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Best Coping For A Salt Water Inground


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I would love suggestions on the best coping for an inground freeform salt water pool. I was going with flagstone, but have had several companies and people frown upon this. They say that the flagstone will minerlize and the leaking minerals will eventually stain the finish. Most have suggest to go with stamped and stained concrete for the coping and then use flagstone pavers for the rest.

I also am trying to decide what pool finish company to use such as pebblesheen, diamond brite, hydrazzo, etc.I would love to hear what anyone feels is the best for the price. And especially which ones to NOT consider at any cost.

Also to tile the waterline or not? I have been researching and most say that it makes cleaning the line better and it doesn't stain as bad. Any opinions?

I would love to hear from anyone that can tell me things to NOT do, or things they would have done differently if they were to build a pool again.

Thanks

Cheryl1955@cox.net

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I would love suggestions on the best coping for an inground freeform salt water pool. I was going with flagstone, but have had several companies and people frown upon this. They say that the flagstone will minerlize and the leaking minerals will eventually stain the finish. Most have suggest to go with stamped and stained concrete for the coping and then use flagstone pavers for the rest.

I also am trying to decide what pool finish company to use such as pebblesheen, diamond brite, hydrazzo, etc.I would love to hear what anyone feels is the best for the price. And especially which ones to NOT consider at any cost.

Also to tile the waterline or not? I have been researching and most say that it makes cleaning the line better and it doesn't stain as bad. Any opinions?

I would love to hear from anyone that can tell me things to NOT do, or things they would have done differently if they were to build a pool again.

Thanks

Cheryl1955@cox.net

Sounds like what you are talking about is a cantilever edge. That's where the concrete is poured right up to the pool and usually bullnoses at the waters edge. Using Stamped and colored concrete makes this a really nice. We considered doing this with our pool but decided against it. We have small children and decided to go with the standard safety grip so they would have something to hold on to while in the pool. It came out nice but I think I would have rather done the cantilever. If we didn't have the small ones I think we would have gone that route. Only thing that bothered us was being told that the cantilever will eventually crack and break off and we would eventually need to replace (Patch) sections of it. We were told that the patching would stand out and it might not look good in the long run. Oh well, we made our choice and I'm happy with it. Cantilever is more expensive than going with most copings. Adding on to that the price for stamping and coloring the conrete it can add on an additional five to ten thousand to the price of the pool.

We also did the 3M quartz crystals as a finish. We chose the Carribbean Blue and it came out beautifully. We ended up tiling the waterline. When you fill the pool for the first time a dirty ring is left on the water line. We were told to make sure we continued to allow the pool to fill until we were half way up the bottom row of tiles. The ring was left on the tiles but was easy to wipe off. If we would have stopped the fill and allowed the water to sit at the 3M plaster it would have left a ring in the paster and would have been difficult to get out.

No matter what you decide to do you're going to have a beautiful pool. Congratulations with your decission and ENJOY!

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  • 2 months later...

I don't want to scare you too much, but you should consider the effects of salt splash-out and evaporation and its possible side effects by taking a look at this blog that bashes salt pools. If you just focus on the main issue, the worst problems are seen in areas of the country that do not get a lot of summer rains and have hot summers -- mostly Texas and Arizona -- and there may be a factor to the types of local materials used which might be more porous (absorbing) to water. The sorts of problems described on the site aren't seen in Florida and other areas where summer rains tend to dilute any splashed-out salt. Also, the problems are worst with soft limestone.

Australia has had saltwater pool systems for many years and not had these sorts of problems, but they have also had very high salt levels in their ground water long before salt pools existed and therefore pools down there are built with salt-resistant materials. Any porous stones are either sealed or fired to prevent problems. In our own pool, which isn't even a saltwater pool, we have concrete for coping and trowled (textured) concrete for the hardscape yet we seal this once a year per the installer's recommendations to have it last longer and look new each season.

So you should check with builders in your area to determine the quality of the stone you will be using; check with other saltwater pool users who have had pools with such stones for at least 3 years; see what the weather patterns are like in your typical summer; and see if there is any mitigation you can do for your stone such as using sealants.

Richard

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Hello, we have a "salt water pool. We opted for tumbled bluestone coping as it provided similar appearance to flagstone but without the rough edges. Looks great and no problems whatsoever. Love the Salt system and the stone coping. We also have an integrated spa that is made with the same bluestone and again, no problems. The spa spillover area is constantly wet with the saltwater. We do maintain the pool carefully but not obsessively. We live in Maryland so we have hot summers and cold winters.

Good luck.

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Forgot to add:

We also went with the blue 3M quartz and again are very happy. Our pool builder advised against pebble tec, apparently it is not that common here in maryland and since I preferred 3M I didn't delve too much as to why but I understand that if algae gets between the pebbly areas it's nearly impossible to eradicate.

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  • 6 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
Hello, we have a "salt water pool. We opted for tumbled bluestone coping as it provided similar appearance to flagstone but without the rough edges. Looks great and no problems whatsoever. Love the Salt system and the stone coping. We also have an integrated spa that is made with the same bluestone and again, no problems. The spa spillover area is constantly wet with the saltwater. We do maintain the pool carefully but not obsessively. We live in Maryland so we have hot summers and cold winters.

Good luck.

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Hello, we have a "salt water pool. We opted for tumbled bluestone coping as it provided similar appearance to flagstone but without the rough edges. Looks great and no problems whatsoever. Love the Salt system and the stone coping. We also have an integrated spa that is made with the same bluestone and again, no problems. The spa spillover area is constantly wet with the saltwater. We do maintain the pool carefully but not obsessively. We live in Maryland so we have hot summers and cold winters.

Good luck.

We are in the process of building a pool and now have to choose coping and decking. We are using a salt system and am considering using the tumbled bluestone rather than flagstone per our builders recommendation. Do you have any pictures of your pool that you are willing to share? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

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