In NJ typical Coping - Set in Mortar Travertine 1" thick - Dry laid on a very compacted bed of earth, then crushed concrete or black paver, typically six to 12" inches thick, then two inches of sand then the travertine. Areas with heavy clay need to be dug deeper and filled as above to prevent frost heaves. Regular pavers are often set similarly but some pour a bed and then sand to prevent heaves. Poured beds should never make direct contact with a gunite pool wall. I like to see a 4" wide X 6"(preferably more) deep gap filled with either black paver sand or 1/8" stone (needs landscape cloth). Locations with heavy clay need deeper beds to prevent frost heaving. On Long Island, its unusual to not find the pavers set on a slab. Having dug this stuff up to repair/replace lines, it's what I have found. Scott Scott

Thanks Riles, I posted here in this forum because I didn't get any answers to the same post in the pool forum. It's already slipped to the 3rd page with nobody answering. So I hope to get answers here. The controversy over to seal or not seems to be a passionate one on some other stone sights. I practically got chewed out by one guy on another stone site. So I feel like I'm walking on eggshells a bit. He told me to "go do research and ask logical questions"...OUCH. I have been researching my butt off! It's just that all the "pros" answers are different! Yes, it does seem that filling travertine makes all the difference as to whether it's slippery or not. I am actually going to revisit Hartstone. I didn't want to go that route, but it seems like a safer bet. But travertine sure is beautiful. Good luck to you too! S

Pool builders - What mortar should be used to set travertine coping on a gunite pool? Anything special to insure a good bond to both the stone and the concrete? I'm about a week in to my 2nd owner/builder pool - thanks for the help.

There are a ton of free form pools online that have travertine coping, so it seems like it is an option. In my area, integrated concrete coping is popular. It is what I have, and I hate it.