Setting tile over an epoxy coated bond beam

Hello pool people! I need a little help, did I come to the right place?
I'm currently in the middle of a pool remodel, this is what I've done so far: I removed the old copper skimmer and all the copper plumbing. I removed the poured in place coping, pool tile and chiseled up some hollow plaster. I have installed the new skimmer, all new PVC plumbing, moved the pump & filter closer to the pool, and I have replaced all the concrete that needed to be removed to make the above possible.

This is where I am stuck: The original tile was set with epoxy, directly to the bond beam. I need to get the epoxy off the bond beam so I can set the new tile with Portland based thin set. I have tried an air chisel, needle scaler, heat and a grinder. The epoxy has bonded so well, that when I do chip a piece of it off, it also removes the concrete on the bond beam down to the aggregate, and I think this will cause me to have problems setting the new tile flat and straight.

I think I have three options:
1) Roughen up existing epoxy, and use epoxy to set new tile.
2) Chisel off old epoxy, (100+ hours of labor) smooth beam out with mud, set tile with Portland based thin set.
3) Fire up the 14" concrete saw and shave off 1/4 to 3/8" of the bond beam (currently only 6" wide) and have a decent surface to start tiling with. (Last resort)

I think I discovered why they used the epoxy in the first place. The tiles are 6x6x3/8" and only 5" of the tile touched the beam. The top 1" of the tile was attached to an additional 1" of mud that was added to the top of the beam. (I think they were adjusting the water level?) I have removed the 1" of mud from the top of the beam, and now I will cut down an additional 1" of the plaster on the pool wall to have a true water line.

Should I go with 1, 2 or 3 from above? Does anyone have a better solution? I am all for doing it right the first time, I call it once and done. I considered a contractor, but a contractor built it this way to begin with.

I am replacing the deck and coping with pavers, so I'm not worried about matching the existing install.

Thank You! Doug

You're beyond any experience I have. I am amazed to find epoxy on a pool with copper plumbing, however.

I was amazed the entire skimmer was totally copper.

I ended up going with option #2. It only took me 21 hours, my mind had me convinced it would take me much longer than that.

Glad it worked for you.

Ben

When it was time to set the new coping, I figured out what the additional mud was on the top of the bond beam for. The top of the bond beam was not level! This is how I fixed it. I bought some 12' x 7-1/4" x 5/16" House siding, then cut them in half so they are now 12' x 3-5/8" x 5/16, and I used Tap-Cons to mount the panels on the face of the bond beam where the tile will be mounted, I made the top edge of the panel level. Now it's easy to set the coping level, I just needed to worry about getting the 3-1/2 x 9" paver coping level from front to back, because the front was already at the right height and level from side to side from the panels I screwed on.

Doug