Coping

[Dogmom1]

Hello, has anyone heard of using stainless steel coping for a fiberglass pool? We are having a rectangle fiberglass pool installed with under track auto cover and the pool company states with rectangle under track autocover pools they typically use stainless steel rather than foam form concrete. They say they do this because it is a simpler installation and leaves a smooth face that connects directly to the undertrack rail. They said by doing this I don’t have to worry about rough concrete coping or chipping concrete on the pool edges. Has anyone heard of this? We were leaning towards paying $$$$ extra for paver stone coping because I was worried about the concrete cracking but not sure if this is much of a concern with the stainless steel. Or is stainless steel is a bad idea?!?

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Uhm?? I've never heard of stainless coping for normal fiberglass pools? I can't say I'd want stainless steel rather than stone, cement or tile coping.

Maddie

 

[spd500]

Not sure about your area, but here in Houston that stainless coping will cause some pretty serious burns about 9-10 months out of the year.

 

[gingrbredman]

Weren't you looking for some information on an auto cover for a freeform pool earlier? Not a lot of members roaming round these parts from Illinois, and FB pools, and auto covers, so I thought it had to be you.

For my FB pool, with an auto cover, we used some coping pavers made by UniLock. With a rectangle pool, that should be crazy easy. Check out my under construction thread for some pictures.

But, if you are going with a concrete deck around the pool, I would either use the pre-cast concrete coping stones, or have them pour the coping with the forms. With a rectangle fiberglass pool, with the auto cover tracks, I for sure wouldn't even think about a stainless steel coping material. Really, I have never heard of it, but not even sure how it would look.

And, while we aren't in Houston here, Illinois can have a stretch of temps that will toast a patio (not 9-10 months for sure), and stainless steel all around the pool would be especially hot IMO.

 

[bmoreswim]

Calling stainless steel coping an outlier would be generous. I’ve never seen it.

 

[Dogmom1]

Yes, that was me! I feel lost and appreciate any advice! I only know one person in the area with a pool – they had their pool built by a different company and also had some kind of metal coping placed. they were told that their auto cover company wouldn’t warrantee the auto cover unless it was metal. I had them send me a picture to see what they meant and the metal goes from the auto cover tracks at the side of the pool and stops once it gets near the top of the pool deck. From there on out it is concrete. In my entire neighborhood there is only one in ground pool, so there are not a lot of people around here for me to get advice from. Thank you!

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Wanna share that picture? Are you talking coping that goes entirely around the edge of the pool, or are you talking about a metal cover over the pit where the cover sits??

You need to talk to some autocover businesses specifically. Get the word from the horses mouth, so to speak. No one here with an autocover is aware of this requirement.

Maddie

 

[bmoreswim]

Or perhaps like the aluminum edge sometimes found on a cantilever concrete deck for a vinyl pool. It’s basically like a form but doesn’t get removed.

 

[Dogmom1]

After all that... the pool rep said he misspoke and said he meant to say aluminum coping is standard. For concrete there would be an up charge. It looks like there are lots of differing opinions on here about the longevity of concrete vs aluminum coping so now I just have something else to drive myself crazy over Thanks for all the advice!!