Bee Mosaic Adorns Spectacular French Villa Pool in Oregon
A new French villa style home in Bend, Oregon became the ideal setting for a stunning outdoor pool and spa, complete with a custom honey bee mosaic. For the pool and spa tile installation, the homeowners chose Joppe Aguirre of Cascadia Tile Company LLC, who came highly recommended by their home designer. Known for his precision and attention to detail, Aguirre founded Cascadia Tile in 2019 to provide exceptional tile installation to Central Oregon. Starting his tile career in 2006, he honed his craft by learning from the best-of-the-best in the industry and continues to challenge himself today to improve and broaden his skill set.
The French villa owners decided to add a custom mosaic to enhance their luxury pool. Aguirre, in his typical straightforward style, informed them that the mosaic installation would be a new experience for him, but he would seek expert help to ensure success. He discovered an upcoming mosaic class taught by Angie Halford Ré, an award-winning mosaic artist and artisan member of NTCA. The class, held in Ré’s Salt Lake City studio, Unique Mosaics LLC, was sponsored by TEC® tile installation materials. Like Aguirre, Ré mastered her mosaic craft by working with the most skilled tile setters in the country. Her classes on mosaic techniques, tips and tricks for success are one of the ways she gives back to the industry and ensures the artform, her passion, has a bright future. During the day-long immersive training and after, Aguirre impressed Ré as she remarked, “Joppe was a star pupil in my tile professionals’ mosaic masterclass. His decades of tile experience, artistic talent and motivation made him shine in Salt Lake. I’m glad that my class helped his first mosaic, the bee, go well in Oregon. It’s so rewarding to see others gain the confidence and skills needed to succeed after attending the training.”
Reflecting on the class, Aguirre praised Ré’s generosity in sharing her extensive knowledge to fast-track his mosaic education. He also appreciated meeting TEC® Digital Technical Manager Chris Kain at the training. Kain introduced him and the other attendees to TEC® TotalFlex® XMS Tile Adhesive, a highly versatile and durable ready-to-use adhesive. Kain explained, “We sponsored Angie’s training class to support her excellence in tile education. She is a master at mosaic art and installation techniques. We also want everyone to try our game-changing TotalFlex® XMS Adhesive, a unique modified silane adhesive formulated and fully warranted for challenging outdoor and submerged tile conditions.” For Aguirre, the TotalFlex XMS product was a perfect fit for the French villa’s outdoor pool, spa and his first mosaic project. He left Ré’s training feeling confident that he had a successful process to follow, great tools to use and resources to help him successfully complete the bee mosaic.
The French villa homeowners chose the honey bee for their mosaic, inspired by its symbolic significance in France for many centuries. A graphic designer created the bee mosaic design for Aguirre to use. Following Ré’s process in his Cascadia office, he had the bee drawing enlarged to the mosaic’s true size of 4’x5.5’ and placed clear contact paper sticky-side-up over the drawing. He carefully cut and placed mosaic 1”x 1” black, white and gold glass tiles, according to the bee design, on the contact paper. Once the layout was perfected, Aguirre applied mosaic tape on top of the tiles to secure them. He then cut the bee mosaic – now sandwiched between contact paper and tape – into five pieces for transport to the villa’s pool.
The pool’s gunite substrate was ready for Aguirre to apply a waterproofing and crack isolation membrane where the tile would be installed. He chose TEC® HydraFlexTM Waterproofing Crack Isolation Membrane, a product that exceeds ANSI 118.10 and 118.12 standards. Aguirre applied the membrane under the bee mosaic and the waterline tiles of the large 50’ x 30’ pool. The HydraFlex membrane is the only product that can bridge control joints, such as those needed above and below the waterline tiles. Aguirre followed the TCNA F125 full coverage method to protect the integrity of the substrate from chlorinated pool water. The mosaic could be installed almost immediately after the membrane application since TEC HydraFlex cures in just one to three hours.
Next Aguirre positioned the mosaic to ensure the proper location on the pool bottom. Installing the mosaic, waterline and spa tiles with TEC® TotalFlex® XMS Tile Adhesive, he appreciated the product’s ease of use and time-saving benefits. Ready-to-use TotalFlex XMS has exceptional grab and bond strength, yet can be repositioned for 30-45 minutes, depending on conditions. The product’s long repositioning time is particularly important for intricate mosaic installations. With its proprietary formulation, TotalFlex XMS withstands submersion in chlorinated water and outdoor temperature fluctuations from -30°F to 194°F. Thus, the Bend area’s typical annual temperature range of 23°F to 82°F would not be a problem for the TotalFlex XMS performance.
To apply the pool and spa tiles, Aguirre troweled the adhesive onto the prepared substrate. TotalFlex XMS is easy to trowel and offers a significant time-saving benefit by requiring only one-side application, even for very large tiles. For the installation of the bee mosaic on the pool floor, Aguirre removed the contact paper from the five mosaic pieces and aligned each section of the bee mural onto the troweled adhesive. He set the 160’ of 1”x 1” blue glass waterline tiles. The grand 10.5’ x 10’ spa was fully tiled with the same 1” x 1” blue glass tile and culminated in a stunning infinite edge water feature. TotalFlex XMS adhesive is well suited to meet the challenges of setting glass tile with its super strong bond, white color that enhances the transparency of glass and flexibility once cured that accommodates the expansion and contraction of glass.
Conveniently, TEC TotalFlex XMS Adhesive technology is moisture-curing, meaning it uses the existing moisture in the air and substrate to set and is ready for grout in just 12 hours. As soon as the adhesive cured, Aguirre removed the mosaic tape on the bee mural. Following TEC instructions, he carefully cleaned any TotalFlex XMS from the mosaic, waterline and spa tiles. The tiled areas were finished with epoxy grout, as recommended for pools and spas. The pool’s tank was completed with blue plaster interspersed with iridescent beads, applied flush to the waterline tiles and mosaic’s borders.
When asked about completing his first mosaic art installation, Aguirre expressed, “This project went really well. Angie’s training made the mosaic work go smoothly, and the bee looks fantastic. Using TEC TotalFlex XMS was easy, saved installation time and ensured the mosaic, waterline and spa tile installation will last a long time. I’ll keep using it.” Aguirre also plans to continue developing his mosaic skills and incorporating mosaics into Cascadia’s tile offerings. As with most projects, Aguirre completed the French villa’s pool and spa on-time, but this project’s finish had a special significance. The new water features were ready, right on time to be the spectacular backdrop for the wedding celebration of the homeowners’ son.
