Flagstone Coping and Salt Chlorination

16 years ago

We just had a pool built by Anthony & Sylvan, it has flagstone coping, and a saltwater chlorination system. Now I'm finding out that flagstone and salt don't mix. Is there anything I can do to prevent the rapid deterioration (besides not splashing) of the flagstone due to the salt splash-out? I'm guessing some sort of flagstone sealer would help (can you recommend one?), but is it going to prevent the deterioration? I want to protect my investment since i'll be paying for it for the next gazillion years.

Thanks much

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Comments (4)

gd2garden
16 years ago
We have very thick (3"?) flagstone that is on the backside of our new pool. It is in a spot that will have landscaping behind it and it is not a place to get in or out of the pool. However, it does get some splashing. We have our startup for the salt system after 30 days from our initial startup on chlorine tabs. I'm curious to see what replies you get to your question because now I'm wondering if we are going to have any issues. Exactly what is happening to your flagstone? Is your flagstone pretty thick?
mikester
16 years ago
I just added a saltwater chlorinator to our pool, which has a flagstone decking, and I have similar concerns. For now, we plan to just rinse any splashout from the deck after we use the pool and monitor the decking to make sure it isn't corroding. A bigger concern for me is our rock waterfall - it will be difficult to rinse all the nooks and crevices on it, and I very well may end up having to seal it.

Those sealers are pretty expensive, so I'm hoping to avoid having to do that. I checked on one brand, and to buy enough material to do the waterfall myself was going to be $600-700.
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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.
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joelq
16 years ago
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).
joelq
16 years ago
By the way, below is a link to a story done by a Dallas-area TV station on the topic.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dallas WFAA Channel 8 Story

Flagstone Coping and Salt Chlorination

Comments (4)

gd2garden

mikester

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