What is coping?  What does it do?
Coping is the brick or rock on the edge of the pool above the tile line. Coping can be made of several kinds of material: white precast concrete stones, 12" safety grip, 9" or 12" bullnose bricks, flagstone, slate, or marble. With so many types of coping, the possibilities are endless on the look you are trying to achieve (your budget may be your only limit).

White precast coping stones are most commonly used on commercial pools. They are 2 feet long and are not as likely to come loose like a small brick would. Because they are white, they are cooler to the touch but stain very easily. The stains are not easy to remove without harsh chemicals, which can pit the stone and make staining worse.

12" safety grip brick is used for many pools that have many non-swimmers using it. These non-swimmers will hold on to the edge of the pool most of the time. Therefore a brick with a nose that can be easily held onto is very helpful. These bricks come in many shades of red, brown, and grey.

9" or 12" Bullnose brick is what many consider as a cleaner look and more durable brick. This brick is usually 2 times the thickness of safety-grip brick. You cannot replace a safety grip brick with a bull-nose brick unless you are willing to re-pour all new decking around the pool to accommodate for the 1' lift in the brick. You can however replace bullnose brick with safety grip brick. The installer must add about one inch of mortar to raise the safety grip brick to the level of the decking around the pool.

Some pools do not have a brick or stone edge, these pools are called cantilever decked pools. This is when the decking of the pool is poured all the way to the edge of the pool, essentially sitting the deck on top of the gunite pool wall.