputed mosaic tile manufacturer. The wide selection of pool tiles helps you pick suitable tiles for your upcoming pool restyling project.
The Takeaway
The article takes you through the purposes of swimming pool tiles. In short, wisely chosen pool tiles serve a decorative and protective purpose for your swimming pool installation. Consider various aspects of swimming pool tile purposes while selecting pool tiles for your pool renovation project or an all-new swimming pool installation.
