Anyone NOT deck all the way around your pool? Opinions please

[Vettechick99]

I love the look of landscaping on one section of the pool. Like on the right side here

The left side on this one where there is just enough space for DH to walk around when cleaning, but still allows for a lot of vegetation.

We won't be doing a water feature or rocks (at least not right now), but we are finalizing plans for the deck today. Here is our pool. The deck will lead up to those snazzy stairs DH created one evening and go around to the right. The larger deck pad will be on the far side where those chairs are, and so the landscaping side will be to the left of the stairs. I imagine if we did this, about 1/4 of the circle would be heavily landscaped, which I like because we need some privacy from neighbors.

Has anyone done one section with just coping to provide for more landscaping? Do you regret it? What would you change? Obviously the biggest concern is litter from the plants getting into the pool.

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Mods, please feel free to move this if I'm not in the right forum.

 

[mrcarcrazy]

The side of our pool with the wall will not have anything beyond the wall. Except a Fig tree (assuming the pool build hasn't killed it.)

 

[JohnT]

I would think it would be a pain for cleaning since you couldn't walk around the pool, and it would make it difficult to cover the pool.

For privacy, you are often better served by placing a few trees on a small berm in the line of sight between the pool and the neighbors rather than something right at the pool. You have more flexibility in the plants you use because the debris is away from the pool.

We put 7 blue spruces about 75ft from one end of the pool and another cluster of 4 about 100ft from the other end. Even though you can see into our pool area, those tree groupings block the lines of sight from the nearest houses.

Plants that are close to the pool need to be chosen carefully. Blossoms, seeds, leaves and needles can be a real aggravation

 

[Vegas Kid]

one side of our pool is wall. We're not big fans of all decking taking up too much yard space.

 

[Vettechick99]

Thanks for your comments.

JohnT, you bring up some good questions. Currently, we don't cover the pool - at least we didn't this winter and it wasn't a problem at all.

Absolutely there would have to be some sort of narrow walkway, wide enough for DH to be able to clean the pool. This could be in the form of 1-2' of concrete or spaced-out pavers in addition to pebbles/mulch & the landscaping. I'm not worried about regular traffic because we used the pool all last summer and just got in & out at the deck (far side). We have young kids so at this point they have to have the stairs to get out. It really wasn't an inconvenience not having full deck access around the pool. Buuuuut I want to think things through. It'll be too expensive to get the concrete guy back out here if we change our minds later. I've seen lots of pictures of this online - plenty of people who use pavers or coping with or without pebbles/mulch/landscaping, but no real owner commentary.

vegaskid, do you have landscaping near that wall?

I guess the key is that whatever you put there needs to be able to stay put without littering. I definitely don't want the wind helping to junk up our pool.

Thanks again for your insight!

 

[Divin Dave]

Vettechick99, I like your idea of a narrow coping on one site and nicely landscaping it.

 

[Vegas Kid]

Thanks for your comments.


vegaskid, do you have landscaping near that wall?

Not yet, but we will. We have about 5 feet from the wall to the fence. Will add some bushes and tall grasses to hide the fence. We also have a 3.5 foot walkway on the house side which will have some small flowering bushes.

We're not fans of much decking, but we also have kids and a yard. Fortunately it worked out for us that we have the cover by the pool which has plenty of decking underneath.

 

[Readyforapool]

The far side of mine near the fence is just coping with a 2 ft wide flower bed and then beyond it grass. I'm thinking about expanding the bed a bit to include a palm tree partly for some visual interest but also a bit of shade and privacy (I know it won't be much). Haven't had the grass mowed yet, it's just starting to grow so we'll have to wait and see how much ends up in the pool.

 

[Readyforapool]

I love that first photo btw! Would love to have some of those plants! I doubt however, they would make it in my soon to be arid desert, southwest facing, no shade, water restriction yard! :grrrr::grrrr:

 

[indianaguy]

Hi Vettechick 99, I see you have a Radiant 24' fully in ground. We are just waiting on dry weather here to install our 24' Radiant, but ours will be semi in ground. Installing it into a slight slope, so 13 " above the ground on front side 26" on the back side. We are going with I guess you would call it an L shape deck, and pea gravel border 3' wide around the balance of the pool, and 6' high fence around the back side to give us screening from neighbors.

How long have you had your Radiant and how are you liking it, if I may ask? Thanks

 

[Vettechick99]

Hi Vettechick 99, I see you have a Radiant 24' fully in ground. We are just waiting on dry weather here to install our 24' Radiant, but ours will be semi in ground. Installing it into a slight slope, so 13 " above the ground on front side 26" on the back side. We are going with I guess you would call it an L shape deck, and pea gravel border 3' wide around the balance of the pool, and 6' high fence around the back side to give us screening from neighbors.

How long have you had your Radiant and how are you liking it, if I may ask? Thanks

We love it! I wasn't sure about the round shape but it's awesome. Turn the pump on the highest speed and the jets create a lazy river. You get in and float in a circle all afternoon! So be sure you put in all the jets you can and get a decent pump. Because we went in-ground, our PB said we needed IGP pump and filter so it's pretty strong.

Our concrete sub is really impressed with our pool. He installs regular IG pools and keeps complimenting us on the quality of the pool and install of our PB so we feel pretty good about it.

You will love yours. Good luck on the install.

 

[anonapersona]

Be careful about landscaping up to the pool. I get all twisted up in the palm that is near the pool. The pole gets stuck in there, the bushes nearby are too thick for me to walk along the coping. The bend of the pool makes it necessary to brush FROM that side, but the plants are so large now, some 10 years after the pool was installed, that I really really really hate to brush. So I don't much. I know that is not good for the pool. And when we replastered we HAD to brush, every inch of the pool, what a chore that was. So, give some thought to how you will manage a 16' pole with trees and shrubs nearby.