Concrete Coping Problem with pics

[Tugsie77]

We just had our concrete deck and coping poured this past week. In addition, we have some raised planter beds that had concrete tops. Because these beds would be so close to our pool and a new raised bed behind the pool, we decided to bite the bullet, pay the $$$ and rip out the existing tops on the planter beds. We wanted everything to be the same color, from the same concrete pour. Without going into a ton of detail, our concrete guy really dropped the ball and wound up doing two pours- one for the coping and one for the raised beds. Do they match? The short answer is NO. Our PB looked at it today and agreed that they do not match. We really don't want to rip everything out and do it over. My question to you all is, aside from ripping everything out and having them do it over, is there a way to remedy this problem? The planter beds are actually the right color (cocoa), the coping is not (came out kind of rustic brown with a lot of red tone to it- totally wrong!) Can the coping be stained/sealed to a cocoa color/tone?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Here is a link to some pics that should give you an idea of the set up of the pool/yard and the variation in color. It's kind of hard to see in the pics, but one thing is for sure, that color is not cocoa (on spa and raised bond beam).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50264519@N07/

 

[bk406]

Short of ripping it out, I know of no way to change the color to make both the coping and the top of the planters the same color. Was there a reason he did it in 2 pours? Normally, a truck will hold about 9 yards of concrete. How many yards total did he use? The other issue is that the coping pour is more tedious that the planter beds. He might not have had time to pour the coping, then the planter beds off the same truck. He should have laid out all the scenerios and managed expectations a bit better for you.

 

[Lershac]

Thats gotta be ripped out to get it to match. Even then, like BK says, if the job is split across two batches.... you still might not get a good match.

That sucks.

 

[Tugsie77]

Thanks for the replies.
In response to BK406: He had one of his guys set up the forms around the pool and the planter beds a couple days before the pour. On the day of the pour I came home at lunch to let my dog out and check on the progress. The coping had been poured but all the forms were removed from the beds and no concrete had been poured! I asked him what was going on and he said that when he checked the forms on the planters he realized they were set up wrong and there would not have been any overhang, the tops would have been flush with the rock on the wall. I asked how he hadn't realized this earlier as he and his crew had been out for the past 3-4 days. I also asked why he even poured the coping with the knowledge he wouldn't be able to do the beds at the same time like we specifically told him to do. He said to have faith and we would see that it would match. Well, a week later and it's not even a close match. He's a good guy but he really made a mess of this situation. He should have checked the forms before the morning of the pour. The funny thing is that the SECOND pour is the color we wanted which is Cocoa. The first pour turned out to be very red as you can see in the pics. I guess in a way we would be haggling no matter what because if it had been all one pour it would still be the wrong color. I talked to our PB today and he said the concrete guy will do whatever necessary to make it right. I think he is going to try either a stain or a pigmented sealer and if that doesn't work we'll have to consider ripping it out which we REALLY don't want to have to do because it will screw up so many other parts of the project like the deck, tile, etc.
Thanks for letting me vent.