Local Conditions
What actually shortens joint life in Point Loma.
Salt is the problem nobody plans for. Sea air carries it inland as a fine mist that settles on the deck and works into every open joint, and once it is in there it crystallises, expands and prises the bead away from the concrete from the inside out. Blowing sand does the rest, scouring the top of the bead until it loses its surface. The other factor here is that there is no dormant season. A pool a few blocks from the water gets used most of the year, which means constant splash out, constant wet and dry cycling, and a joint that never gets a quiet month to sit still. We see it across Point Loma in the same order every time. The bead loses its give first, then it splits, then it lets go of one wall. Around Sunset Cliffs, La Playa, Roseville and Fleetridge the pools are close enough in age that a whole street tends to reach that point within a season or two of each other.



