Every single section of new coping cracked within 3 months

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L

lgn2

Member
Aug 25, 2022
5
Los Angeles, CA
Hello, I see from other posts that this isn't uncommon. I'm hoping this community can help us decide what to do. All 37 segments of new pour in place coping had a stress crack near the middle of the segment, starting at the bullnose and ranging from 6" to the full width, within three months. We aren't construction savvy enough to know if this was the result of a poor mix, humidity, or a problem with the expansion joints. The company is local, reputable, fully licensed, and been in business since the 70's. We have been attempting to get them to come evaluate the cracks since June. They say they can come look at them next week, but all they can do is "fill in all those regions with the same color cement". They're saying "all pour in place concrete cracks". We are skeptical that this isn't a bigger issue given how quickly the cracks appeared and that every single segment cracked in an almost uniform way. (This company also defaced the entire length of our coping with a power washer on the last day of construction, and then the wire brush used to attempt to fix that issue with an acid wash fell apart and hundreds of little wire bristles rusted to the bottom of the brand new white plaster and were scattered all over the decking. We considered both of those issues sort of fixed to the best of their ability, but we no longer trust them.) Should we: A. Drop the whole thing and live with the cracks B. Have them come and do what sounds like a cosmetic fix, which will likely make where the cracks are more visible/ugly or C. Immediately file a complaint with the Contractors State Licensing Board and hope they send an expert to evaluate if the work is up to industry standard or not and require the contractor to remedy any substandard work. We took out a home loan to renovate this pool and it's heartbreaking that it's been one issue after the other, and for the cost it should have looked good for longer than a month or two. I will include photos of the wire bristles and the power washer marks just for reference, and then a small selection of the coping cracks. Thank you in advance for any advice or options you have, we truly appreciate you taking the time.

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Welcome to TFP.

I think it is hard to complain about concrete cracking. That is what concrete does. That is why many folks go with precast coping.
 
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ajw22 said:
Welcome to TFP.

I think it is hard to complain about concrete cracking. That is what concrete does. That is why many folks go with precast coping.
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Thank you for your reply, Allen! One vote for "A"! Our concern was how quickly and extensively it cracked and that it's continuing to worsen. If the cracks were to stay just as they are then we're good with walking away. The company is coming on Friday to look at them.
 
I would be upset at the cracks so early too. I’d also be really worried about the cosmetic fix making it more obvious.

Our top two builders only offered precast concrete or stone coping so I don’t know much about poured coping other than it can look great too. But we did have poured decking sections and I recall there was a concrete waiver form needed to sign off on regarding cracks. We also saw a newly finished build with poured deck prior to ours and I didn’t see any cracks in their concrete (I thought it looked awesome) but someone else there starting pointing out to us all the cracks and I realized there were a lot, it just wasn’t noticeable to us as guests. I was inspecting their deck closely too because of the upcoming build.

But are the bristles still in the plaster as in the pic? That to me is a bigger issue. I do not know the process for dealing with the contractors board but the plaster issue is completely unusual unlike concrete and if pursuing that issue, then I’d include both.
 
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I'm a bit confused here, the contractors acid washed and power washed the cement. This is normal practice but what were they trying to fix, and use a wire brush for?
In my experience a wire brush usually drops its bristle if its old. I.e left wet or laying around in the pick up, weather, etc. The wire rusts inside the wood or plastic and it falls out. No right or wrong there but if it was shedding and they still kept using in and washed the steel bristles into the pool, well that's almost neglect bordering stupidity. Blind Fredy can guess that they will rust in water and cause marks on the pools surface.

My concrete coping has expansion foam around the skimmer box, to help eliminate cracking. Mine is also a bit thinker than yours being 5" at the nose and 4" at the deck and has reo bar running through it. It begs the question though if your concrete coping is sitting on top of the pool's shell, why is it cracking from nosing to back. Would a crack nose to back suggest the coping is moving up or down either side of the crack? Don't think that's a likely scenario.

So if it has cracked in every segment however, perhaps its more a curing issue. Maybe the cement went down too wet, wrong strength, or cured to fast and its cracking is the bi product of that. Still not a good out come but may be the reason why.

I was advised by a PB not to do concrete coping as it will crack. Maybe we are both in the same boat. I do think however the concretor accepts his work cracks and thats that. The consumer pays good money for a product with a certain look and finish. Its not sold to you it will crack, discolour if not sealed, or required sealing every 18 months, or may even change colour when sealed.

Keep us posted how you go.
 
For the bristles, run to Lowes, HD, or Harbor Freight and get a magnetic pickup brush. It will easily pick all of that up so it doesn't go any farther with regards to staining. Cleaners won't pick it up - too small and heavy for the suction to grab everything.

A good solution for the cracks would be to have them fill them in, and then get a coating applied over the concrete. Kool Deck looks great and is flexible, so you shouldn't have to worry about the cracks reappearing.
 
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PoolBrews said:
For the bristles, run to Lowes, HD, or Harbor Freight and get a magnetic pickup brush. It will easily pick all of that up so it doesn't go any farther with regards to staining. Cleaners won't pick it up - too small and heavy for the suction to grab everything.

A good solution for the cracks would be to have them fill them in, and then get a coating applied over the concrete. Kool Deck looks great and is flexible, so you shouldn't have to worry about the cracks reappearing.
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Kool Deck! Got it! Will look into it right away. Thank you so much! (The bristles were all cleaned up by the company, or at least mostly since I did find a handful after the fact.)
 
Cena_sea said:
I would be upset at the cracks so early too. I’d also be really worried about the cosmetic fix making it more obvious.

Our top two builders only offered precast concrete or stone coping so I don’t know much about poured coping other than it can look great too. But we did have poured decking sections and I recall there was a concrete waiver form needed to sign off on regarding cracks. We also saw a newly finished build with poured deck prior to ours and I didn’t see any cracks in their concrete (I thought it looked awesome) but someone else there starting pointing out to us all the cracks and I realized there were a lot, it just wasn’t noticeable to us as guests. I was inspecting their deck closely too because of the upcoming build.

But are the bristles still in the plaster as in the pic? That to me is a bigger issue. I do not know the process for dealing with the contractors board but the plaster issue is completely unusual unlike concrete and if pursuing that issue, then I’d include both.
Click to expand...
The bristles and the staining are mostly gone. They used acid and a magnetic brush. I included the other problems because it was the foundation for us not trusting the work or their judgement. The company recommended pour-in-place so we took their recommendation. Hind sight is 20/20... would have gone with precast. You are correct, the cracks are way more noticeable to us than any one else. We're good with walking away if it's not going to lead to much bigger cracks before the year is out. I will update after a meeting today.
 
Jaffles said:
I'm a bit confused here, the contractors acid washed and power washed the cement. This is normal practice but what were they trying to fix, and use a wire brush for?
In my experience a wire brush usually drops its bristle if its old. I.e left wet or laying around in the pick up, weather, etc. The wire rusts inside the wood or plastic and it falls out. No right or wrong there but if it was shedding and they still kept using in and washed the steel bristles into the pool, well that's almost neglect bordering stupidity. Blind Fredy can guess that they will rust in water and cause marks on the pools surface.

My concrete coping has expansion foam around the skimmer box, to help eliminate cracking. Mine is also a bit thinker than yours being 5" at the nose and 4" at the deck and has reo bar running through it. It begs the question though if your concrete coping is sitting on top of the pool's shell, why is it cracking from nosing to back. Would a crack nose to back suggest the coping is moving up or down either side of the crack? Don't think that's a likely scenario.

So if it has cracked in every segment however, perhaps its more a curing issue. Maybe the cement went down too wet, wrong strength, or cured to fast and its cracking is the bi product of that. Still not a good out come but may be the reason why.

I was advised by a PB not to do concrete coping as it will crack. Maybe we are both in the same boat. I do think however the concretor accepts his work cracks and thats that. The consumer pays good money for a product with a certain look and finish. Its not sold to you it will crack, discolour if not sealed, or required sealing every 18 months, or may even change colour when sealed.

Keep us posted how you go.
Click to expand...
Sorry for the confusion. If you see the top pic of the coping that looks streaky/blotchy, that was the result of the first power wash they did on the last day of construction. You can see the straight lines caused by the washer being on too high of a setting. The wire brush was an attempt to fix the streaks and blotches, which it did enough so that it wasn't so unsightly. Then they had to come back because the loose bristles caused another huge problem. They cleaned up the bristles and removed the staining. Then the pool light popped out and they came to fix that, which is when we noticed all the cracks. This was all in the first few weeks. I wanted to include it so there was context as to why we no longer trusted the company. I do think it was a curing issue but I'm not sure. We have a meeting today, I'll update the post after that. We're ok with living with cracks if the coping isn't going to continue to deteriorate at a rapid pace.
 
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