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The stairs were formed using the plastic shell of an above ground pool to make the curved forms.
Here we're starting the tile work. We used porcelain paver tile for the water line. This is necessary because of their freeze resistance. The rest of the tile was purchased from a surplus tile seller. It is about the cheapest tile made. We paid less than 50 cents per sq. ft. We searched for info on tiling a pool and everything we saw insisted on porcelain pool tile, but since all this info was for tiling the waterline of a Gunite pool, we decided to run some tests and take some chances in order to save a bunch of money.
The porcelain tile was waterproof, but the cheap tile absorbed a lot of water. We had to soak the tile to keep it from sucking the water out of the mortar (Thoroseal.) We would stack the tile in the wheelbarrow full of water and soak it for at least a couple of hours.
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