Design ideas - bluestone & brushed concrete?

[Joe028]

Hi all, my first post here, so take it easy on me. What a great resource this forum is. I've read the "Pool School" ebook and the information I've gathered so far from the forums has been priceless.

We are in the beginning stages of planning a pool build. We are looking at installing a 20x40 vinyl liner pool, we are located in northern Ohio. We've got 4 young children and the automatic pool cover seems like a must for us. Also, the city requires a fence, but HOA requires the fence to not protrude beyond the side of the home, so unfortunately the fence will most likely be placed immediately around the pool (and decking) itself as opposed to fencing the whole yard.

I've attached pictures of our existing patio and yard with a rough sketch of where we intend the pool to go.

I'd like to tie the pool decking in with the existing patio by using bluestone coping, and considering brushed concrete then for the rest of the pool decking. 4ft on 3 sides and 10ft area to lounge at the shallow end of the pool near the middle part of the yard. Some bluestone steps from patio to pool area in the grass as well to tie it together.

Does anyone have pictures of bluestone coping next to brushed concrete? Or have any other suggestions? My wife likes clean straight lines, but at the same time, I don't want tons of square concrete that makes it look like I've got the public city pool in the middle of my back yard.

Thanks for your feedback!

Joe

 

[JohnT]

Welcome to TFP!

Looks like a beatiful setting for a pool!

I'd suggest the first thing you do is get a bucket of water and go out on your patio barefoot. Step in the bucket, then see how your wet foot grips the concrete. Then dump the bucket out on the stone and see how secure your footing is. Any slipping will be a problem around the pool.

Don't get caught minimizing decking around the pool. A 3ft deck will be like walking a tightrope when doing pool maintenance. 4ft should be the absolute minimum.

I would consider fencing the entire patio and pool with a single fence. That will make the area more cohesive and you won't have to constantly walk through a gate to get from the pool to the patio.

With the play equipment in the yard, I assume you have children or grandchildren. That will make you want two things, so you should at least plan for them before building the pool. Kids will want to swim a lot longer than the adults. We have a screened pool house with a ceiling fan that is a wonderful place for the adults to watch children swimming. Sitting around the pool is usually pretty hot and uncomfortable. Some kind of shade structure will be invaluable.

With kids, you also have bathroom runs. Wet kids running in and out of the house is not a good thing!

You can lump the bathroom and shade structure together, and also use it to hide your pool equipment and muffle the noise from the pump. Bonus is it gives you a place to store toys and pool tools and chemicals. You can even go one further and do like I did and use the building as a place to mount solar panels to heat the pool.

Like I said, at least plan for such a building when you put the pool in. You will not regret it. You can make it as simple or fancy as you want.

Finally, pools with paver decks sometimes have issues with bonding. If your builder doesn't understand bonding and have a plan (probably copper mesh) for making sure the deck is bonded, either look for an electrician who does understand pools or find a different builder.

 

[jimim]

i second an outdoor bathroom. as soon as my wife said pool i then said pool house or nothing. that then grew into a storage area and then a kitchen and living area since bringing a bathroom out and electrical for a pool all is in place. no extra cost really.

you have bluestone outside not undercover and it looks pretty good. what about bluestone around the pool? or a synthetic bluestone. cast concrete that looks like bluestone. my cousin did that around his pool cause of our winters and it looks very very good. i live in bluestone country. both out porches are blue and it is everywhere around here and i was impressed with his synthetic.


so the fence can't be wider than ur house width? i think that would look wonkier than surrounding your whole property. it's going to mess up those nice landscaping bump outs that look like they r wider than ur house. maybe i read this all wrong.

 

[Joe028]

Thanks for the warm welcome and suggestions. My wife has mentioned wanting a changing room or some sort of privacy screen, but I didn't consider a bathroom. I'll have to look in to how much extra that would add to the build, it would be a huge benefit.

The bluestone we have is thermal full color. So it has the blue color but also a lot of tans and browns which we like. It is thermal bluestone, which as I understand, has been torched which removes several layers and you are left with a flatter and more uniform stone. Very happy with it for the patio, and after testing it in the manner JohnT suggests, it is not slippery when wet. I haven't noticed it being hot on my feet because instead we notice the Trex decking stairs that get very hot. Our next full sun day I will check for heat on the feet.

jimim, yes the fence can't be wider than the house. We are struggling significantly with that in the design right now. Initially we drew it up going around the full yard and aesthetically it looks best. Now we're looking at other options of wrapping the fence around the pool alone, or fence around pool and patio all the way to the house. I think the flow from patio to pool is best in option 2 but like you said those bumpouts of landscape create issues that would need to be solved by redesigning the space.

 

[PoolGate]

I just so happen to have bluestone and brushed concrete. See my signline pics!

Also check with your county rules. Your HOA rules do not take the place of county regulations. Our HOA is similar but you are allowed leeway when you have a pool to comply with county regulations. For instance we are only allowed to have a split rail fence but if you have a pool you can have any fence that meets pool code around your entire yard.

Here is one but many more in sigline.

 

[jimim]

Thanks for the warm welcome and suggestions. My wife has mentioned wanting a changing room or some sort of privacy screen, but I didn't consider a bathroom. I'll have to look in to how much extra that would add to the build, it would be a huge benefit.

The bluestone we have is thermal full color. So it has the blue color but also a lot of tans and browns which we like. It is thermal bluestone, which as I understand, has been torched which removes several layers and you are left with a flatter and more uniform stone. Very happy with it for the patio, and after testing it in the manner JohnT suggests, it is not slippery when wet. I haven't noticed it being hot on my feet because instead we notice the Trex decking stairs that get very hot. Our next full sun day I will check for heat on the feet.

jimim, yes the fence can't be wider than the house. We are struggling significantly with that in the design right now. Initially we drew it up going around the full yard and aesthetically it looks best. Now we're looking at other options of wrapping the fence around the pool alone, or fence around pool and patio all the way to the house. I think the flow from patio to pool is best in option 2 but like you said those bumpouts of landscape create issues that would need to be solved by redesigning the space.

i also don't think blue is slippery when wet. all mine is unsealed cause it's covered and when i wash down the porches it's never slippery and i am using a hose.

never heard about the torch thing with blue but we pretty much get it right from where it is picked and buy from those who pick it so it's pretty much raw just cut to diff sizes and thicknesses. i think all blue around ur pool cause of ur patio already would be awesome! i went pavers cause my dad's best friend who is my mason will not put bluestone down unless it's covered cause it just gets so beat up in our winters. i can understand to a point, but i would have liked bluestone all around but i i got to go with what is recommended when u aren't talking to someone working for almost nothing because of ur dad and his friendship. i like my pavers a lot don't get me wrong.

i would only be putting the fence around the pool if ur hoa won't budge. i don't get hoa's. . . so is it like just home owners around u who make the rules? if i had to listen to my neighbors my yard wouldn't look nearly as good as it does. lol i mean we all keep our yards pretty high standards, but i really would not want a group of people telling me what to do or not do.

i think the fence just around the pool in ur case might look cool. i would be landscaping around that fence with bump outs like u have now to kinda loose the shape of the fence. do you know what i mean?

just give urself enough width from water to fence. like at least 9 plus feet min.

jim

 

[bmoreswim]

Thermal bluestone is beautiful. And the full color is very nice. I think the combo of blue and brushed concrete will look great. I think PoolGate has curved brush lines done in his which I like the look of to make even a rectangular deck feel softer.

 

[PoolGate]

Thermal bluestone is beautiful. And the full color is very nice. I think the combo of blue and brushed concrete will look great. I think PoolGate has curved brush lines done in his which I like the look of to make even a rectangular deck feel softer.

It is called "stone marking" and was an additional $1/square foot. We love it!