I own houses with pools for 20 years. The most annoying part of pool maintenance for me is dealing with tiles falling of the walls.

In the old house, the pool guy told me that it was b/c of the water seeping behind the first cope stone. So I paid a lot to seal it but it didn't help. What I do notice, in both houses, is that more tiles break off on the uphill side than on downhill side, so I suspect ground waters, at least in part.

In this house, most tiles fall off the spa wall, so I suspect that the curvature is also important. Unfortunately, I cannot change curvature and I cannot do anything about the slope. But is there anything that I can about tiles?

I'm planning pool resurfacing next year to deal with cracks and overall wear and tear. I will replace tiles in the process, too. (I'd be happy to get rid of tiles completely but they tell me it is impossible.) One of the pool guys suggested one row of 6x6 tiles instead of 3 rows of 2x2 on the theory that larger tiles won't break off as often. Is this true?

Are there any other ideas?