Coping-travertine or concrete?? Decision for tomorrow

[Jenfromok]

I want travertine and know i will have to seal it since we are doing salt. I am wavering back and forth to just do the concrete Coping.

Question- for those that have salt with travertine, any regrets?

 

[trbvm]

We are putting in a salt water pool with travertine coping. I don't have experience, but I have read that sealing it with Stonetech sealer (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008CR12V4) helps...

 

[jv92red]

I have un-sealed travertine coping and salt and have no problems or regrets so far. Pool was built in 2013 so will be the 2 year anniversary in about two weeks. No visable signs of any issues. And I have a Aquapure EI system that requires a higher salt level than most systems so I've been running at about a 4,500ppm salt level. I asked the builder about sealing the coping when the pool was built and he said there won't be any issues. He said that I would actually have an issue sealing it as it could make it slippery.

If your going to do a travertine I would recommend going with a 2" thick (5cm) travertine. This is a link of what I have on my pool:
https://www.msistone.com/pool-copings-caps-treads/tuscany-beige-5cm-pool-coping/

Here is a pic of my pool during the build. Before filled, then shortly after.
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w267/jv92red/P1030438.jpg

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w267/jv92red/P1030475.jpg

 

[chiefwej]

I know what I would do, but I hesitate to advise you.

My pool builder said "salt or stone, pick either one, but you can't have both". My pool was designed and built as a salt pool, with no stone of any kind anywhere. No coping, just a cantilever edge concrete deck, and even that has a textured acrylic coating protecting it. Nothing anywhere for the salt to damage.

Travertine is not one of the very soft porous stones like flag stone, but all stone is subject to salt damage. Sealer will slow, but not prevent salt from eroding stone. In hot dry climates the salt damage is worse, so at least that's in your favor. Your pool, your choice.

 

[Jenfromok]

Jv92red- do you think the bullnose is worth the extra money? We were going to go with straight edge.

 

[Dreynolds]

We are having travertine coping and deck with saltwater installed on our new pool. We live in south Florida. A lot of the pools here have it. And I just love the look.

 

[chiefwej]

We are having travertine coping and deck with saltwater installed on our new pool. We live in south Florida. A lot of the pools here have it. And I just love the look.

With the rains you have in Florida, it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[txnole]

Florida SWG pool... Sealed travertine... No regrets.

 

[jv92red]

Jv92red- do you think the bullnose is worth the extra money? We were going to go with straight edge.

Hard to say. Depends on how much your builder will charge you to bullnose it then you can decide from there. The coping I went with linked in my post above was a upgraded travertine that comes already bullnosed. I believe it was maybe ~1k? upgrade to Travertine from bullnosed brick that my builder provides as standard offering. Regarding the feel of bullnosed coping I'm sure that most here would agree that it sure is nice to have a smooth surface to have pressed up against you while your trying to exit the pool without any steps or shelf to assist you. But the straight edge is still very attractive and I'm sure you'll be very happy with it.

Upon further look at your other build thread, I see that the travertine your looking at does not have any fill or little if any as far as I can tell. The Travertine in the link above that I used is mostly epoxy filled so while there are still some areas for the salt to get in and start to erode away, the surface is mostly very smooth, you can say its almost a honed finish. This is why my builder said not to seal it as it would be slippery. The travertine your going with would not suffer the same issues sealed as it's very porous.

 

[Jenfromok]

Thank you for the information. My builder did not charge me to upgrade to travertine which is unheard of around here. It would be $500 to upgrade to bullnose though.

 

[apapaz2]

I am doing straight edge travertine, here is a pic of how it looks on my build. May help you decide. I think the thicker stone would have been nice, but so was saving a bit of coin. I used 1.25 inch travertine.