Should I paint/seal my concrete coping?

[jparr]

I am adding a SWG to my pool, and am concerned that the poured in place concrete coping should be sealed or painted to protect against the corrosive action of the salt. Any thoughts?

 

[JasonLion]

Concrete almost never show any effect from SWG levels of salt.

 

[TGMcCallie]

I am adding a SWG to my pool, and am concerned that the poured in place concrete coping should be sealed or painted to protect against the corrosive action of the salt. Any thoughts?

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I am having my pool remodeled. It is fiberglass walls and they are cutting off the fiberglass coping and cutting back the concrete deck 12 inches and installing concrete coping that will lap over slightly over the fiberglass walls.

What I am doing is decorative spraying 100% acrylic coating to the entire deck including the coping. They will tape off a stone design in the deck and leave the coping solid which will be a darker color than the deck.

Hope this helps.

 

[Guest]

Only if you want to repaint it every couple of years

 

[TGMcCallie]

Only if you want to repaint it every couple of years

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I also do not recommend painting it. There is a acrylic based concrete stain that Sherwin Williams handles as well as Lowes. It is H&C Concrete stain. I used it to finish my concrete front porch and it has been down for 5 years and has not chipped, cracked or pealed. It goes down into the concrete. Regular paint will peal off even if it is the type that you use to paint pool bottom.

Check Sherwin Williams paint store about this.

There is also people who do acid staining that will not come off as well. The acrylic spray that I am using is also permenant.

 

[jparr]

Only if you want to repaint it every couple of years

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I also do not recommend painting it. There is a acrylic based concrete stain that Sherwin Williams handles as well as Lowes. It is H&C Concrete stain. I used it to finish my concrete front porch and it has been down for 5 years and has not chipped, cracked or pealed. It goes down into the concrete. Regular paint will peal off even if it is the type that you use to paint pool bottom.

Check Sherwin Williams paint store about this.

There is also people who do acid staining that will not come off as well. The acrylic spray that I am using is also permenant.

Is it slippery at all? I thought about the acid stains/sealer, but doesn't it result in a gloss finish that would be slick when wet?

 

[Steve456]

I used H&C Concrete Stain on my pool deck. I did not do an acid stain nor did I seal the pool deck. The stain changed the color of the concrete deck. The stain did not change the texture of the concrete deck; the deck is not slippery. It is not a glossy finish.

 

[TGMcCallie]

I used H&C Concrete Stain on my pool deck. I did not do an acid stain nor did I seal the pool deck. The stain changed the color of the concrete deck. The stain did not change the texture of the concrete deck; the deck is not slippery. It is not a glossy finish.

*****************************Yeah, that is exactly what I was talking about. The H&C concrete acrylic stain penetrates the concrete and is a finish that is rough like the concrete. It is not slippery and not glossy. you can use their sealer if you want a glossy finish.

I did my porch and it came out really nice and I have not had to redo it. It has been down 5 years, and still looks great.

Tom

 

[ontherocs]

Do any of you have pictures of the final concrete treatments? Need to do this to our porch since the last owners decided to just slap on regular paint. After these rains, it's shown how dangerously slippery in can get especially if there's a lot of action to and from the pool.

Also, on the concrete coping... We've gotten a couple of acid stains even though we've tried to be super extra careful. Immediately after the spills, with a stiff brush and straight water, I have been able to scrub most of the color change away.

Any suggestions on how to clean and treat the coping to prevent any further stains?

 

[TGMcCallie]

I complely redid my deck and coping. I sealed it with Porter Paint's Color Seal. This did a very good job. I also did my garage floor and driveway with a knockdown finish and used color seal from Porter to finish it. They look great and water will just ball up on top so it has wonderful protection. If you want it to be slip resistant just their shark grip in the finish.

Tom

 

[susa]

> gotten a couple of acid stains even though we've tried to be super extra careful.
> suggestions on how to clean and treat the coping to prevent any further stains?

not directly an answer but my solution to this issue was to install a permanent acid dosing pump and pH sensor, cost around $200 and simple to setup, see my sigline for link

I did not want to lug around acid especially with a SWCG that tends to drift to the alkaline side

 

[ontherocs]

Thanks TG and susa! I had no idea they had pumps for acid. Will definitely have to look into those!

jparr, if you are still looking into stain and seal, here are some links to the products the forum brought up in some of the posts:

Dry Treat
Glaze-N-Seal
Brickform
Dupont
H&C Concrete
Porter Paints

divnkd101 posted picts of the Dry Treat test he performed...looks pretty good:
"Dry Treat" Natural Stone/Flagstone Sealant

Each of the sites above also have some sort of cleaner. Happy researching! Not sure which we will go with yet... so many choices!!

 

[ontherocs]

jparr- since you gave your post the perfect subject line, i'm going to highjack it to document my coping experiment. THANKS!!!

almost a year ago we moved into our home and needed to replaster the existing pool. because of the drama which ensued regarding the quartz finish (New Onyx Quartz Pool Care Suggestions Please), the coping seal was missed. several different types of stains have appeared in the time that has passed:

[attachment=1:1knevysg]copingA.jpg[/attachment:1knevysg]
[attachment=0:1knevysg]copingB.jpg[/attachment:1knevysg]

some of the stains are from adding chemistry to the pool, others are due to leaves sitting on the deck, and others just seem to have appeared for no reason.

the downpours have stopped these last couple weeks and there aren't any more excuses to delay this project. after reviewing the cleaning solutions through the links in my previous post, i felt extremely uncomfortable possibly introducing unknown chemicals to the pool.

i was able to locate a couple of other online resources that provide other cleaning options:

eHow: How to Clean Pool Coping
doityourself: Cleaning Tile Pool Coping and Grout: 4 tips

i am going to attempt the 20% bleach soultion first. if this does not remove all of the stains, then we will rent a power washer. our last ditch effort will be an acid wash. the site listed below provides instructions using the same acid that we use for the pool chemistry:

The Natural Handyman: Muriatic Acid and Cleaning Masonary Surfaces

this will definitely be a last resort as the warnings are slightly scary; although, we are handling this same acid on a regular basis to balance the pool.

i'm feeling much more comfortable with these options since the chemicals are all used in the pool now.

any thoughts, suggestions, or picts of your success stories will be greatly appreciated. i will keep you all up to date with our results.