Pool Decking Question

[Trey9007]

Since having my 16x32 Vinyl IG pool installed last year, Ive started noticing little things in other pools I see. On about 80% of the pools I see, the concrete pool decking around the pool will have what I think are called, slab dividers, installed. They are usually wood or white vinyl strips place in the lines of the concrete. I see them used in other areas besides pool decking, but most of the decks around pools have them. I didnt have them installed in my decking, and am wondering what is the purpose of these dividers.

Are they cosmetic, structual, or what?


Thanks!

 

[jjwalker]

They're called expansion joints, and they come in all forms, shapes, sizes and materials. As concrete heats and cools it expands and contracts, and the expansion joints allow the concrete to move, shift, heave without cracking or buckling. If you laid concrete with fiber mixed in it, some finishers won't put expansion joints. If it did not have fiber, they probably screwed up. Or, they may have laid aluminum exp joints which sometimes are covered up by the pour and you don't see them. In that case you will typically get hairline cracks (which are not structural) where the joints are.

Hope this helps

 

[gwegan]

What you are seeing are expansion joints or control lines. All put in to allow the deck to move without cracking.


Without seeing a picture of your pool and knowing the concrete that was poured and whether it was reenforced with rebar its impossible to say if you have a problem.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Another thing he might be seeing is thin plastic covered drains. I have them on long stretches to drain any water from the deck away. About 1 inch wide over a plastic trench within the cement,