Does salt water make a pool deck more slippery?

[woodcac]

I had a SW pool put in last June and was very unsatisfied with how slippery the pool deck would be once it got wet. I thought it was the type of concrete (salt finish) but after talking to a concrete overlay contractor he said that the salt water would make the deck more slippery then chlorine. Does anyone else have this problem and if so were you able to fix it? The overlay options run around $4-$7 a sqft and I have thought about converting to a choline pool rather then spend the money on the overlay.
I was also told that the salt water is bad for the OK flag stone coping. After we have been in the pool for a while our swim suite will start to get brown from the coping. There is also a lot of sediment from the stone on the pool on a regular basis. I have looking into sealing the coping but have had mixed reviews on how it works.

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

Your concrete contractor does not know much about pool chemistry. A SWG pool IS a chlorine pool. I have never heard of the little extra salt in the water making a deck more slippery.

It is true that the higher salt levels can damage soft stone, especially the soft OK flagstone that all you Texans seem to use on your pools. You definitely need to seal the coping often, I would think whether it is a SWG pool or not.

 

[Killer95Stang]

I have a 1000 sq ft of unsealed concrete around my Salt Water "Chlorine" pool and it is anything but slippery. Instead of an overlay... just have your concrete sealed and have them add the sharkbite type additive. That will give the concrete a fresh look, plus your slipperiness problems will be gone for a lot less money.

 

[JasonLion]

Some finishes are slippery when wet, others aren't. It has nothing at all to do with salt in the water or not. It is easy and relatively inexpensive to add a traction coating to the surface, though it will change the appearance.

 

[pooldv]

My rocksalt finished concrete deck is not slippery at all. The concrete guy must have floated the finish too smooth before salting it. That is really the only way it could be slippery. +1 that saltwater cannot make the pool deck more slippery than fresh water. But, I suppose you could test it by hosing it down with the water hose to see if it is still slippery.

As for rock sediment in the pool, it sounds to me like it might be some sandstone. One of the rocks in our waterfall is sandstone and it deposits some sediment in the pool. None of our OK flagstone does and we seem to have three different flavors of flagstone, pitting, flaking and saltwater proof. Although none of them is wearing enough in 3 years to cause me any alarm or regret.

 

[woodcac]

Do you have any suggestions on products to use to seal the coping?

Thanks

 

[pooldv]

I don't seal our rock. But do a search in the top right corner, there have been a lot of threads about sealing rock here. Including some recent ones in the last month or so.