Are we fighting a "losing battle" with Coping and Tiles?

[jimlum]

Hi,

We have an inground shockrete pool, about 6 years old now.

Last year, we noticed that one of the coping (molded brick-colored, I think) bricks in a bench area near the deep end had a hairline crack (diagnolly to the "length" of the coping brick), and, in some areas on the same side of the pool, we also noticed that there was a hairline crack in the mortar between the coping and the beam.

I know that this is going to sound stupid, but we didn't really think much about that at the time ...

When we opened the pool this year, we noticed that that the crack on that one coping brick had opened up more, and so we called our builder (actually, their 'renovation' department) and asked about getting it replaced.

They sent a fellow over, and when he came by, he brought a long metal rod with him, and, as soon as he came in, he started using the rod to tap the coping and (concrete aggregate) decking around the pool.

After that, he said that it looked like water had gotten under the deck in some areas, and that was causing the deck to lift and cracking the mortar between the coping and beam (and that one coping brick).

Now, we had caulked the expansion joint between the deck and the coping the 1st year after the pool was built, but we hadn't re-caulked since then. He pointed out that in the one section of the deck in the area behind/around the bench, had lifted, and that there were gaps in the caulking between the deck and the coping in that area, so probably that's how the water had gotten under the deck there. He also predicted that tiles in that area would start popping off soon (which they just did last week).

[Again, this is going to sound dumb, but even though we had caulked after the 1st year, we never really understood the purpose of that (I think that I do now !!), so we never paid much attention to it after that.]

He said that they could not replace just that one coping brick, but would have to replace all of the coping, plus all of the tile around the pool !

We'd rather not do the complete re-coping/re-tiling right now (their quote was > $12K for our 22x44 pool with an attached spa).

So, what we've done so far is that we lowered the water to below the tiles, re-attached and re-grouted the tiles that popped out, and then after that, caulked the area between the top of the top tile and the coping all around the pool. We're also going to re-do the caulking in the expansion joint between the deck and the coping all around the pool.

I think that we will eventually have to have the re-coping and re-tiling done at some point, but given that one section of deck is lifting, it seems like it'd make more sense to also re-do (remove and re-lay a new one) the deck (if that is even possible) at the same time.

I have a few questions, so I hope that you all will bear with me:

1) Am I correct above about also having to re-do the deck at the same time as the re-coping and re-tiling?

2) If we do as I mentioned above (caulk between the coping and the top tiles and re-caulk the expansion joint), will we be ok for a few more years? Or, will it cause more serious problems with the pool overall, e.g., damage the beam and/or shell?

3) I guess that I'm still really puzzled about why this is happening. Our pool is built such that the land around the pool slopes down, away from the pool. So, it seems like water shouldn't have flowed under the deck from the surrounding area. But, we also cover our pool with a solid cover during the winter (we're the the Washington, DC metro area), and we drop the water level below the skimmer, so I don't understand how water could have frozen under the deck?

4) I'm also puzzled about how (i.e., the direction) that one coping brick cracked. If you look at it from the top, it looks something like:

DECK
===================
| | /| | | |
| | / | | | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
POOL

I guess that I'm having a hard time "picturing" what's pushing what to cause that crack like that?


Sorry for the long post and all the questions.

Also, if anyone knows of someone that they could recommend for when we eventually get the re-coping and re-tiling (and possibly, new deck) done, I'd appreciate it (again, we're in the DC/Northern VA area).

Thanks,
Jim

[imfignewton]

Just a thought but does the concrete deck touch the pool at any point of its four inch thickness. Some times the concrete deck will be poured and not touch the coping but will be touching the pool bond beam below the coping. This can cause cracking problems with the coping and the tile. This would not be the cause of the heaving pool deck but the heaving and the deck touching the pool shell can. There is no problem just replacing only the brick and tile that you are having a problem with. Just an observation and not a scientific study but I have noticed more coping problems with pools that have a solid cover that covers the coping in freeze thaw areas. Hope this helps

[jimlum]

Just a thought but does the concrete deck touch the pool at any point of its four inch thickness. Some times the concrete deck will be poured and not touch the coping but will be touching the pool bond beam below the coping. This can cause cracking problems with the coping and the tile. This would not be the cause of the heaving pool deck but the heaving and the deck touching the pool shell can. There is no problem just replacing only the brick and tile that you are having a problem with. Just an observation and not a scientific study but I have noticed more coping problems with pools that have a solid cover that covers the coping in freeze thaw areas. Hope this helps

imfignewton,

Right now, the caulking that we put into the expansion joint between the deck and the coping is still there, so we can't really look down into the expansion joint to check of the deck is touching the beam.

Can you clarify what you meant when you said "There is no problem just replacing only the brick and tile that you are having a problem with."?

Did you mean we should be ok just replacing the tiles that fell out and re-doing the caulking in the expansion joint?

Or, did you mean that it should be ok, to re-cope and re-tile the entire pool but not do anything with the deck?

Thanks,
Jim