One other item is the mortar bed between the coping and the bond beam...is mortar beds up to 1" acceptable. My installer started with 1/2" but as he went towards one corner of the pool he said he had to use a thicker mortar bed to keep things level.

I might too picky but I just want to make sure that these types of variances aren't that uncommon.

Thanks Again!

Sounds like he should have shot elevations around the whole pool and split the difference. I'm thinking a 1" bed is going to look funky.

Normally they find the highest point on the gunite and work their way around the pool. Everything should be done with a water level (clear hose).
That is a huge overhang for flagstone coping you might have that much if your putting a pool cover track under the coping .

Well in any batch of flagstone, your going to see a variance of 1 inches thickness typically....so in order to keep the top level all the way around, you will need to vary the mortar to deal with these differences.

Having said that, we choose flagstone in the >2 inch range....they showed up with the Anyway, this was actually the last draw for us so we got out of our pool contract over it.

From inside my pool, I got a mortar bed of 1/2 to 1 inch and then suddenly stone half the size and a 2+ inch mortar bed. And it looks like crap....just too tired of spending money right at this point only to have the installations get screwed up over and over again. So this is a sore spot of me.

Do they install coping first... get it all level, then install the tile up against the under side of the coping to cover the mortar? Is the 1" to 1-1/2" normal overhang from tip of coping to rough gunite or to finished tile?

^ pool builders do the coping and tile in different orders all over. Some go tile first, some go coping first.

Most masons are not qualified enough to do coping before true waterline tile, and most "tile guys" better know how to water level tile, not just use a 4' level and think they're accurate. Deadly mistakes. Pool xpert is right, using a water level/clear hose is the best way for shotcrete, tile and coping, however many tile and coping guys use a laser level.

To answer your question, I would not put waterline tile (1x1s up to 6x6) over a 1" thick grout line (joint). Movement over time will cause tile failure.

To me, it sounds as though your pool was shot 1" out of level, which is not acceptable, but this far in you will have a growing grout joint under your coping.