"Salt Damage" to Cool decking - opinions?

[Melt In The Sun]

OK, a little background: we bought a foreclosure in September with a salty swamp, which the bank drained and filled but did not add salt. We have been using BBB for the past ~7 months, on and off considering putting salt in the pool and giving the SWG a try.

Attached below are pictures of the cool decking around the steps of the pool. A coworker of mine has a salt pool with destroyed cool decking, and blames it on the crystallization of salt from splash-out. With our pool, the damage is only present around the steps and the solar cover reel - locations that obviously correlate with lots of pool water on the deck.

I figure this is the result of some combination of three things:
-actual salt damage that would not occur without high salt levels
-normal deterioration/weathering of cool decking
-crappy application of the cool deck coating

The pool/decking are at most 5 years old, probably more like 3 or 4. What is the normal lifespan of properly applied cool deck? What are my options for fixing this and increasing the lifespan of that fix? I would like to use the SWG, but without side effects like this.

I know there are several threads already concerning the potential for salt damage in improperly sealed stone, concrete, etc. I don't want to resume the beating of those dead horses, just looking for some opinions of those with experience and a solution to my issue. Thanks!
Danny

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[Guest]

Looks like poor prep/application to me. I'd be doubtful salt had much, if any, affect on this.

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Anybody else have any opinion(s)? Poor installation certainly seems possible. The coating is a max of about 1/8" thick in most places, and that seems very thin to me. Is it normally thicker? :?:

If it's an application issue I'll just go ahead and vacuum up all the cool deck chips, add the salt, and forget about it for now.

 

[DaveNJ]

I have kooldeck thats about 1/4" thick. Its chipped off in spots on th edges. I've also been running a salt system for 5 years. Haven't noticed any problem around the pool. The chips are spots that didn't bond well to the concrete.

 

[Aquaman95]

I agree, that's poor surface prep.

 

[GarryinAZ]

I have about 1000 sq ft of cool decking all around my salt pool. I've had zero issues with salt water causing any kind of problems. I don't even get staining. My salt levels are around 3500. I'd say the cool decking you have was poorly done.
Good luck,
Garry

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Well, that's the best answer that I could have hoped for. Thanks everyone!