That is really interesting. Is there a benefit to doing that over the standard coping & waterline tile?
Lookin good! Yeah seems like its a pretty standard process, because our guys did the same. Although our's turned out more of a beige/tan color, which they are staining tomorrow and Friday. Is that going to be your finished look, or are they coming back to color them?
We put a regular freeform pool in at our last house. When we started thinking about a pool at our new house, we couldn't really find any coping, decking, and tile that excited us. One day after work, I stopped in at the PB right down the street. He's got 10 different pools (yes....10 big real pools!) at his office, including a few with the "Boulder Impression" facades. Once we realized that the decking was contiguous with the coping and no tile was required, we were sold! I hope it turns out as good as we think it will. It's definitely not a pool type you see everyday.
Just curious who is building your pool? It looks a lot like my brother in laws pool and it is really nice. He built his pool almost 10 years ago and it still looks good.
We are using Laguna Pools, located at the corner of Katy-Flewellen and Pin Oak, just south of Katy Mills Mall.
If you see a boulder impression pool in Houston, chances are that it came from Laguna since they have put in over 2000 such pools over the last 25 years. There are a few other companies (e.g. Modern Method Gunite) who offer a similar product. You can see their fine work on display with Twolabs' Swimming Hole. His waterfall looks very similar to mine, which is no surprise since the guy who did mine formerly worked for Modern Method and trained them how to do it.
Looking really good. I'll be interested to hear how the gunite water line surface holds up/looks over time, just in relation to the scum line and potential for buildup there. Ditto on the skimmer openings from above too! I may have missed it but wasn't sure what your deck surface will be. If it's a poured product, then will you be using the Pour-a-Lid skimmer covers? They look great in our application with textured/stained concrete. They blend right it and you only see the plastic rim which can be one of several colors. My PB always wants to research all products used on his pools so he ordered himself one to see it before committing to using them. He was very pleased with them...very simple but effective. They do take two hands (two fingers - one on each hand actually) to lift them out due to their heft. White plastic skimmer covers on decks are a big pet peeve of mine.