I appreciate all the insights. I have long been the sole FantaSea guy here. Again, I've seen the most destructive rust on the diagonals, not the angles. But I will look closer. For us, the wedding cake steps get far more use than the ladder. The perpetual leaks from the panels and the hose connections, an annual hunt, seem to do the most damage. Due to winter ice damage I had to reset every coping in late April and early May and there was no rot under them.