A beautiful day by the pool is one of the best parts of summer, but shoddy pool pavers can take away from the experience. Paving your swimming pool area can be a long-lasting way to boost your whole property’s value while creating a more appealing backyard space to unwind in on those hot, warm-weather days. But what do you need exactly? And how can you stand out with an aesthetic, stylish pool area that’s built to last?
Our team is full of great ideas for brightening up that gorgeous hardscape, starting with the right bullnose pool pavers or coping and working outward to paving slabs, flags, or path pavers and setts that will lead up to your outdoor pool. Here are some of our favorite ideas for this Summer 2019, based on this year’s hottest trends.
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Choosing Your Colors
Removing your old pool pavers and coping is often a first step if you’re redoing an existing pool area—and it can be daunting! If you’ve planned ahead, you’ll be doing this in winter or a cooler season so you don’t miss out on nice summer days and quality pool time. The good news is, it’s a great opportunity to start again, even picking out a new color scheme from scratch.
This year, pavers in neutral shades are making waves—buff, brown, and gray are not only very safe choices for your swimming pool paving, but they are also versatile and work well as part of a broader contemporary, Mediterranean, or traditional theme. Our natural sandstone paving slabs offer ample choice of relaxed, easy-on-the-eye shades like the subtle aged finish of the ‘Classicstone’ Golden Fossil range. The ‘Premiastone’ Ivory range also offers smooth-finish, natural sandstone in delicate light gray and creamy light shades.
Lighter neutral shades also effectively impart a greater sense of space if your pool is already in a larger open area. They offer an elegant complement to brighter, bolder tones and create a subtle backdrop for feature landscaping aspects to take center stage. If you’re creating a Mediterranean-theme hardscape, look for pavers like the ‘Classicstone’ promenade line which are also available as paving circle feature kits with a cleft finish and pool coping. Whatever you choose, make sure it works well with your pool furniture so that you can relax in style!
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Textures and Climate
Hardscape projects can be lots of fun, especially when they are about creating your ideal pool space. Feel free to play around with whatever surface textures you like when looking for pool paving, from smooth porcelain slabs to the characteristic textured finish of classic limestone. We like the ‘De Terra’ Sahara path pavers for creating pathways with a unique, rustic vibe. Skilfully crafted and easy to lay out in your own one-of-a-kind design, they look beautiful along with pool plants and strategically placed lighting for the night time.
Around the pool, textured paving also can be used to encourage safety—a cleft surface such as the ‘Classicstone’ Steel Blue offers will help keep a non-slip area around the edge of your pool. Non-porous by nature, limestone is a good choice if you are looking to prevent algae growth and reduce staining. It is a low-maintenance option for the long term and offers great frost resistance if you are living in an area that gets cold during the winter months. We also like the ‘De Terra’ Promenade path pavers because of their excellent slip resistance—a PTV rating of 52 when wet and 61 when dry is a good standard for your poolside adventures.
Choosing the best paving for your pool area means thinking about how you use your pool—will you need a high-resistance, strong material that can support the weight of lots of people? Will stain-resistant pool pavers or coping be most appropriate given your garden furniture? Are you going to use the same pavers for your pathways and your coping? Whatever you choose, check out the slip resistance of your paving slabs or pool coping, and try to ensure that you are opting for a long-lasting surface that will hold its own through the winter months. With an extensive range of poolside paving and coping options, we’re sure you’ll find something perfect for your outside hardscape space in our online catalog!