The modified thinset with additives is very strong and won't add much thickness. Back butter the rocks too to ensure good bonding. You DO need to remove all loose mortar, etc. and power wash or scrub it so it has a clean surface to bond. Since it is near water a light acid wash would help to ensure it is clean with no crud messing up the bond.

For future reference, visit us at https://www.canteravolcanic.com/pool-copings . We are a direct supplier of different types of pool copings, including drop face or drop nose pool coping, in a variety of sizes and custom made dimensions.

Thank you! The tile guys did pretty nice work on the tile, and same with the paver crew who installed the travertine last week. The coping is pitted and stained, and it seems like the pitting is ongoing...in some places, I can easily chip away at the pitting with my (very weak) fingernail. From my research, it seems like this a condition called spalling that can result from salt or freeze-thaw damage. Our pool is chlorine, and the damage occurred after installation but before there was water in the pool, so I'm not sure it could be salt. We did have a few days of freezing this winter but that's typical for the region. This is a supposedly regional limestone that should be able to tolerate the climate. Basically, from what I can tell, it seems like spalling is sometimes a problem with limestone, but there's no way there should be damage to this extent on a brand new installation. The pool company is acting like this is just how limestone is, but they cannot be trusted *at all.* I would like to get other opinions and am open to the possibility that this is all normal. Your pools look great! As a pool builder, would you suggest that I get quotes from stone masons to repair/replace the coping...or maybe tell me this is normal? We just really want this pool company out of our lives. We still owe a small final payment and are considering asking to have the cost of making the coping right taken out of that amount. I wish we had withheld other payments but we really wanted to try to maintain a reasonably good relationship with the company and wanted to give them no excuse to further delay work. Now, we owe them such a small amount that I'm not sure they're motivated to finish the last bit to get the payment. This company is a neverending headache, and I'm confident that if we allow them to repair or replace the coping, it will be months more of arguing and disruption. Below is a long rant about our experience with this pool builder; you can ignore it if you want but it's an attempt to explain why we don't really want to give them a chance to make the coping right and why we would rather just get our own contractor to handle it. As I mentioned, it's been close to 10 months since we paid our deposit. It was about 9 months before we could get in the pool, but there was still a lot to do after that. It's a very small pool/spa, about 7500 gallons total. Since we paid our deposit, entire houses in my neighborhood have been built and occupied and resold to new occupants. A neighbor's pool was completed, start to finish, between the time we paid our deposit and had the permit application approved; our pb company apparently forgot to file the application. I had to figure out what was going on myself and bring it to their attention. Several other nearby pools have been started and completed in the intervening months. We have had an unusual amount of rain, but that doesn't seem to have caused such massive delays for other pool builders around us. Almost every aspect of our experience with this pool builder has been terrible since we paid our deposit last August (everything was great up until then), including several permit issues, serious communication problems, straight up lying, constant turnover, weeks upon weeks of no progress, etc. They have to do many things two or more times before they get it right. The pool decking you mentioned was the third install; the first had incorrect grading and the second had incorrect materials. At least twice, subcontractors have come to look at an issue and made a recommendation which the pool builder ignored in favor of some cheaper fix...then had to redo the way the sub suggested to begin with. So much time and money wasted. Then the pool builder acts like he's doing us a giant favor by doing what was supposed to be done in the first place. It's one thing after another. We just want them out of our lives. Thanks so much for the help you've already provided!

You're right about the expansion joint. We had old pavers and tile fall off into the pool in the past. What they did over the skimmer was replaced the rebar, form it, and lay a bed of mortar on which they're setting the pavers. The way they raised up the coping was use some flexible forms and poured about an inch and a half of concrete on top of the existing beam, which I guess you call a cold joint. So now the pavers are sitting mostly on top of the beam and they are also mortared to the patio which concerns me due to settlement. However, the pool was built almost 20 years ago, so I don't see how much more it can shift. This morning, they raised up the forms a bit more and they're using that as a guide to lay the pavers with mortar. Hopefully everything is okay because it's starting to look really good