Help, pool tile to coping space

[Costake1]

Hello,

I am renovating our pool. We removed the old coping and decided to go with oklohoma flagstone. The old pool had the tile butted up to the coping. With the new coping we have a large "mortar joint" gap around the pool. The pool guy said thats normal because the oklahoma flagstone is not consistent in height. This varies around the pool. I am not happy with the look but the pool guys said there is nothing that can be done. it gets up to 1.5 inches in places.

My question is since there is now a large mortar line will that fail sooner? Is it going to crack and let water in? I already notice small hairline cracks like what you see in the picture. Also is there anything we can do at this point? Is this because we used flagstone and is this normal.

Again our last coping (old bullnose style from the 90's) had the tile right up to it.

Thank you!

 

[pooldv]

Welcome to TFP!

That is true, flagstone is not uniform in thickness. In order to get the flagstone set to to the same height on top, and level with your pool deck, you have to make up the difference in thickness with the mortar joint. How long before you need to replaster? You might be able to raise the tile some at that time.

 

[Costake1]

Thank you for the reply. The problem on moving the tile is the skimmer basket. (sorry its sideways)

I guess i am more worried about failure. Will this fail due to such large mortar lines?

Also i wonder about flagstone. We did not pick it out and the flagstone they picked is scaling a ton. Its literally flaking apart? Is that normal? My pool builders have not been super helpful. We are half way into this and its been a mess and 2.5 months in to our backyard remodel. All that is left is the stamped concrete and the interior of the pool.

again thank you for the replies.

 

[pooldv]

It looks like there is room to work with the tile height and the skimmer throat down the road. The joint should only fail if there is movement between the coping and the pool or if the deck puts pressure on the coping. If the flagstone is flaking then depending on how much I would think about replacing some of those pieces. Some flagstone is flakier than others. Although we have some of the flakier flagstone that I was little worried about at first but it is doing fine 4 years later. Things always get better once the pool is filled and you are floating with a tasty beverage!

 

[Costake1]

Thank you for the response. We have the pool company coming out to talk about it again Tuesday. I am really worried about the flaking on the flagstone. Oddly enough try chose another flagstone for the plantar caps. That one doesn't flake at all. It also a different color. Wish the coping was that color and not what it is. No idea why they chose a different stone for the caps. Ugh. Thanks again for the words and I'll let y'all know how it goes!