retro coping replacement

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minner

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Jun 1, 2011
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Hello everyone, i have read most post on coping replacement. but i still have a few unanswered questions. if you could help it would be greatly appreciated.

i have a 16x32 inground vinyl liner pool from 70's with bull nose coping the concrete deck goes right up to coping. it is worn adn all corners are mising. i want to replace with liner replacement as track is worn out in all corners also and wont hold any longer.

i thought i could cut off plastic part of coping and saw the bullnose flat and install thin paver coping with new deck and replace front mount liner track over existing track. still waiting on quotes.

second idea was to remove plastic coping leave bullnose concrete form in place and cut off rounded front making if flat with bevel edges on top and bottom. this would requre me cutting into deck at angle to bevel to remove indention from plastic part in deck. if i chipped it would look hopefully like uneven stone. i could then stain it and deck to match

third and most probable option is to cut deck (however far back 6", 9" or so depending on new coping stone) and then remove and replace with stone coping. use front mount liner track over existing or remove and screw new track to steel walls. with this approach i understand their are support brackets at steel walls but i am wondering how stable the remaing deck edge would be after integrity disruption. i would hate for it to cave in.

i have rounded pool corners is it feasable to remove plastic parts and have steel 45 angle corners in their place.

i know this is alot but i am planning on doing the work myself to prep for lliner replacement which i plan on hiring done. thanks for any advice or suggestions. Minner
 
Re 1st idea--sounds interesting, but it's very tough to get a good uniform cut on concrete that's cantilevered out, such as bullnose deck slabs. Concrete saws are designed for the back part of the saw under the handle to rest on both sides of the joint, which allows for a cut perpendicular to the surface, and if you're trying to cut for any distance like you're proposing, you're likely to have a really squirrely edge. If you do tons of yoga and have mega upper body strength and resist fatigue like a marathoner, you may be able to pull this off, but it would be a very difficult cut (saws try to swing clockwise on a vertical axis, so you're constantly fighting it, particularly when only the blade is engaged and the rear of the saw isn't able to rest on the slab). If you get any angle, you're likely to cut into your pool wall, and the saw can't tell the difference between your pool wall and the concrete. Since you can't straddle the joint, either, you're likely to cut at a weird angle as opposed to uniformly vertical. To cut the corners without getting into the pool wall, you would need a diamond chainsaw so you could plunge cut them. If you're putting thin pavers over the edge, the squirreliness of your cuts would be hidden, but repairing any of the pool wall that got torn up by the saw could be tricky.

Re 2nd idea--same problems with cutting as mentioned above, but if you're going to chip it (you can rent pneumatic scabblers to do this with, but without lots of experience it'd be super easy to destroy your concrete or punch a hole through your pool wall). The size of the aggregate in the concrete will largely drive the texture you can get, so I would recommend testing it on the outside edge of the concrete first.

Re 3rd idea--this is a recipe for a hot mess. Definitely check for voids by drilling a couple of holes in the deck to see what's under the deck. Not all pools have the metal supports to hold up the deck, and if your pool has voids around it (99.9% do), and no supports and you start cutting 6 to 9 inches back from the edge, you're likely to experience what many would call catastrophic failure.

Sorry to sound so negative, but I've cut a lot of concrete (and seen lots of cutting gone bad) and made a bunch of money having been called in to to salvage decks that were tackled like in the 3rd proposal.
 
thanks for the info. i am at a loss excpet to paint existing coping and repair corners or completley tear out and start over. i dont plan on living their but ofr about 5-7 years so paint adn concrete stain seem like the way to go. i did get quote from thin paver company in florida and they say about $4500-6000 if i do myself. if you have any good ideas please let me know i am open for anything feasible.
 
I'm a concrete person, not a coping person, so don't really have any advice to add about the coping other than repairing what you have will most likely be easier than attempting to alter the concrete a lot. Staining concrete isn't that hard, neither is applying coatings. The most important thing is to follow the manufacturer's instructions for preparation exactly; if the concrete's not prepped right the coating will fail, almost without question.

Pavers look nice, but are expensive (obviously). They also add a lot of weight to the slab, so if the deck is in marginal shape, they can cause some problems.
 
so i have decided to replace coping on pool and i realize from earlier post that i am taking on a risk to remove coping and concrete. i know people do this and i am just wondering on best way to go about it with least risk for failure of walls. that is assuming that they are not supported as from earlier post. once i cut back concrete i am estimating 3 foot from pool edge, that if they didn't install supports i would have to dig out and install some brackets to support walls while the new coping and liner lock is installed. any help would be appreciated
 
The brackets hold up the concrete, not hold the walls in position. Many pools sit for weeks, if not months after being backfilled and before getting the concrete installed, so removing concrete doesn't really pose problems for the pool itself. If your pool is older than 10 years, the soil around it should be consolidated fully, so excavating to install brackets could actually cause you more problems on the future. As long as you don't have any geotechnical problems, you should be fine to build up to the proper grade with 57 (thumb size) washed stone and install new concrete. Do not use the broken up concrete for backfill material.
 
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