Older Coping Not Flush With Pool Deck

Feb 14, 2012
44
Hi All,

Long time lurker, first time poster. Just bought a house with a pool last summer and have found this site incredibly helpful, thanks for all the information. I am thinking about taking the leap this summer with a baqua-to-chlorine converstion, and I will make sure to take lots of pics for y'all!

I am posting to ask a different question, though, about the pool coping that we ha round our pool. I wasn't left with too much information about the pool when buying the house but I would guess that the pool, and coping are original to the house (1968) and the liner was replaced in the 90's (liner is still good).

My issue is that there is a gap between the coping and old concrete pool deck that really bothers me. I worry that someone will go to jump into the pool and catch a toe or foot and really hurt themselves so I would like to know what options you guys can offer.

Would it be possible/feasible to :

1. Replace the coping to be flush with the pool deck OR
2. Do a new concrete pool deck to raise the level so that it is flush with the coping.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts/advice! I atatched a very bad picture, but you'll probably get the idea...

poolcoping.jpg
 
I apologize I don't have pics taken during the work. I had the same problem. My pool is even older than yours!

In the picture below you can tell the deck was pulled away from the coping, and there was mortar missing. Most of the coping was loose and dangerous. I had a crew fix mine. They pulled up ALL of the coping, concrete sawed out all the base concrete since it was all brittle, put a new concrete base in, then reset all the coping. They also cut out the loose mortar in the deck and refilled. It's now solid, and looks great. My fear was that someone was going to step on the coping and have it give way.

They did this a couple of weeks ago. It made a heck of a mess in my pool but it was worth it.

As far as it not being level with the deck, it's never been a problem.

pool1.jpg
 
Thanks Robbie, lol sometimes I forget that there are pools that are open in February.

What I find strange with mine is that it almost seems like it was designed like this because it is a similar gap all the way around the pool - although I realize the concrete may have just settled evenly.

I am very new to all this stuff, and barely had enough time after buying the house time to learn how to close the pool before the winter...so I haven't had too much time to investigate, or to learn how the coping is attached to the liner.

I am pretty sure (but not positive) that the coping is aluminum.

Do you think that maybe the coping style is old and I could simply purchase new coping that would be safer and more flush, or is this more of a pool deck project?
 
I believe yours was, mine was designed that way too. I think it was pretty popular in the 50s and 60s. I'm just saying I fixed all mine and left the lip. I have a lot of family parties here and we've never had a problem with anyone catching their feet in the lip. We don't let them run around the pool though, the tile is very slippery.
 
Thanks, much appreciated. Can someone help me with the "how it works" of pool coping? Let's say I wanted to modernize just the coping. Would it be as simple as just removing it and replacing it with a newer version...that might be more flush? Or would it include removing additional pool pieces/liner, and doing rennovations to the pool deck adjacent to the coping?
 
Thanks for the thread, I'll read through it tonight. To answer your question, I don't believe the water level is above the pool deck although it looks close in the pics I posted. Pool is closed for the winter now and water is low, but I can uncover a corner and take some close-up pics to post this weekend. I'll take some measurements too to make sure. I have included the pics I have from the summer, which are better quality than the original pics but not specifically of the coping/liner.

Thanks for helping!

pool3.jpg


pool2.jpg


pool1.jpg
 
I believe it is aluminum, would that make sense for the 60's?

Thanks for the compliment about the deck, mod, my wife loves it too. I am too picky and don't like how the flagstone is uneven...but realize lots of people like this style.
 

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Aluminum huh? I'm new to that style. Jason Lion replaced his but his was embedded in the concrete. Do you have any local PBs you could talk to for ideas? If you're willing to replace the miner you could remove and the. Do whatever cleanup is needed on the bond beam and then mount a new bead track for the new liner and then lay new coping over the bond beam - you could do canti-levered cement or bricks or flagstone. But at first. Lush it looks like you'd be taking down the top part of the pool that's above the deck. Have to loo at your skimmer setup too.
 
Thanks for the responses. I think I am leaning towards bringing out a PB, just wanted to check with the forum first to hear some thoughts.

I want to limit costs as much as possible, and had a feeling that I would be starting a snowball project and since I am so new to the pool world I wasn't sure where to start. I'd prefer to not change the liner...yet. Really, besides minor cosmetic stuff around the pool, I just was hoping to get rid of that ugly raised coping (It's really so ugly-it's got this chipped gold finish that I wish you could make out better in the picture). Sounds like coping is not just a "replace" type project and more of a "replace a bunch of parts" type project.
 
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