Poured Concrete Coping/Problems

[Sstone]

We are in the final stages of having our pool built. Seeing how this is my first pool and doing minimal research, I’m not surprised that some things didn’t turn out as expected. Thus the reason I’m here. We opted to have poured concrete coping after looking at 100’s of photo’s of various pools on Houzz. After the coping was poured and didn’t look as we expected, we realized that our expectations weren’t realisitc because the majority of what we had seen and liked was precast. What has been poured appears to be a bit dirty, the edges aren’t as smooth as we would like and is chipped in various places. I’m looking for a some guidance in regard to what has been poured, and what my options are now.

1. Is this how coping should look after it’s poured and does this look like good work?
2. Is there a way to sand/buff the concrete that will give it a cleaner look? If so, what tools/type of company should I have do this work?
3. Should the expansion joints be filled in with caulk or some other filler
4. Would sealing the concrete improve the appearance.
5. Is the chipping around the expansion joints and the cracking normal?


Thanks in advance for your advice/feedback.

 

[kimkats]

That is not the worst pour job I have seen. There is one currently here that is a LOT worse

The "dirty" part should clean up with some bleach,

The chips are normal if the installers are not as skilled as they need to be in knowing when to change their blade and take their time

You do not need to fill in the joints. If you do so be ready to redo it down the road as needed from dirt and the elements. Me? I would NOT fill them in. I would just just a hose jet spray every once in a while to get stuff out of them

Now I want you to google "Polished concrete" and see what you find. It is a process that adds quite a shine to it. The only thing I worry about with it is how slippery it might be. I would ask to feel some and put some water on it to see just how slippery it is in real life. I have many companies in my area (was very surprised) so hope you do as well.

 

[Winger 03]

What Kim said .

 

[Sstone]

That is not the worst pour job I have seen. There is one currently here that is a LOT worse

The "dirty" part should clean up with some bleach,

The chips are normal if the installers are not as skilled as they need to be in knowing when to change their blade and take their time

You do not need to fill in the joints. If you do so be ready to redo it down the road as needed from dirt and the elements. Me? I would NOT fill them in. I would just just a hose jet spray every once in a while to get stuff out of them

Now I want you to google "Polished concrete" and see what you find. It is a process that adds quite a shine to it. The only thing I worry about with it is how slippery it might be. I would ask to feel some and put some water on it to see just how slippery it is in real life. I have many companies in my area (was very surprised) so hope you do as well.

Kim. Thank you for the feedback. That is a little reassuring knowing there are worse jobs out there. I had a feeling that a little clean up would go a long way in regards to the finished product.

 

[sktn77a]

The dirt will wash off. The chipping is fairly common (a dull blade and/or inexperienced operator can cause this) - not much you can do about it.

I would not be happy with those cracked sections in the last two images....................

 

[Liz315]

Look into sand blasting and acid etching. It might fix any imperfections and give it more of a precast texture. Not sure how the cut joints are effected by either.

 

[revitup]

Shouldn’t be cracked already. Nothing will hide that for long.

 

[OrlandoBull]

Aside from the cracks... you could treat it like a concrete countertop to an extent. They make epoxy resin to fill in any holes/imperfections, then you could polish it and make it shine. As Kim noted, it will then be slippery, so you would want to seal it with a sharkgrip or something of that nature. It honestly doesn't look bad though and I wouldn't worry too much about it if it were mine. I agree with the cracks being the biggest concern. Ideally you wouldn't have those already. But, there are two types of concrete in this world... cracked and not cracked yet.

 

[revitup]

Our newly poured deck was very similar. Discolored areas and chips at the cut joints. Ours was all over, not just the coping. It was unacceptable to us and so the PB agreed to Cool Deck coat it at his cost.
Our concrete guy warned though that the two kinds of concrete were new and cracked. Should not have both though. Was that fiber reinforced?

 

[BrittanyV]

I don’t know if the original poster is still watching this thread, but I for one am following closely. Id love to see how it looks today. We are on the path to getting poured coping as well, so this is particularly interesting. Any pointers I can pick up are great!

 

[revitup]

Pointers:
Be sure the concrete is allowed a proper cure time before the grooves are cut. That’s not just a day or two.
Use a top grade fiber reinforced concrete.
Make sure they use a new sharp saw blade.
Consider springing for the extra cost of a Cool Deck type coating. The appearance is like night and day over plain broomed concrete. If we had seen an example of how it looked before we started we’d have gone with it from the beginning.