Corner coping piece has become dislodged

[wayner]

Late last year a piece of coping became detached. I didn't bother fixing it until this season. It is by my stairs and I think part of the problem is that about 1/3 of the coping sits on the stairs which are made from something like plastic or vinyl and the mortar for the stone became detached. Part of the mortar essentially started to flake as you can see by the screwdriver. My pool deck material is limestone stones that were individually cut into place and the coping is also limestone that had a bullnose for the part over the pool..

How does one fix this? Chisel out the old mortar and mix up some new mortar? Is there something to be aware of? If it matters my pool is saltwater. I live in Toronto so the pool is seasonal and there will be hard freezing over the winter.

 

[ajw22]

Chisel out the old mortar and mix up some new mortar?

Yup, type S mortar.

Is there something to be aware of? If it matters my pool is saltwater.

No.

I live in Toronto so the pool is seasonal and there will be hard freezing over the winter.

Keep the joint lines on your deck filled so water does not get under the stone and freeze and pop up stones.

 

[wayner]

Thanks. The joint lines are sand so water definitely gets between the flagstone and under. The stones heave so that every few years I have to get them relevelled. The stones also crack, especially where they have holes drilled for anchors for my cover. And weeds grow in the joint lines as well.

Flagstone looks nice but it was very expensive as each stone is custom cut by a mason and there are these maintenance issues. If I were starting over I wouldn't use this for my decking material.

 

[wayner]

Revisiting this thread as I have yet to fix this piece. How much of the old mortar should I be chiselling out? There would be about a 1 inch depth if I took it all out.

Should I try to take it all out, or should I just try to take out about half the much so that there is enough for the new mortar to bind to?

Any other advice on how to fix this so that the repair lasts and I am not doing it again in a year or two? It looks this could be a continual problem as about 1/3 of the base for the stone is the pre-fab step which the mortar probably won't adhere to very well.