Raised Wall Surfacing

17 years ago

I met with a person assisting my in my DIY pool project; I have a 18" raised wall at the back of my pool with 3 shear decents (24"). I wanted to put in a stacked stone (or ledger stone) at the back wall above the pool tile. He indicated that in a year or two the wall will look terribly due to calcification of splashing water. I tend to believe him but wanted to see what others have done here. Can a stone product be sealed to avoid this issue? Is anyone using a nice tile that would give the same effect? We are going with a Tuscan or Mediterranean back yard theme and what to stick with natural stone colors.

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Comments (6)

devildog1989
17 years ago
Stacked stone is fine. Even if you didn't seal it the sheers should not be dribbling down the stone. It will get a little water on the stone when they turn on and off, but if your chems are balanced you won't get any calcium build up on the stone. When you seal it, buy a good quality sealer sold at your local masonry supply warehouse. Do not use the crap from the box stores. Any stone, slate or tile is fine to use. You just have to know how to take care of it.
sd_blarney
17 years ago
We went with stacked stone on a wall that runs the entire length of our pool. People hop out of the pool and sit on top of it, dripping water and all. It is designed as a retaining wall with reefstone on top for sitting. The stacked stone looks great. One thing to remember is that with any smooth surface, if there are streaks or spots made, it will be much more obvious than on an uneven, stacked stone wall. Much easier to maintain, in my opinion, than either tile or stucco. In our pool, where we have a spillover from the hot tub into the pool, we have very obvious streaks on the tile. It looks awful.
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hmlinca
Original Author
17 years ago
Is your stacked stone exhibiting calcium build-up now, if so how long did it take?
serraoj
17 years ago
We have stacked ledger stone on raised beam , two 36" desents and spillover from spa. No discolor on beam, slight
white sheen under spillover on stone. It's been over a year since pool build , no problems, love the stone look.
hmlinca
Original Author
17 years ago
I guess this brings up a good point, is there a way to return the water from the pool with it cascading down the stone and developing calcium build-up. It looks nice but I wonder if there is another way to return spa water to the pool?
conall
17 years ago
If you get calcification on stone, you are going to get it on tile. If that happens, a good scrub brush will take care of it. If the wall you are talking about is a raised beam, you probably already have a notch for stone and are stuck with putting stone in. If you haven't already gotten that far, you can change the notch to accept tile. There are a number of tiles that are nice and some look like stone. In my opinion though, nothing looks as nice as actual stone. Sealing the stone will help, so will maintaining water chemistry.