Its hard to think that the salt is causing the problem because paint tends to be very impervious. Paint peels and flakes in not salt pools. One of the problems after something is painted, many times you will either need to use the same paint, or completely remove the old paint.

Hi - I think much of the information you will find out there is anecdotal and it will take several more years to see if there really is a problem with the combination. You may have seen my post in another thread regarding this. In that thread I mentioned that I've heard of a couple reputable pool builders in the Dallas-area stop putting salt systems in their pools. The builder that built my pool has stopped putting salt systems in if flagstone is being used anywhere in the pool. I just talked to my builder and he said they think it has to do with how porous the stone happens to be, and this can vary from stone to stone. He also said that the problem they are seeing is not so much corrosion, but more cracking. If the stone is porous enough, it absorbs more salt water, and when the water evaporates the salt that's leftover expands thousands-fold causing the stone to crack. He said the problems they were seeing usually come up within a couple months of start-up so if you've had your pool for a while, maybe you're ok. Just FYI - I have a stacked flagstone weeping wall and I have not seen any cracking or corrosion/erosion on it. We also have flagstone coping and I have seen some flaking off some of the stone, but I think that's normal for this type of flagstone (Oklahoma Flagstone).

We used Oklahoma flagstone coping on our pool we built in late summer 2008. We were not encouraged to seal it by the pool builder since we have a chlorine pool. However, the well water in our town has a high sodium content, so much so that water sprinklers that routinely hit an area, leaves white build up. Over time, it builds up into miniature stalagmites. But I digress. Our Oklahoma flagstone is spalling very prominently in places. It is pronounced in the deep end where kids grasp the coping Has erosion gullies and when wet, becomes very sandy and easily etched. It is etched deeply in some areas, where the polaris pool cleaner wheel gouged a track when it was taken out of the pool. We will be cleaning and sealing it but if I had to do over, I would not go this route again.

Thanks for the reply, womanowned. I fear the state of decrepitude on the flagstone we have has forever soured me on it, so I likely would not use it in our remodel. We've owned the home and pool less than a year, but I would say the flags began to wear to the point of looking very bad years and years ago, not that we have gotten 37 years of good life out of them. Previous repairs/bad mortaring jobs indicate they have been outside their serviceable life for some time. We have a plain chlorine pool, not salt, but I don't know what all the pool has been in the past. Much of the plumbing/pumps/filter are all fairly recent, so may have been part of a previous overhaul. Might post some photos tonight just so everyone can see what 37 year old flagstone looks like. :) If anyone else has a comment about the epoxy fix, I would sure appreciate it! Thanks!