New pool need advice on Decking

[Birdman75]

Hi everyone, I am new to the forum.

So - we have a new pool going in. The design is so the pool will be level with the existing patio of my home. After the pool was shot we are left with an 11-12 inch raised wall along the sides and the back of the pool. The contract calls for 3 feet of decking all the way around.



What will be the best way to deal with this drop off? We are considering keeping the decking near the existing grade and putting split face along the raised wall, essentially making a step to get over the wall. Alternatively, we could run the decking out level with the pool and grade it out from there.



I have never had a pool before, so I am not sure what to do. I would appreciate any suggestions or comments.

 

[HermanTX]

You could go either way. Are you concerned that the 3ft wide walkway is not sufficient and someone could step off of it?
My view is that you should have level area where your skimmers are so you do not have to step over it. Therefore decking at the coping level would be best. At least in those areas.
Some purposely have raised walls where there could be steps on the decking. That exterior part of the wall should be finished with tile or similar to have a nice look. So you could have a multilevel deck where it is level on part of the pool especially by the skimmers and then have 1 or 2 steps down on the remaining area. But then you would have the expense of finishing the exterior wall of the pool.

 

[Birdman75]

It's a tough decision but I don’t want a steep drop off from the decking. I am just trying to make sure it looks good.

My skimmers and auto fill will be in areas that are level with the coping either way. I think I will need to do a step or ramp down to the lower areas and use split face there along the raised wall.

 

[HermanTX]

Take a look at the pictures on this recently completed pool. This has multilevel deck.

All done :-)

The world will never have enough Blue Smurf pools. :) Thanks for making one more.

www.troublefreepool.com