If you have an in-ground pool, what's your pool deck made of?

TarHeels&Rebels

Short question: What material do you have or recommend or not recommend for a pool deck?

Backstory: My grandparents' pool is surrounded by 1985 stamped concrete.  The stamping design is deep, so dirt collects in the little pockets, and it's pretty rough on bare feet, and it's got rust stains from the local water.  They're looking to replace.

My aunt has moved to the area to look after them and has more money than sense.  (She's lived in her brand-new, custom-built home for 4 years and has replaced the perfectly functional appliances for a different color, remodeled the master bath, put in a new pool deck, painted the interior 3 times, and ordered 2 sets of custom curtains bc she didn't like the first.)   Well, Aunt is advising them on what decking to put in and I don't agree.

The first pool deck she had was what I call "aggregate" - little pebbles held together with clear "glue."  Apparently she couldn't be bothered to reseal it, so they ripped it out and put in patio pavers.  (The regular patio pavers pushed down into a sand bed like everybody has for grills in their backyard.)  The pavers have been in for 2 months and there's still sand crunching underfoot when you walk... I can only imagine what that much sand does to home pool machinery.  But more than that, the pavers have rounded corners and don't sit together snugly, so hello weeds growing in cracks. I don't want my 90 year old grandmother, who currently has a relatively maintenance-free surface, bending over to pull weeds or slipping on loose sand and breaking a hip.

Do you all recommend pavers or aggregate or is there another surface?  Thanks.

SA7206

Our pool had concrete (not stamped) surrounding it.  We did power wash it once a year, but it was pretty low maintenance otherwise.  That doesn't really help you much though.

Chrisy-Wyobride

I don't but my parents do...It's something they always called "coolcrete"...Special concrete that didn't get hot (they are in vegas) & was not slippery.  It is low maintenance (they've had that house 18yrs) & looks nice.

Here I found a more technical name...

http://www.kooldeck.com/products/kd.html 

hippie4yahweh

All of the pools I've seen in our are have poured concrete surrounds. Practically maintenance free and neutral enough to go with the huge variety of surfaces I've seen used with it (ie: wood decks, different types of paver patios etc) My dad's old pool had poured concrete directly around it and beyond that was this "no slip" textured concrete sprayed on.... stuff. Whatever that was I don't rec it, 22 years later it's like an ice rink, our feet polished the texture very quickly!

Annas2013

I don't have a pool, but the one at my parents' house has poured concrete around it.  Super low maintenance.  

katie4253

Poured concrete is what I'd do.  I would NOT do pavers under any circumstance. 

wkrama

Poured concrete here, too.  Other than powerwashing, it's virtually maintenance free.

Kimee13

I don't have a pool now, but the house I grew up in did and we had poured concrete.  Not the prettiest, but maintenance free and held up great.

toothpastechica

My parents have poured concrete...but someone was smart enough to take something to the top of it (a rake maybe?...it was that way before they bought) and make little lines in it...it realllly helps keeping it from getting too slippery since the little ridges kind of act as grip....no complaints here.

Jenni232323

We have kooldeck that is around 15 years old and apparently was not properly applied so is cracking and lifting all over the place. Cracks are typical here in FL, but the lifting means it was not applied correctly. Before we even started having issues, it's always been a pain to clean because dirt easily and constantly gets in the little dimples and you have to pressure wash it weekly to look nice.

We were advised if we were to redo the kooldeck or get concrete poured again, it would not be guaranteed not to crack (Florida ground), so recommended for us is brick pavers. As it is going over concrete already and our pool room is screened it, we won't likely have weeds grow up. As for the sand, there shouldn't be a lot on there to track into the pool. They should have put the pavers down next to each other, swept off the excess sand and then sealed the pavers. Pavers are expensive down here, we're looking at around $5000 for our little pool deck. I would make sure they did it right the first time.

lindyanne

We have flat pavers...ones that were properly installed. They don't crunch.

jacksjerseygirl

All options have pros/cons and maintenance. Regular old concrete is going to be cheapest and require the least upkeep. 

FireChiefsBride

My ILs have that cooled concrete and it's nice- it does stay cooler and has what would be referred to as orange-peel finish if it were on the walls.  They do have a 10-yr warranty with it as well.