SWG vs non SWG

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J

jkubaney

0
Aug 2, 2014
3
Austin
Hello....new to the forum (loving it) and soon to be new pool owner.

We have narrowed down our bids to 3 PB in the Austin area. The one item which we have received widely varying opinions is whether to have a SWG system. He have loved our friends pools which have SWG. We plan to have flagstone coping. Long term effects on flagstone and equipment?
 
:wave: Welcome to TFP!!!

Generally best to choose either nature stone or a SWG, not both. Some claim to have no issues with both, but some have the stone falling apart in only a few years (especially the soft flagstone everyone in TX seems to use) ... sealing might help.
 
I've researched this until I'm blue in the face. It is amazing how varying the opinions can be between PBs. One says, "It will kill your unborn child...." and the other say, "I drink SWG water with my dinner." Maybe that is an overstatement, but you get the drift.

We are having a ton of flagstone in our build and so we're staying away from SWG as much as we initially wanted it. I've read opinions from others that say they've had SWG pools with flagstone and have had no problems after 10 years, but I guess I'm just overly cautious.
 
We did travertine when we built our pool and have had no problems with scaling or flaking in two years. We had ours sealed. I have read about problems with flagstone. There was a post recently that had images of some seriously damaged flagstone. Have you thought about a different type of stone? I would not give up my SWCG for anything. It makes pool maintenance way too easy for me.
 
The SWG will make your life and pool time much easier. Flagstone could turn out to be the gold and avocado of the 2010s. But ... it's a personal choice and if you really want the flagstone and you think the design is to die for doing bleach isn't that much work especially if you haven't had a SWG before. ;)
Maybe you could look into stamped and or colored concrete to achieve a stunning look that you know wouldn't be affected by the SWG.
Your money, your pool, your choice.

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Sorry for my poor manners, welcome to the forum :wave:
 

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We went with flagstone coping and a rock water feature, both of which every contractor who gave us a bid said would be negatively affected by the saltwater. We elected to go with chlorine and keep the natural stone because we were really going after a natural look with our pool to fit in to the surrounding elements. That said, I was really on the fence between salt and chlorine anyway so it was an easy choice. Your mileage may vary.
 

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We are in DFW with saltwater and flagstone. Gasp! :)
3 years in and we would absolutely positively do it again. Some of our flagstone is exactly the same, some is eroding a little, some is flaking a little. Nothing is happening to the flagstone that makes me think it won't last 20 or 40 more years. Even after the 9 degree polar vortex last winter that blew up all our faucets and sprinklers and froze our pool equipment. We also have a rock waterfall and nothing is sealed cuz that takes extra work!
 
pooldv said:
We are in DFW with saltwater and flagstone. Gasp! :)
3 years in and we would absolutely positively do it again. Some of our flagstone is exactly the same, some is eroding a little, some is flaking a little. Nothing is happening to the flagstone that makes me think it won't last 20 or 40 more years. Even after the 9 degree polar vortex last winter that blew up all our faucets and sprinklers and froze our pool equipment. We also have a rock waterfall and nothing is sealed cuz that takes extra work!
Click to expand...


We we have an Arizona red flagstone that has been flaking and pitting for a while. Had a hail storm this past spring that really beat it up, knocked loose all the flaky parts. This was all with regular fresh water and chlorination. After that I just switched to a swg because I got tired of adding bleach and I won't be looking back. Also figured my rock is already falling apart might as well enjoy salt water.

While I agree that salt can be a little harder on natural rock I think a lot of the problems are just the nature of the stone.
 
I'm in the Houston area, and have had my pool just over a year. Due to all the information I read about flagstone issues (mostly Oklahoma, and other soft flagstones) and SWG's, I went ahead and used a quartzite stone coping which turns out to be an extremely hard stone. I actually had a couple of the coping stones (bullnose edge, 12" x 24") have a top layer flake off while the pool was still in opening mode (< 1 week from filling) which meant that salt had nothing to do with it since I did not add salt for the first 30 days! I think that is just due to the variation in natural stone. I did not want to worry about sealing (since I know I would get lazy!), or anything else. So far I have zero complaints and love my SWG and stone coping. I am very careful to keep the salt on the low end of the recommended concentration (@3,200 ppm) just to minimize any potential issues.
 
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