Help me pick a decking material!

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I walked around barefoot on my travertine deck on 97+F days in Katy, TX quite frequently. It's not hot whatsoever. My deck gets full sun from 6:30AM to 7PM at night. One thing to remember is that darker travertine tiles will retain more heat than ivory one I have. Are you going to use that antico onyx everywhere? It's quite darker brown than ivory, so it might get hotter than my deck. Something to consider.

My PB used the same travertine (1.5" thick) for my existing concrete deck and the sand based "new" deck area. It's seamless and flows so much better this way.

Regarding the concern of raising the existing deck by 2" (1.5" travertine+3/4" of sand base I think), I figured if my backyard gets flooded my deck would have 2" of extra height before it goes under the water.

If possible do the existing patio and the new deck together.
 
We went with Silver travertine. The Antico onyx was a bit much for the whole patio. Hopefully the existing concrete will also blend in a little easier. The cost to also cover that was more than 30% of what the total deck was costing!
 
We’ve come up against another stumbling block.

The HOA won’t approve the deck because it means we have 72.5% coverage on our lot. And our PB can make it smaller (it would be half of what we had in the contract) but we still have to pay for the full 400 sq ft because that is their minimum.

Our only option now is to do a stepping stone type deck, with some kind of coverage between the pavers. I don’t know what that means for drainage options though.

I’m nervous about having the deck done separately by the landscaper. What if they don’t tie it in well? And what will the edge of the pool look like without a deck right up against it? Or should we just give up and look for a new house that already has a pool?!
 
Agh [emoji31] How annoying. The spaced pavers can be done nicely but I’m not sure how practical it is. I think I’d prefer to go for half the area fully paved. Of course you don’t want to pay for double what you’re getting so maybe a landscaper is the way to go. I think any decent landscaper should be able to work appropriately around the pool so it ties in. Here in Australia pretty much no one gets the Pb to do the paving. We did because we didn’t want the hassle. It will work out. Hang on for the ride because once you start building these obstacles are endless... well for us they were.
 
If you google Hampton’s style pool area you will find many photos of pools with minimal paving and spaced paving. It can look really nice. I think the maintenance would be much greater though... I guess if you’re in the Hamptons you have someone take care of that for you though along with the pool!
 
I spent a lot of time looking at Pool Environments website for design ideas so I already liked the spaced paver look. We are doing silver travertine so I think that if we put crushed limestone rock between them, it should blend in somewhat. The half fully paved area will probably solve the issue of how to get our patio furniture out there too, thanks Riley.
 
So what is the difference between covering with spaced pavers and limestone vs just pavers. The space is still covered? I just don’t get that. Can’t u ask for a pardon from the hoa?
 
Poolbella, do you have a picture or rendering of the area you are talking about? It would really help to be able to see the space.

I'm not sure what you coping edge you chose. If you chose a bullnose edge, the PB could install a double edged bullnose if the patio pavers aren't right up against the coping. Straight edge travertine would work, too.

You might also want to verify that gravel doesn't count as coverage. We're within the city limits of Houston, and the city does not view gravel as a permeable surface. I'm not sure if your HOA is withholding permission because of appearance or drainage, but be sure to ask what they consider acceptable.

When we were researching options, we looked into artificial grass. It's not as cool as real grass, but some of it looks pretty good, and it doesn't require the maintenance of real grass.

You might also want to see if there's coverage on another part of the property that might be counting against you. If there's an extra patio or walkway on the property that you don't need, it could give you some extra square footage to work with.
 
It’s a drainage issue I believe. We had also added a concrete ledge to the side of the house in the plans to put storage on, as part of the attempt to meet the 400 sqft minimum with the PB so we could lose that, although it would have been nice to have storage. We are only 175 sqft over so I think we can make it happen with the landscaper.

I need to get my TFP donation in so that I can post photos!
 

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That’s what we are doing. We will just wait and see what we are left with once the pool is finished and then come up with something that meets all the HOA requirement later. The HOA doesn’t know that we currently have an unauthorized patio back there already, that will give us something to walk around on in the meantime ;)
 
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