Guys...
This site has been a wealth of information and finally, after 7 months of waiting and planning , ground was broke for my mountain lake today. I am going for the natural look, and am considering doing stone coping on the pool myself as my builder doesn't do it in-house, and I haven't found any examples around that I liked (natural look is not popular here). My builder is going to backfill with gravel, and pour a collar flush with the top of the steel wall, with concrete columns going from the collar to the footer every 6-8 feet. Is this overkill? I plan on attaching TN crab orchard (gray) over the steel wall & collar. With there being a partial steel surface involved is there anything special about the mortar I need to use? My pool builder also wants to leave rebar hanging from the collar so that when the concrete deck is poured up to the coping, it will all be joined together. Is this a good idea, or do I need an expansion joint between the two? Is the crab orchard a good choice (hard to find anything else locally...but 1 stone yard has just enough PA bluestone to do it)? How do you professionals do it? I am open to any and all suggestions!!!Thanks in advance....