Travertine water feature into pool or only to waterline tile

[Reynolds_pool]

We just signed our pool contract and are excited. Our pool will have a raised travertine water feature. One of the questions we have to answer is whether to have it go down into the water or just down to a waterline tile. Attached is the design. Any thought or reasons either way.

Also, we are thinking of Picasso blue. Any thoughts on that color?

 

[Jimrahbe]

R,

I am on the side of never having anything but tile at the water line. Just saw another post today about rock falling apart at the water line.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[kimkats]

+1 of Jim said. Waterline tile should go all the way around the pool. This make the other stuff pop out more.

 

[KevMo]

We have split-face travertine (Fantastico) below the waterline between our soa and waterfall where the deck is raised 12” above the lower normal height deck. We have matching tile everywhere else except the waterfall where our moss rock is submerged. Our deck and coping is Fantastico travertine. We don't have a big contrast wherevpeople would say it pops, but we like the look. We just filled the pool 6 weeks so only time will tell if the non-tile waterline choices will be as durable as we hope.

 

[Jimrahbe]

R,

There are many, many things that can make a pool look really cool.. Unfortunately, many of those things are just not very functional. Pool builders do not care, they will just build what you want.

Look at the very first pic above and notice the waterline. This pool is only 6 weeks old. Think what that will look like in 6 years.

Anyway.. You should get what you want. Our job is to give you advice, your job is to ignore us when you want..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[KevMo]

Look at the very first pic above and notice the waterline. This pool is only 6 weeks old. Think what that will look like in 6 years.

The darker color is not from 6 weeks of being in the water. It looked like that before the water. Part of that look is the very unfortunate choice the stone guys made in using some pieces with darker spots right at the water line. You can see similar dark brown spots in our retaining wall that uses the same split face. We have some small spots of efflorescence there too. We had some on some waterline tile as well and they came off with a light brushing. In a couple of weeks after I recover from my surgery, I can clean those up.

It's not a choice we made. If I had the chance to do it over I would make them do tile at the waterline below the split face. Below is a picture of the two approaches contrasted next to each other.

The efflorescence showed up right after we had about 8” of rain. We are hoping that it does not recur as frequently or that it comes off as easy as it did the first time.

 

[Jimrahbe]

@KevMo

Thanks for the feedback...

Just so that I understand...

In the center of the above pic, the stone on the outside of the spa goes down and into the water. But on either side there is water line tile that mimics the look of your stone.

Is that correct?

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[KevMo]

@KevMo

Thanks for the feedback...

Just so that I understand...

In the center of the above pic, the stone on the outside of the spa goes down and into the water. But on either side there is water line tile that mimics the look of your stone.

Is that correct?

Thanks,

Jim R.

Yes. I think it is an odd design choice but one you only notice after it's done. There are many “little” things I would change if I could, but that is the nature of a custom build. I learned a lot. I could write a long post on lessons learned. Overall, we are very pleased with the entire build. Our hope is that none of them turn into a “big” problem down the road.

Here is another aspect that seems different. The end of the raised part of the spa wall that transitions into the spillover is a cut coping paver mounted vertically as seen in the picture below.

I created a split picture of the before and after water of that split face raised wall. You can see the dark tile. Sometimes you wish the crew would step back and look at it before moving on and letting it dry.

 

[Schwimmbad]

write a long post on lessons learned

I like that idea and will start a thread on “if I could do it all over again…”

 

[Robinswfl]

We have split-face travertine (Fantastico) below the waterline between our soa and waterfall where the deck is raised 12” above the lower normal height deck. We have matching tile everywhere else except the waterfall where our moss rock is submerged. Our deck and coping is Fantastico travertine. We don't have a big contrast wherevpeople would say it pops, but we like the look. We just filled the pool 6 weeks so only time will tell if the non-tile waterline choices will be as durable as we hope.
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What size is your pool coping? Is it the same size as on your spa?

 

[KevMo]

What size is your pool coping? Is it the same size as on your spa?

My pool coping is 12” and the coping on the raised spa is 20”.