PoolMD123,
Not a problem. Concrete will be curing for a long time.
It's not uncommon to do tile, coping. and plaster within 10 days of gunite. Good luck.

PoolMD123,
Woud suggest that the wall be waterproofed if there is soil behind. This will keep efflourecense(sp) from showing on the tile in the future.

Golfgeek-
Can you tell me how the wall would be waterproofed? Any idea on the cost? Obviously this is something they would do before tiling it?

Thank you!

Golfgeek-
Can you tell me how the wall would be waterproofed? Any idea on the cost? Obviously this is something they would do before tiling it?

Thank you!

I would not tile until a week is up. Most of the arbitration cases here in California due to tile problems on pools are caused by putting the tile on to early. Your concrete is still going through it's initial cure phase. If you notice your concrete is pretty warm right now.Concrete is a chemical reaction.You should let it go through it's phases until it's cured. (Altough it does take concrete close to 100 years to fully cure). Which also includes not putting plaster on it until after the 28 day cure period for compressive strength. You should wait until you get your compressive strength test back to make sure it has cured up to strength that the engineer specified before you plaster.
Waterproofing should be included in the price of the pool. When you apply waterproofing to the positive side of the pool (which is the inside) that is a topical waterproofing.
That only allows water from the pool from leaking from the inside to the outside. On a raised bond beam like you have it does keep water from the soil behind it from penetrating through the tile and causing the effluence. Water when it penetrates thru concrete that does not have enough binding in it (meaning not enough Portland cement or is not applied properly) creates the effluence on the positive side of the raised bond beam. If you used a minimum of 4,000 p.s.i. shotcrete or gunite as recommended by the American Concrete Institute for pools it would greatly cut down on that issue.
What happens is the higher the cement ratio the tighter the placement will be. It also helps if the nozzle man really knows what he is doing.Placement plays a big part in it.Also you have to think that if water is causing the effluence on the positive side of the pool than that means water is getting thru your concrete and is helping to corrode the rebar.There are a few builders that even though you are using the higher p.s.i. concrete they will still add a waterproofing agent to the mix to make it totally water tight. There is a debate between two groups of thought on this. One group insist that the higher p.s.i. concrete makes it impenetrable to water where another group thinks that all concrete is permeable to water. I deal in some areas where I build close to the ocean where water in the ground has a high salt content and if a builder uses the minimum state requirement of 2,500 p.s.i. then you have to use rebar that has an epoxy over it because the water penetration on that concrete mix would corrode the rebar in a matter of a few years.
Hope this helps.

I called and asked for the tile and coping to be postponed until later in the week. He said at this time of the year, they do sometimes tile and cope before 7-10 days but they will try to get ahold of the tile guy. They told me they don't do waterproofing. They said the concrete they use, it hasn't been a problem. Now I am concerned...

Do you know what the engineered specified for the concrete? Even if it is a higher p.s.i. you should still waterproof any positive or negative side of the pool that you have. It doesn't hurt to do it and it's not that expensive.

I'm not sure about the p.s.i. I'll have to see if I have it somewhere. Thank you!

quote "They told me they don't do waterproofing. They said the concrete they use, it hasn't been a problem. Now I am concerned..."

A pool builder who doesn't do waterproofing. Let that set in a second.

You have great reason to be concerned, and the advice given already in this thread is of great value. Depending on how high your shell is out of the ground will drive cost of waterproofing, but like pools94 said it shouldnt be much (i.e. most likely $300-$500 if the area isnt large.) There are penetrating sealers, topical sealers, etc and most work great if approved for this type of application.