How Our Painted Metal Pool Coping Is Holding Up

Two years ago I painted our metal pool coping with marine-grade paint. It’s time for an update on how this painted metal pool coping is holding up to weather and regular pool use.

First, if you want to know exactly how I painted the metal pool coping, read this blog post. It’s not hard. It’s not that expensive. It just takes some time.

Overall, how is the painted metal pool coping holding up?

The paint is holding up so well and far better than I expected.

Wet feet, splashing, and goggles being thrown on the pool coping have not seemed to bother the paint job at all.

We’ve even lightly pressure-washed the pool coping and it’s done fine.

Remember, we didn’t use just any old outdoor paint. We used marine paint made by Rustoleum. There are different brands that I’m sure work equally well. That’s just the one we went with at the time.

Marine-grade paint is designed for tough elements and I don’t think everyday pool use even comes close to what this paint is designed for.

What has messed up the paint finish? 

Our pool cover did make a tiny nick or chip on the paint right where most of the straps tighten down on the curved part (the high point) of the coping. I’m guessing it didn’t happen on every single strap maybe because a few of the straps weren’t as tight as the others.

I noticed the nicks happened after the first winter and did not do anything about them. When we took the cover off after the second winter, I didn’t notice that the marks got any bigger.

The photo below shows the marks that the pool cover strap left.

The only other problem I’ve noticed with the paint was due to DIY fatigue when I first prepped the coping for paint.

There were a couple of smaller areas of the pool coping where I KNOW I did not sand the rough finish down well enough. I was tired at that point in the process and thought it would be good enough. I know better. If you’re adhering new paint to old paint that is coming up or new paint to corroded metal, it’s not going to stick that well.

Please learn from my mistake and have more perseverance than I did when you get close to the end of sanding.

How did I fix the nicks and the areas I messed up?

The same way I painted the pool coping the first time. Spot sanded the damaged area, primed, and painted. It went a lot faster this time!

What I’m still trying to figure out:

I’m still trying to figure out if there’s a way to protect the coping from the pool cover straps. Maybe with a soft fabric or cushion of some sort. It just can’t be too tall because the pool cover does need to sit tight to the coping.

If you have any ideas on how to solve this problem, let me know.

Was it worth the effort to paint the metal pool coping? 

100% yes!

This was not a technically hard project. It just takes a bit of time and patience.

Our metal pool coping really dates the pool and having the finish wearing off just made it look worse.

It’s still an old pool with metal pool coping but having the coping freshly painted makes it look so much better. Clean, fresh, and a place you want to hang out.

Do you have any questions about painting metal pool coping? Do you have any tips and tricks for others to learn from? If so, let me know. You can always comment on this blog post, email us here, or reach out via Instagram or Facebook.

Happy Summer!

P.S. The step-by-step details of how we painted our pool coping can be found here.

We used this primer and this topcoat.

Our pool is approximately 16′ x 32′ and we used half a quart of primer and a full quart of topcoat.

Thanks for being here today. I enjoy sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly of our DIY projects. Here are some other blog posts you might enjoy. 

DIY Pool Maintenance Tool Holder for Leaf Skimmers and Poles

The Mistake We Made When Adding Hardscaping Around An Old Pool

How We Painted Our Chainlink Pool Fence

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