New Concrete Coping Cracking and Other Issues - HELP!!

14 years ago

After 6 months, our pool is finally finished....Hooray-ish! My concrete coping looks awful!!! I'm not sure if this is something that I can get the pool builder to try and fix or if I will have to live with it until I can afford to get it fixed.

We used it for the first time this weekend and when the coping is wet, I realized that it has hairline cracks (and some larger) ALL around the pool. The coping was poured 4 months ago (in January)! It is supposed to be a dark brown color and is more of an ashy brown with leopard spots. Our pool builder says that the spots will go away (still curing after 4 months I guess), but the color is what it is. It isn't what we picked out but he just shrugged his shoulders and said that colored concreted is unpredictable. The cuts are huge, all the way through the coping and have some gouges and chips. Even with the huge cuts every 3 feet, we have tons of cracks. I think every section has at least one in the middle. Strangely, none of them appear to be near the cuts. My last complaint about the coping is the edge is very rough. The PB used a form but talked us into having him brush the edge to get rid of nail marks. He said this is typical. I really have no idea what to expect or what to expect from him.

This is our first pool. Does anyone have advice? Is heavy cracking normal? Is the PB responsible for fixing this?

Here are a few pics:

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Comments (3)

Speckledhen
14 years ago
My patio is much more simple than yours, but the problems are similar. With mine, the edging and overall finish work was done very poorly, and I also have a few cracks after just two weeks! Fortunately for me, it was the last thing he did and I refused to pay him for the work. He's gone, but now I am left with a gorgeous pool surrounded by an ugly patio that looks like it was done 10 years ago! One piece of advice I will give you: Find out how long the cement truck was at the job site. I was told by a few masons that the concrete has about 90 minutes from the time the truck leaves the cement facility to the time it is poured. Any longer than that and it begins to set up. I called the cement company, gave them my address and who did the job, and they read the info off the "ticket" right to me. They even offered to fax me a copy! In my case, the truck was here for 2 hours and 15 minutes, and the facility was 1/2 hour away. Even if my PB tries to take me to court, this info alone would win my case. Maybe something similar happened to you and you can call the PB on it and have him redo it. Good luck!
teachere
Original Author
14 years ago
We haven't paid our PB the final installment yet, so he won't blow me off when I express my concerns. I am going to call the concrete company tomorrow and see if they can give me any information. I'm worried that the cracks will spread.

Does anyone know what can be done to repair this?
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teachere
Original Author
14 years ago
We haven't paid our PB the final installment yet, so he won't blow me off when I express my concerns. I am going to call the concrete company tomorrow and see if they can give me any information. I'm worried that the cracks will spread.

Does anyone know what can be done to repair this?