Decking Dilemma - Austin Limestone in Austin, TX

[Texcands]

Hello nice TFP people,

My husband and I have been struggling with our decking choice for weeks now, to the point that we have held up the build and are missing time in the water this summer .

The crux of our issue is that we have Cream Sawn limestone coping and cream block retaining wall. (We have chlorine, not salt). We are currently planning on having stone (or sawn stone in rectangles) for the decking and steps and cannot decide on the color. I have always liked a fairly uniform look with regards to coping v decking, but I'm very worried that the entire collection is going to appear too bright in our sun. I went to a neighbors house this weekend who had a cream flagstone patio that was about a year old, and it had weathered to a soft gray despite lots of power washing -- took the brightness down a few notches for sure.

I've seen some Austin builds here on this forum with cream coping, but all brand new. Wondering if anyone could share how yours weathered over time with regards to color. Did you seal it and did that help? I have looked and looked and reached the end of the internet with regards to photos, and its so hard to understand the look of new stone v gray weathered v sun-bleached etc.

Thanks in advance.

 

[philboyj]

This was one of our worries when we decided to go with white marble pavers. It did seem quite bright when they installed it. But after the water was filled in the pool and the landscaping was completed, not once did we feel that it was too bright. The big advantage of white/light color + marble / travertine is that the deck remains really cool. The recent 100 degree days we had was a good test - we could walk on the deck barefoot.


See my build thread (link in signature) for pics. Last page has finished pics.