I noticed that in all of the pool deck plans, and even in most of the Showcase decks, that the floor boards run underneath the pool coping. Why is that? I would rather have the floor boards extend a few inches over the coping. To me this seems a bit more logical and safer since the coping could pose a tripping hazard if someone were to run toward the pool.

Can I run the floor boards over the coping? Any suggestions on just how to do that?

Although it is possible to put the boards over the coping it may not be worth it. There a couple of reasons. You will need a minimum amount of clearance to get the pool cover on. I'm not sure if a couple of inches will do for this. The coping also acts a bit of trim. It covers the ends of the boards. This will help prevent slivers and also make the deck look correct. In most of the plans there are a different numbers of pool deck sections than pool sections. It might be difficult to make your deck look correct.

Deckman


I forgot to mention that you might need to adjust the frames to support the overhang of the deck boards. The deck boards can only overhang so far and extending them to the inside of your pool might be overdoing it. If thats the case you will need to make the frames bigger to accommodate this. There is a good chance that the frames will interfer with pool and that you will need to put the frame above the pool thus making the deck much higher than the pool.

Deckman

Thanks.

I think I want to give it a try anyway. There are several pools in my neighborhood that have the decking spanning over the coping. They all have pool covers on at the moment, so I don't think that will be a problem if I put a 2 inch gap between the deck boards and the coping.

My plan is to use my scroll saw and follow the curve of the pool so that the deck can match it appropriately.

Any thoughts on that?

I edited my earlier response with some more information for you.

If your neighbors built the way you would like to then at least we all know that it is possible. Are their decks floating? Any chance you could post a picture here?

Deckman

No, their decks aren't floating. I spoke to a friend of mine who built his own deck with the decking extending over the coping. He said that the decking extends only an inch or two and that there is an air space beneath of about 2 inches. He did it for the same reason I gave, he doesn't want any one tripping.

Also, on to another topic if you don't mind, I was thinking about changing the plan a bit with respect to the railings. I would like to do something a bit different in the design. Instead of attaching each ballister to the support board, I would like to prebuild each 5ft section and toe nail the top and bottom rails to each support post. My question is, are the support posts, with only 2 bolts attaching them to the deck, strong enough to support the railing sections?

Even though we do not recommend putting the surface boards over the coping it sounds like you have your mind made up. Keep up posted as to how things are going.

I'm not sure about your other topic questions. Could you explain that a little more?

Deckman