Reasonable patio size to surround 20' x 30' inground pool?

Hey Aero !! 12 ft is good to have lounge chairs and plenty of room to get by. 15 ft is good for a patio table/chairs while still leaving room to get by. You can lay it out beforehand with sting and pretend. It’s even better if you already have the furniture and can set it up exactly like it will be to see if it works.
 
3 ft is a walkway for one person
9 ft is a walkway plus lounge chairs, not big enough for a table and a walkway. A typical table might be 4ft wide and you want 3 ft on either side for the chairs (so a minimum of 10 ft)
12 ft is like a room, can fit table/chairs with room to walk on both sides. For an outdoor "room" 15 will give you that extra margin so that people walking dont conflict with people sitting.
 
Here's the model.

The outside boundaries are the white marker (left rear), the lavender pot (right rear, beyond the yellow boxes), the chair and metal upright (left front), and the croquet set (right front).

The pool is bounded by the blue scrap (left rear), the yellow boxes (right rear) the big blue tarp (right front), and the small blue tarp (left front).

Opinions? Suggestions?

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We have a similar sized pool (ish). Our pool is 16 x 37 and included 4’ decking around the pool. We added 8’, making it 12’ wide on one side.

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We are glad we did! Provides room to comfortably walk around fully reclined chaise lounges.
 
My experience is that you won't be sorry if you add all the patio you can! WIthin reason, of course. But it seems like people typically wish they'd put in more patio. I have a TON of patio and I still sometimes wish I had more!
 
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I agree with lazygirl. We also have a very similar setup. Add what you can due to space and budget. Are you going to be putting a fence up. Will that fence but-up directly next to the patio space. If so, the first foot next to the fence (inside the patio) is kind of lost space. If you have an adjustable lounge chair that space gets eaten up for adjusting the chair. I have 15' off of my shallow end. The space gets taken up with lounge chairs and people sitting on the edge of the pool with their feet in the water. In reality the space is 15' but a 6.5' lounge chair with a foot on each end for comfort and maneuverability becomes 8.5' and 3' walkway becomes 11.5' which left me 3.5' for sitting on the edge with your feet in the water and DRINKS!!!! Whatever you do make enough room so you don't spill the DRINKS!!!!!
 
I have a TON of patio and I still sometimes wish I had more!
I agree with lazygirl. We also have a very similar setup. Add what you can due to space and budget. Are you going to be putting a fence up. Will that fence but-up directly next to the patio space. If so, the first foot next to the fence (inside the patio) is kind of lost space.
Thanks for this! Yes, there's a fence all the way around.

I'm thinking of keeping the outside rectangle at 32' x 45' per my first post and cutting the pool down from 20' x 30' to 20' x 27', so the surround will be 15' at the shallow end and 9' on the side facing the house.

Plus I have to put the pump and other mechanicals somewhere!
 
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Just a note to add that you won't ever be sorry you kept the pool full size. I've never wished the pool were smaller. Your yard looks to be plenty big, so I say make the overall rectangle bigger! Or strategically add more patio in a corner to make a sort of sitting area? Maybe someone with more design skills than I will chime in...
 
One thing that helped for us was cutting out scale tables/chairs and placing them on our drawing to make sure we had room for everything we wanted plus some walking space.
 

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Some modest changes based on folks' suggestions. I can add 2 feet to the length of the patio (was 45' now 47'). The walkways can be a foot wider top and right sides of the diagram (was 3' now 4'), a foot narrower on the bottom (was 9' now 8'), and 3 feet wider on the left side (was 12' now 15'). The pool remains 20 feet wide but it would be 2 feet shorter (was 30' now 28').

Regarding pumps and other mechanicals: Maybe a separate pad off the top right corner (where the 4' walkways meet)? How far from the pool is workable? I'd like to put the pad behind and right of the bushes shown in the first picture, 20 to 30 feet away, near the big trees that mark the property line. The neighbor's house is far from the line.

How big should the separate pad be? No spa jets, but I'd like to add an electric exchange-type heater so we can hopefully use the pool in the shoulder months. Also I may want a saltwater system.

Thanks again, all!
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