Selecting the right natural stone for your pool area is fundamental for aesthetics and safety. With a variety of finishes available, understanding their characteristics and suitability is essential.
Consider factors such as slip resistance, durability, and desired look when making your choice.
This guide will explore popular finishes used around swimming pools like alfresco limestone, tumbled travertine, and flamed granite, helping you create a stunning and secure poolside retreat.
Craft a stunning backyard retreat with the enduring appeal of natural stone. At Sareen Stone, a leading supplier in Sydney, we know the power of natural stone to transform pool areas.
From classic elegance to modern style, natural stone offers endless possibilities to create a space that reflects your unique vision.
Pool Coping is used around the edge of in-ground pools and other swimming pools. If you are in the water and holding the side of the pool you will be holding on to the coping tiles or pavers. Likewise if you are dangling your feet in the water chances are you are sitting on the pool coping.
Natural stone pavers and pool coping can enhance your pool design, and provide functional benefits, such as a safer environment around the pool. There are a variety of natural stone products with a suitable finish that can be used outdoors and around pools, including Limestone, Travertine, Granite, Sandstone, or porcelain.
Natural stone pavers and pool coping can enhance your pool design, and also provide functional benefits, such as a safer environment around the pool.
There are a variety of natural stone products with a suitable finish that can be used outdoors and around pools, including Limestone, Travertine, Granite, Sandstone, or porcelain.
Select from our pool copings, skimmer lids, glass mosaics or Wall Cladding to complete your outdoor oasis.
If you want to be swimming in your pool during the summer festive season, it’s a good idea to start building it during the winter months. Gary Bazzana, our outdoor specialist, gives us a rundown of everything you need to know this pool building season.
Since most people planning to build a pool want to be swimming in time for Christmas, most pool projects get started in the second half of the year. This time is referred to as the “pool-building season”.
“Ensure that you allow enough time for the entire consultation, design, construction, and finishing process. The individual timeline of each project varies and because delays can come up, the planning is crucial,” says Gary.
Gary’s experience says that you should select the stone at least 14 weeks before you think you need it.
“Don’t leave the stone selection to the last minute. Consider the transit time, as you need to allow 14-16 weeks for shipping if your selected products aren’t in stock.
And you can’t avoid the lead times if you have special requests like dropdown edges or custom sizes”.
According to Crystal Pools, 3 to 6 months is the expected timeline of the pool building process, which consists of three main stages:
This is a rough guide since the time of each stage varies significantly. The excavation process depends on the subbase material and difficulty, including access to the site. Things can be further held up at the council if you’re waiting for approval and cannot progress to the next stage.
While tiling the pool surrounds can be done in a few days, additional landscaping and other features take more time.
Gary points out that the crucial fact of the process is that one trade heavily depends on the other.
“For example, from the time the pool is concreted, the shell needs to cure for at least 1 month before you can tile it with natural stone and glass mosaics.”
Other ways in which the trades have an impact on each other’s timeline include:
Since the surface areas around pools are expected to get wet, selecting a surface finish with a suitable slip rating is important. Slip rating is a scale used to assess the frictional characteristics of the surface in different environmental conditions.
Currently, there is no Australian standard for required slip rating around residential pools. The exception is for external stairs, which are required to have a P4 slip rating.
At Sareen Stone, we offer various outdoor finishes – tumbled or alfresco, including sandblasted and flamed finishes.
“All of our alfresco finishes meet a minimum P4 rating slip rating,” Gary explains. “Our Tumbled Travertine is a P3 slip rating and is attractive if you’re looking for a smooth and soft feel underfoot. On the opposite end of the spectrum, our flamed finish is the most textured.”
Other regulations to keep in mind include:
Always refer to the Licensed Pool Builder or other experts/engineers to find out all the official regulations that impact your pool building process.
With a growing outdoor porcelain range of tiles that provide a highly non-grip finish and a textured feel, porcelain tiles are being used around pools more frequently. People opt for porcelain tiles because of their low maintenance and fewer surface variations.
Gary considers selecting Sandstone lookalike porcelain tiles as a good alternative because of their higher resistance to the harsh environment around pools than natural Sandstone. Other than that, he thinks that natural stone is the best candidate for the job.
Alongside fewer surface variations of porcelain tiles, you also lose the natural diversity in a pattern that is unique to stone, says Gary. “Natural stone just has a different feel, it connects to the Earth, and gives you a sense of exclusivity and timeless beauty. And also increases the value of your home.”
Clients’ range on their pool varies from $35,000 to well over $100,000. According to Crystal Pools, the average spent on a pool in Sydney is currently around $45,000 to $55,000.
The main components of the pool building project that determine the price include:
Pool coping is used around the edge of swimming pools. If you are in the water and holding the side of the pool you will be holding on to the coping. Likewise, if you are dangling your feet in the water chances are you are sitting on the pool coping.
Gary explains that the choice of pool coping depends on the clients’ preferences since each type of pool coping comes with its own appeal.
The Pencil Edge finish looks square from the front but has a rounded edge on the top and bottom of the stone.
The rounding has only a small diameter like a pencil that suits contemporary designs.
The Bullnose Edge is fully rounded on the edge of the stone, making it suitable for a more traditional or heritage pool design.
This edge has the best levels of comfort.
The Drop Edge is a solid piece of stone with a thicker visible drop edge than the rest of the stone.
For example, a 30mm piece of stone can have a 70mm drop edge at the front. This can give the impression that the stone in the project is thicker than it is and is often used for fibreglass pools to cover the edge.
“Most of our products can be manufactured at the factory as one L-shaped piece of stone without a joint, others can be fabricated locally by joining two pieces of stone together to create a drop edge.”
Glass mosaics offer a variety of colours and are suitable for both waterlines and fully tiled pools. The waterline tiles are set directly under the pool coping and provide the benefits of easy cleaning as well as avoid the formation of the bath-ring effect.
“The width varies between 200mm and 300mm, allowing for the variation of the waterline.”
Gary explains that if your budget allows a fully-tiled pool, it can provide further benefits:
As I mentioned, it is crucial to consider the slip rating of your selected natural stone tiles. Installing P2 tiles just because you think they look good will be slippery and dangerous for everyone who uses it.
“There are many other areas that can help you reduce the price of your pool. But saving money on installation shouldn’t be one of them.
Because stone is a porous material, it needs to be expertly installed by a professional. This way, you can easily avoid efflorescence and the need to redo the job later.
Selecting a quality pool builder and installer will save you money in the long run.
Sealing the stone with a high-quality sealer specifically developed to protect the natural stone, is the best way to keep the moisture out and prevent mould, mildew, calcium deposits, saltwater damage, or other surface deteriorations.
Classic Travertine remains one of the most popular choices when selecting natural stone for pools. Travertine attracts with its versatility of design, good price, and classic look.
Limestones with their alfresco finishes are catching up and are attractive for people looking for a more contemporary design and solid colours with little variation.
The idea that the alfresco area links to the indoors is a trend that has become prominent over the last few years. Now, people and landscape designers make a real effort to make the outdoor space feel like an extension of the interiors. They make the connecting with the use of same materials and similar design briefs.
Gary Bazzana has been in the natural stone industry for over 20 years and with Sareen Stone since 2009. He specialises in pool, landscaping, and outdoor projects and some of his long-term clients include Crystal Pools, Pool Form Constructions, Freedom Pools, Premier Pools, Jay Pools, and many others.
In his spare time, Gary enjoys walking his loyal friend Rebel, a Labrador/Border Collie cross, cooking up a storm in the kitchen at home, fishing, and watching his son play baseball across the state and recently on TV at sports fields in the USA, where his son recently moved to pursue his dreams.
If you need advice on any outdoor project and want to speak to Gary, you can contact him for his advice and expertise on gary@sareenstone.com.au or by calling 0433 532 183.
With pool season almost upon us, this month we dive into our most popular poolside products and latest trends to help you build the best backyard oasis.
Planning a new swimming pool or upgrading your existing one? Sareen Stone supplies a wide range of pool landscape surfaces and accessories including natural stone pavers, tiles, pool coping, step treads, skimmer lids, landscape feature walls, glass mosaics and more.
Each piece of natural stone displays the markings of its formation history so no two pieces will be the same. This is the first thing to understand when selecting natural stone for any project including stone around pools.
Project and image courtesy of Get Smart Landscaping and Freestyle Pools.
Other important considerations are suitability of the stone to the type of project, colour, tile size, surface finish, coping profile and slip rating. Then it’s time to hone in on the specifics:
Sareen Stone offers a customised design and sourcing service providing clients access to natural stone in various sizes and finishes. Lead time needs to be taken into consideration when ordering customised stone.
If you have any questions about your project needs, please contact one of our Natural Stone Specialists on 02 9666 9222.
In this handy step by step guide, thanks to the Swimming Pool and Spa Association (SPASA), we explain how to get your pool looking spectacular and ready for the busy swimming months ahead will get things back into shape. Print it out or save to your notes page on the phone so that it’s forever at your fingertips.
Pool season is pretty much here. We say ‘bring it on!’.
Salt water pools are the pool of choice in Australia. When it comes to protecting your pool, natural stone pool coping and surrounds such as sandstone, granite, limestone or travertine are both beautiful and functional. However, care needs to be taken for your stone pool surrounds of a saltwater pool as stone is porous and salt is a corrosive agent that can be particularly damaging if it penetrates the stone.
If salt penetrates the stone it will crystallise and expand causing pitting, spalling and possibly cracking of the stone.
A number of landscapers and architects have now discovered the benefits of installing Sareen Stone’s innovative dropdown pavers and as a result our new dropdowns are certainly starting to make a splash!
Supplied in one piece of stone, this exciting and innovative pool coping and step tread is a real time saver for landscapers and builders.
The dropdown edge pool coping and step tread is cut from one block of stone. This means a joint is unnecessary between the body of the paver and the dropdown edge saving time in cutting and grouting.
Four products are now available in Sareen Stone’s dropdown range:
The new dropdowns come in finishes perfect for outdoor areas and pool surrounds. They also make a great solution to help conceal any discolouration left by a previous waterline tile when refurbishing an existing pool. Being a solid piece of stone, the result is a strong architectural look for the popular modern rectangular shaped pool.
