Pool Tile

76 products

Tile rated to live in pool water: a waterline band, a step edge, a spa spillway or a whole wall. The difference from tile sold for a bathroom is not the look, it is the body. Pool tile absorbs less than half a percent of its weight in water, so a hard winter has nothing inside it to freeze and break the face off, and its glaze is made to sit in chlorinated water year round. It is sold by the square foot here, in porcelain and glass, from 1 in. mosaics up to 12x24.

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About Pool Tile

Waterline and wall tile in high fired porcelain and glass, from 1 in. and 2 in. mesh mounted mosaics through 3x3 and the traditional 6x6 up to 6x12 and 12x24, with single bullnose and border trim to finish the top edge. Blues, teals and cobalts, plus stone and neutral series. Everything here is rated for a pool: impervious body, frost proof, chemical resistant.

Almost all of it is National Pool Tile, and their full range including depth markers is on the National Pool Tile page. For a one off panel, a step marker or a logo rather than a run of band, see custom mosaics.

Questions about Pool Tile

Where does tile actually go on a pool?

Four places, and only the first is universal. A waterline band runs round the pool at the water line, which is where scale and oils collect and where a scrubbable glazed surface earns its keep. Step edges and the top of a bench get tile so there is a visible line where the depth changes. A spa spillway is usually tiled because it is the thing people look at. And some pools are tiled floor to coping, which is a finish decision and a budget of a different order.

Porcelain or glass?

Porcelain is the workhorse and glass is the feature. High fired porcelain is dense, cheap by comparison, comes in the larger formats and takes a scrubbing brush for thirty years without complaint. Glass is brighter and has depth to it because light goes into the tile and comes back, which is why it turns up on spillways and raised walls where it will be looked at. Glass costs more, comes in smaller pieces, and wants a more careful setting job. Plenty of pools use porcelain for the band and glass for one feature.

What does mesh mounted mean?

The small pieces arrive already spaced and stuck to a backing sheet, so you set a square foot at a time instead of a hundred individual chips. It is why mosaics are practical at all: without the mesh, a 1 in. tile band would be a week of work and the spacing would wander. It also means the sheet is the unit you cut, so around a light or a skimmer you cut the mesh and fill with loose pieces off a spare sheet. Buy the spare sheet.

How wide should the band be?

Six inches is the traditional depth and it is traditional for a reason: it is about how far the water level moves between rain, evaporation and a pool full of people, so the scale line stays on tile rather than on plaster. Deeper bands, two or three courses, are a look and they are common on a raised wall or where the coping is heavy. Narrower than a single 6 in. course and you will find the waterline sitting on the plaster below it by August.