I'd have to take your pool builders side on this if it happened to me. If you chose an outside entity over mine to perform your decks you'd have to deal with them on any after the fact problems that are decking related.

quote" Are they just trying to get out of honoring their warranty? quote"
Absolutely not.
They've got nothing to warranty on this job description because they were no part of that aspect of the job. You took them out when you chose a separate concrete company to provide the work and cut them off from there ability to make their markup on that portion of the job.

quote" However, we need to get that joint caulked. -and- The deck company says if the tile falls off after this winter, they will pay to have it replaced. "quote
I'd suggest having them handle the job. After all they poured the deck and got paid for it. I'm certain they'll come through for you.

quote" Do I just caulk the joint myself at this point "quote
Most definitely no, your the customer and have paid your money to have the work handled correctly.

quote" Please help! "quote
The only help I can offer is to stand your ground and make your decker come back and handle the job, then stand behind the work he performed.

There's no need to repour anything, and no need to do anything yourself or force the pool builder to do anything to the cold joint between the beam and the concrete decking. This has, was, and always will be the concrete contractors responsibility.

I'm forced into your builders position every now and then. I always make it a point to tell the buyer prior to conceding that portion of the job that situations like yours are the reason I discourage them from using their own subs on my jobs. Unless the sub is willing to pay me my markup out of the buyers payment I don't warranty the jobs done by subs other than mine. That warranty is extended and supported by the contractor they payed.
This is not a personal decision it's a business decision.
I, and your builder, make our living off of marking up the trades invoices.

I hope this assists you, and sincerely hope it didn't offend you.

It's just my .02

See ya,
Kelly

It sounds like your pool company is being straight with you in this. I'd say the construction managers suggestion is the way to go and it's the decking contractors job.
I agree with everything Kelly said except for one point: even if the decking contractor paid me my mark-up for that portion of the job I wouldn't warranty their work as I had no control over how it was performed.

I'll go even harder on you than Kelly and Cascade. You are the general contractor since you hired you own subs. Handle the problem and pay for the construction delays to your other subs. Don't try to get a "better deal" and then blame others for your lack of oversite to the job at hand. We personally will not deal with a homeowner who wants to use subcontractors unless we are last in and we are unrevovocably not at fault. And we have no time cost factor. Take it for what its worth, you acted as your own general and must handle all the risks involved. You should have been there to supervise the job. Your pool builder has no risk and no money involved except to his schedule, I sure hope you are nice to him and he can fit you in before January. No sorry to Kelly and Cascade, except you guys are sometimes too nice to really put the blame where it belongs, in my never to be sorry attitude, Barb

Boy, Barb, there are quite a few assumptions in your response. As my mom always said, "when you assume you make an a** out of you and me. You have no idea why we went with another decking company or if it cost less money. Apparently you also do not know that the majority of the pool company's in New England do not do their own decking. We used the pool company for everything except the decking because they did not have the pattern we wanted, were not timely in responding to us after we had paid them for 80% of the job, and had a decking salesperson who could not seem to get our design or square footage right after four attempts. So, we decided to go out to bid. We got several references from people who had used the company -- names not given to us by the company.

As for my oversite, once again you are clueless as to how involved or uninvolved I was in the process. I so managed the process that I was almost in the pool half the time. My husband says he would have been fired ten times were I his boss. While I appreciate the responses, I don't see the need to make me feel like a jerk for asking a question. After all, if I were a pool builder why the hell would I have hired anyone to do anything? I hope you are better to the people you meet in person than those seeking help on line.

Kelly and Cascade, thank you for your responses. While I still don't know technically whether or not 1/8" is too small or whether I can caulk the joint myself, at least I didn't feel like a loser for asking a question.

Barb, may you never make an error in judgement -- karma can be a really tough thing.

Kim

I did say in my never to be sorry attitude, but I do apologize for making you feel like a jerk. I reread your original post and did make assumptions. We have owned construction companies in quad state area of NY,PA,WVA and Ohio, then CA and now NV but not New England. I always look at the legal aspect of any problem first. I get the feeling both your pool and your deck contractors are stepping away and folding their arms and saying not a big deal. It could be a big deal if you get water seepage in a freeze-thaw environment. If you repair it yourself, you may void warranties. If you pay someone to repair it, you have a warranty from that person. 2 suggestions - try to get both contractors there at the same time to work this out. You will see then if the deck installer is on good terms with the pool installer or no terms or worse, they hate each other. If that doesn't work, I assume you have a building inspector following this project, ask him/her to look at it. I would not be comfortable with the deck guy just offering to pay to replace tlle later. If thats the only option, make sure you have extra tile for the future. I would hope you don't have to settle for that option. Hope this helps, Barb

Kim
I'm sorry your stuck between the two contractors.
Also, I'm really surprised that the bulk of the builders in your area don't provide concrete patio decks as part of the pool. My decker is a big selling point of my pools. He and I have conducted business with each other for a very very long time. His crew leaders are awesome and his laborers are incredibly hard workers and exceptionally attentive to detail. I pay almost 20 percent more per square foot than most of his competitors charge and find it worth every penny. Note, I'm not trying to imply that you took the cheapest concrete guy, if he's been in the game 30 years he'll be among the higher ones and should have work equal to any of the best concrete men out there.
What I'm really curious about is why he didn't use the tile seal. Did he explain why he doesn't like using them?

I remember a thread recently where there was a question about this but I thought the deck was poured before the tiles were placed on the pool. Was this your pool or somebody else's?

See ya,
Kelly