Repairing Concrete Decking and Coping

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kevin007

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Apr 26, 2018
29
Orlando
Hi all, first post so please be nice. Hope I posted this in the right forum.

Here is my situation: I just purchased a home built in 1954 and I have been told the pool is original to the home. It was re-tiled and resurfaced about 15 years ago and those aspects are in pretty good shape. There are a few things I would like to do outside of the pool. Hopefully I can do this myself.

1) The coping needs some attention. Overall it's in salvageable shape, but I need to patch up a few cracks in the coping, and fill in the corners where it meets the deck where weeds are currently growing. What should I use to fill in small cracks on the top of the coping, and what should I use for the joints? Caulk, cement? Brand preferences?

2) The decking is also original to the home and it's just concrete. It has a few pretty severe cracks since they didn't install enough joints way back in the day. How can I address this? I was thinking of taking an angle grinder to the rough parts of the crack and then smoothing out the un-level parts with concrete. But I am sure you guys will have some better ideas.

3) Fence. I need one due to having small children. Any tips on this? So far I got a quote for those nylon ones that have posts every 3 ft but I am wondering if there are better solutions out there.

4) Fence holes. There are a ton of holes from previous fences. What is the best technique and product to use to fill these in?

5) Looking at my pictures, do you have any other ideas for the pool? Fun improvement ideas, recommended accessories, anything else that needs to be fixed, etc?

I have a ton of other renovations ongoing so the pool has been sort of an afterthought. I currently have a pool service maintaining it, but they are not very good so I will eventually want

Thanks in advance for your help!

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Hi Kevin and welcome to TFP.

First of all, you seem like an avid DIYer. I try to pretend I am, but sometimes discover I'm not quite as handy as I think I am, especially on large tasks. I had the EXACT same situation, ancient decking with cracks, etc. I was determined to put down pavers or stones over a sand bed but after trying it on a 200 sqft area I gave up. I looked around, found a company with great Google reviews and went with them. The cost was great and we are beyond ecstatic with how it came out. This is the company, not as an exact suggestion, but look at their pictures and what a company like this can do. Unique Concrete Design LLP - Concrete Contractor, Decorative Concrete: Greenville, SC: Unique Concrete Design, LLP They can make the surface look just about anyway you want, real stones, uniform, etc.

The reason I advocate work like this so strongly is that it took anywhere between 2-8 guys every day working from 8-5 for 5 days to get it done and it is 10x better than I ever could have done on my own. I realize everyone isn't made of money and we aren't either but man I'm glad we did it.

Sorry none of that answers any of your actual questions :)

I will add that the best investment for your pool is actually a test kit and taking care of your pool yourself. You'll probably save enough money to pay for the pool deck in 5-10 years doing that alone.

Glad to have you here.

2. The guys that did mine did use a big angle grinder on the cracks. All of them.
 
Mr Bruce said:
Hi Kevin and welcome to TFP.

First of all, you seem like an avid DIYer. I try to pretend I am, but sometimes discover I'm not quite as handy as I think I am, especially on large tasks. I had the EXACT same situation, ancient decking with cracks, etc. I was determined to put down pavers or stones over a sand bed but after trying it on a 200 sqft area I gave up. I looked around, found a company with great Google reviews and went with them. The cost was great and we are beyond ecstatic with how it came out. This is the company, not as an exact suggestion, but look at their pictures and what a company like this can do. Unique Concrete Design LLP - Concrete Contractor, Decorative Concrete: Greenville, SC: Unique Concrete Design, LLP They can make the surface look just about anyway you want, real stones, uniform, etc.

The reason I advocate work like this so strongly is that it took anywhere between 2-8 guys every day working from 8-5 for 5 days to get it done and it is 10x better than I ever could have done on my own. I realize everyone isn't made of money and we aren't either but man I'm glad we did it.

Sorry none of that answers any of your actual questions :)

I will add that the best investment for your pool is actually a test kit and taking care of your pool yourself. You'll probably save enough money to pay for the pool deck in 5-10 years doing that alone.

Glad to have you here.

2. The guys that did mine did use a big angle grinder on the cracks. All of them.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Mr. Bruce. Could you tell me what kind of solution your concrete guys delivered? Do you have any pictures? What's a reasonable price per sf? Thanks!
 
They ground all the uneven surfaces flat, even the edges of the coping that overhang the pool. They then filled the cracks with some sort of epoxy I believe? There were some really chewed up bits around the backwash drain they fixed up very nicely. I'm not sure what they filled the old diving board holes with? They then covered everything, including the coping edges with Cool Deck or a cool deck type material. They then "drew" stones in the surface and stained them individually.

Sunday is my day to take the pool from "Open but ugly" to "Summertime TFP Presentable" so I will take lots of pictures them. I have been meaning to add my glowing reviews to the other Google reviews anyway. It was $5.50/SF, that might be Greenville $ and not Orlando $
 
Kevin,

It seems you have a lot of sinking on your broken deck. Before you fix the cracks, you need to fix the underlying problem of shifting, sinking, etc. Dependingon where you equipment is, you need to watch out for pipes...what type of soil do you have? Do the homes in your area have foundation problems?
 
If you want to DIY it on the cheap and on the quick, I would recommend painting it. It will look 100x nicer overnight.

We have a similar tired old concrete deck that we painted. Here's a before and after picture of painting the deck.
Pool deck before + after - Album on Imgur
You can see the original concrete color in the walkway of the "after" picture. It hadn't been painted yet.

Do that, paint the coping a different color, or a darker shade of the same color, and it will really clean up the space.

This is the product we used: H C® COLORTOP™ Water-Based Solid Color Concrete Stain - Homeowners - Sherwin-Williams
 
kevin007 said:
Thanks, Mr. Bruce. Could you tell me what kind of solution your concrete guys delivered? Do you have any pictures? What's a reasonable price per sf? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Super late to this, but here you go Imgur: The magic of the Internet

It was about $5.50/sq ft. I thought it was an excellent price for what we got.

Let us know what you end up with.
 
Mr Bruce said:
Super late to this, but here you go Imgur: The magic of the Internet

It was about $5.50/sq ft. I thought it was an excellent price for what we got.

Let us know what you end up with.
Click to expand...

I had the same problems when I bought my home 20 years ago; concrete deck and so so coping. The deck I actually cut out bad sections, added gravel, and refilled with concrete and brushed to match the texture. Went much better then expected. Believe it or not I used an old black and decker circular saw with a diamond blade, although I recommend an actual concrete saw.
The coping repair I used bondo then painted to match the existing color. Still holding up after 20 years some how.
 
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