Coping is the stone or brick edge that caps the pool wall. It should be solid under your feet. If a piece rocks, has lifted, or sounds hollow when you tap it, the bond underneath has failed.
What Causes Coping to Come Loose
- Failed mastic. Water gets into the joint behind the coping and under the stones.
- Freezing. Trapped water expands and lifts the coping off its mortar bed.
- Soil and deck movement. In North Texas clay the deck moves with the seasons, and a deck that presses on the coping breaks it free.
- Age. The mortar under the coping eventually breaks down.
Why It Matters
- It is where people step, sit and climb out. A loose stone is a fall waiting to happen.
- Broken edges are sharp.
- Water running under the coping reaches the top of the pool wall, where it damages tile and the shell.
- One loose stone is usually followed by its neighbors.
How It Is Repaired
Sound stones can often be lifted, the bed underneath cleaned and rebuilt, and the same stones reset. Cracked or mismatched coping is replaced. In both cases the mastic joint behind it is renewed, because that joint is what protects the repair.
If most of the coping is loose, replacing it all at once, often with new tile, gives a better result than chasing stones one at a time.
Coping loose underfoot?
It's a safety issue as well as a repair. Call and we'll take a look.