Metal coping tips

A reader named Jacob noticed a gap in the DIY concrete tomes:

I’ve been doing a lot of research lately (watching videos, reading articles, etc..) on DIY Backyard projects. I’m learning a lot just from that and now i just need to try and apply the things i’ve learned and actually pour some concrete. I guess my question is, where can I get some how to’s or tips on how to make a concrete quarter pipe with metal coping? I’ve seen a lot on how to pour and finish (screet, burn, handstack, etc..) but not getting any tips on how to incorporate metal coping during the build.

I asked Tito from Team Pain if he had any tips.

From Tito:

Keep in mind that I sit behind a desk and suck at construction.. that being said…

Pictured is a backyard diy project in MO. for a local shop owner at his home. If you zoom in, you will see that the coping is “floating” and the only true attachment to the bottom is some vertical galvanized conduit that the coping is attached to it. Then on other areas you can see how the rebar is attached to the pipe.

Avoid placing rebar straight to the dirt. They call that a “rust wick” because the moisture from the dirt will speed the rust to head straight to the coping.

So try and use a something that is protected against rusting to prop up the pipe, like small galvanized tubing/conduit…

Try to weld the rebar along parallel to the coping so that if the weld fails you still have plenty of catch and then bend the bar 90degrees to the rebar cage…

The coping being steel will expand and contract different than the concrete, so take into account when edging around the coping and avoid thin concrete for it will chip away. A nice clean tooled edge below and above and some expanding caulk on the edge would not hurt…

Notice the thickened edge around the coping. This helps avoid some of the cracking from the expansion contraction differences I mentioned above….