I did pretty much the same thing as starplex when building my pool. I have friends in the Houston area with salt/flagstone and they have corrosion. Could be coincidence, but I didn't want to take the chance. Because there's no definite proof on the cause, I think some pool builders in the Houston area will only install suggest salt with brick or preformed copings. From what I gathered, complete submersion of flagstone is ok, but the coping is where the problems lie. I elected not to use salt, so to help get the softer water I added Endure. Have been very happy with it. Since I have natural stone coping (travertine), I choose to seal it. Mine needs to be done every year at the start of pool season, but probably could use it every 6-9 months. I just don't think about noticing it in the winter when I'm not in the pool. Regarding pool equipment - I don't think there's too much of a difference. From what I understood the PB use different equipment b/c they have a contract/bulk price break/hook up to do so. When pressed, all the pool builders claimed the customer service representatives/time to come service equipment is better with the brand that they pushed. However, when I interviewed the PB, I asked if they would be willing to install the other...and all said yes. I second the control system part. Don't quite remember why now, but if memory serves me correctly the Jandy controller that I picked out wouldn't service some function in the other brand of equipment correctly. In this day and age, you'd think that they would all be compatible...but ask before hand just to make sure.

I have some kind of strange flagstone around my pool. It is very wavy and rippled looking. It is literally turning to dust on me. I do not think it has anything to do with the salt pool. It started two winters ago when it rained so much. We were not even using the pool. I sealed it with some stuff called Dek-O-Shield Plus. It worked great. For a month. Then the sealed surface started to debond from the junk stone beneath it. It looks like someone dumped a load of sand into my pool. I have to sweep off the decking around it. Has anyone seen stone like this before? I don't think it is the right kind of stone of pool use. The installers made the comment that all the stone yards were out of stone and this was all they could get. I am about to be up on my 3 year warranty on the pool and am not sure what I can do about. My builder is very dismissive of it, but I think this was a substandard product installed on my pool. Im pretty good a keeping water chemistry in check so I don't think it is that either.

I am a PB in Orlando and I have Raft River Quartzite Gold on my own pool and it is not sealed. I have had the pool for about 6 years now and no problems with the rock. It is a very hard stone that is not porous like a Tennessee flagstone or sandstone. If you sealed the quartzite you could be asking for problems. I have the quartzite on my sunshelf, benches, waterline, and coping. Click on the link if you want to see the photo gallery of my pool. Here is a link that might be useful: Pool with Quartzite rock work.

I have some kind of strange flagstone around my pool. It is very wavy and rippled looking. It is literally turning to dust on me. I do not think it has anything to do with the salt pool. It started two winters ago when it rained so much. We were not even using the pool. I sealed it with some stuff called Dek-O-Shield Plus. It worked great. For a month. Then the sealed surface started to debond from the junk stone beneath it. It looks like someone dumped a load of sand into my pool. I have to sweep off the decking around it. Has anyone seen stone like this before? I don't think it is the right kind of stone of pool use. The installers made the comment that all the stone yards were out of stone and this was all they could get. I am about to be up on my 3 year warranty on the pool and am not sure what I can do about. My builder is very dismissive of it, but I think this was a substandard product installed on my pool. Im pretty good a keeping water chemistry in check so I don't think it is that either.