Best Coping for a Saltwater pool

[danman]

Hey All,

I was wondering what the opinions on coping are for a Saltwater pool. My pool was built in 2006 and has been saltwater the entire time(according to previous home owner). However he doesn't remember if the coping(flagstone) was ever sealed. Anyhow, the flag stone over his last year has really deteriorated, layers are just popping or falling off, stones are even unseating from the surface. So I have had 2 quotes, one company says Travertine, and the other says Flagstone. Both say you have to seal it. I don't really know what the best solution is. It appears this flagstone lasted a little over a decade, which I guess is ok?? Anyhow, what are the thoughts in TFP?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Poolsean]

Depends on how porous the stone is. There are different grades of stone. The softer the stone is (more porous), the quicker salt water will show it's effect on it. I'd recommend looking at a dense travertine, and sealing it as often as recommended (varies by the type of sealer you use).

 

[danman]

Depends on how porous the stone is. There are different grades of stone. The softer the stone is (more porous), the quicker salt water will show it's effect on it. I'd recommend looking at a dense travertine, and sealing it as often as recommended (varies by the type of sealer you use).

I'll check it out. I keep hearing about this Oklahoma Flagstone, is that a thing? or a myth?

 

[Jimrahbe]

Dan,

Saltwater has zero to do with your flagstone issue.. You can just look at the stone and tell.. The stones that have thin layers will flake off no matter if you have saltwater or not..

As an example, I have a rent house with flagstone coping... the coping was in a year before we converted it over to saltwater, which was about five years ago... There seems to be two different stones in the coping many right next to one another. The Flaky stones are still flaky and the more solid stones still do not show any wear...

Unfortunately, anything that goes wrong with a saltwater pool is because of the evils of salt... It is just not true.

If you are really concerned about it, they make some pretty good looking concrete coping..

I personally don't believe that sealing the flaky stones will make any difference one way or other.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[danman]

Dan,

Saltwater has zero to do with your flagstone issue.. You can just look at the stone and tell.. The stones that have thin layers will flake off no matter if you have saltwater or not..

As an example, I have a rent house with flagstone coping... the coping was in a year before we converted it over to saltwater, which was about five years ago... There seems to be two different stones in the coping many right next to one another. The Flaky stones are still flaky and the more solid stones still do not show any wear...

Unfortunately, anything that goes wrong with a saltwater pool is because of the evils of salt... It is just not true.

If you are really concerned about it, they make some pretty good looking concrete coping..

I personally don't believe that sealing the flaky stones will make any difference one way or other.

Thanks,

Jim R.

Thanks Jim! Do you think sealing new flagstone is the way to go? Travertine seems to me to be more porous so that was another confusing point to this topic for me. I was told flagstone is porous and the salt get's in there and eats the stone away, but if travertine is more so then I would guess it's worse.

my main reservation on travertine is the bottom part of our house is a stone, so the flagstone around the pool match it and it looks great. I'm afraid a travertine coping would look great, but might be to modern. Anyway that's another topic. So what about the Oklahoma flagstone? ever heard of it? Any tips on picking flagstone?

 

[blakeusa]

Both flagstone and travertine are Soft stones per say. If you want a long term stone try a granite or even concrete paver as it can be sealed very well with chemicals.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Thanks Jim! Do you think sealing new flagstone is the way to go? Travertine seems to me to be more porous so that was another confusing point to this topic for me. I was told flagstone is porous and the salt get's in there and eats the stone away, but if travertine is more so then I would guess it's worse.

my main reservation on travertine is the bottom part of our house is a stone, so the flagstone around the pool match it and it looks great. I'm afraid a travertine coping would look great, but might be to modern. Anyway that's another topic. So what about the Oklahoma flagstone? ever heard of it? Any tips on picking flagstone?

Dan,

The problem I see is that you don't get to pick the individual stones... They normally just delivery a truck load of stone and the coping guy just uses what is there.

The only thing I can think of would be to contact the coping guy directly and talk to him about what you want and see what he recommends...

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[PoolGate]

I am happy with my bluestone coping but it does get a little hot in the sun. I don't know if sealing does anything or not but I hate to make something that is no maintenance into a maintenance item.

 

[Rossterman]

We have the mexican travertine and as said above, stone varies piece to piece. Some have virtually little salt attack while some some significant damage. I would have liked to pick each piece but normally they just send you a crate full of pieces. I used deck-o-seal to halt the further damage but even with anti-slip abrasive added it's pretty slick when wet.

 

[bmoreswim]

Following up on PoolGate, we too have PA Bluestone. A northeast stone. Yes, gets stinkin’ hot so not ideal for TX but it is a hard stone also. Can it flake? Yes but not in the majority of cases.

May be expensive to locate there.

Concrete, granite as mentioned above and pavers of course.