I hate the coping on the spa!!!!

14 years ago

The coping around the pool is an upgraded bullnosed travertine (12" x 24").

The raised spa is circular, so the tile/coping guys claim they could not use the same sized material because of the tight curve...so they changed it to a 4" brick style. The color doesn't quite match and I'm unhappy with the direction of the grout lines. The grout lines are not uniform in direction and it doesn't seem that there is a pattern. I would have expected that they all point towards the center of the spa, but they don't. Most do, but then others are quite off center.

Even if they re-set the coping around the spa, I'm afraid that I still won't like the "brick" look. Any suggestions on what I can ask the contractor to do instead?

Featured Answer

just-a-pb

14 years ago

Yeah, that is really bad.
You can do larger pieces in more pie shapes but it is more difficult.
Just call your local granite fabricator and have him make you a cap out of a travertine slab, then you will have no grout lines, maybe 4 seams.

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Comments (17)

goyom
14 years ago
Do you have a pool builder or are you the general contractor ?
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lookingforapool
Original Author
14 years ago
We have a pool builder.

The contractor came out to look at it and said they could fix it. The reason the contractor agreed to re-set it is really because of the poor workmanship. But he wants to "fix" it by replacing it with the same thing (but installed properly).

After it's fixed, I'm still worried that I won't like the "brick" sized coping. I would have chosen a less expensive flagstone if I had known that the coping would be this shape/size.

I like the coping around the pool, so I don't really want to change it.....so now what's the option to still get it to match?
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just-a-pb
14 years ago
Picture would help.
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nosabe
14 years ago
Ask to see a spa where the "bricks" have been set properly, before you commit to this solution.

I had a similar problem. Travertine, 12 x 24 bullnose coping, and we wanted double bullnose on our horseshoe-shaped, raised spa. Ended up with two rows 12 x 12 bullnose, cut and fit, on the round, with a grout line in the middle, so we got bullnose on inside and outside.

I had to see a picture to approve the solution. It looks good.
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lookingforapool
Original Author
14 years ago
Picture of spa coping

Here is a link that might be useful:
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nosabe
14 years ago
Yep, that's crap. A good tile guy can do circular. Ask your contractor to show you round spas he's done with brick. But, I think it can be done with bigger tiles, cut in kinda pie shapes.
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inthedrink
14 years ago
Lookingforapool,
Would love to see a picture of your pool coping. We've had ours done in noche travertine, 6X12 bullnose, and it's taken a while for it to grow on us. It looks very bricklike. We were hoping for smaller grout lines....don't think our tile guys wanted to spend the time cutting. Spa hasn't been done yet....so I'm very interested to see your solution.
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nypoolnovice
14 years ago
hi lookingforapool:
We are in the finishing stages of our pool, in fact we are hoping for plaster next Saturday, we'll see if we get all of our final tasks completed. (the list seems kinda long, I was just enhancing the stone on the spa today) We'll be creating a thread in a few days.

Anyway, we are DIY, and also have travertine coping. Our spa is round and our pieces started out as 16x24 and my husband cut them to fit and then we took them to a local fabricator to ease the inside edge. They are not attached yet, just sitting in place. Hope this helps.
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piscespool
14 years ago
Our spa is octagonal with travertine coping, and it looks much like the photos above from nypoolnovice. Inside edges are flat like that with the bullnose on the outer edges. You have to start out with larger pieces, but you can get a nice nice result. Those guys just got lazy...bad job. Hope you make them re-do it to look like the one above. Remember to seal it well. I used Dry Treat.

nypoolnovice...that's a BEAUTIFUL spa and pool!! Great use of materials. Congrats!
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nypoolnovice
14 years ago
You know, I was wondering why they cut the spa coping in such awkward and small pieces. But it seems clear to me now that they did your spa coping with the waste from the pool coping! OMG. That is totally unacceptable. And deceptive.

They collected all of the scraps from the pool, and assembled them on the spa. You can't accept that.
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nypoolnovice
14 years ago
my hubby posted the message above.

Piscespool, thanks for the kind words, I remember your build and absolutely love your pool - that glass tile is spectacular! From your post, we found out about Dry Treat and have used it as well ... we went with the entire product line (a small fortune), the 40sk for the coping, enhancer plus for the waterline and spa and then the sealer for everything. It's taking a long time to get it all on, but I hope it helps to maintain the stone. Overall, we are really happy with how the build is coming out ... DIY takes longer, but its been satisfying. The spa stone were individual pieces - I call it the biggest jigsaw puzzle I ever did!
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piscespool
14 years ago
Thank you nypoolnovice! We've really enjoyed the pool, but especially the spa. The Dry Treat is totally worth it, IMO...great stuff. Very protective, and worth the money. You did a great job with that jigsaw puzzle on the spa, and used even bigger pieces than we did...looks so good. That's a totally professional looking build!! I know seeing these pics helped the OP with convincing the PB to redo her spa coping.
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stkgator
14 years ago
Yuck, what where the installers thinking???

Here are pictures of our travertine coping.
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txmomoftwo
14 years ago
looking: Wow, that does look terrible! Your coping around the pool looks good though. What's the latest on them fixing it?
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lookingforapool
Original Author
14 years ago
Update:

Pool builder agrees that this displays poor workmanship by the subcontractor. It will be replaced and done to my satisfaction.

Travertine has natural color differences, but in addition to the poor workmanship, the travertine around the spa is a totally different color than around the pool. My concerns were not only with the poor workmanship of installation, but that I wouldn't like the replacement when installed properly.

The initial suggestion was to solve the two problems by changing the spa coping to flagstone. However, I specifically chose travertine because of the bull-nosed edge...and I want the spa coping to match the pool coping. (We already have a "slate/pepper" colored water-line tile, natural rock weeping wall, and pea-gravel deck, so I don't really want to introduce yet another material.)

Custom fitted travertine caps are a little out of our price range. (and I don't want concrete forms either)

What would you do/ask for????
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nosabe
14 years ago
Why don't you show PB the pics posted by mypoolnovice, above? That looks great. Also, do a search on this site for "lala". The post is "New pool build South Texas." That spa is travertine brick, and it looks great, too.
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