What To Landscape With Around The Pool?

[chaz]

Hello,

Hope you all can give me some advice. We recently just replaced out 15x30 oval with a 20' round Sharkline pool. In doing this, we also had to take our upper deck down. So now we have a good amount of dirt around the pool, especially from the area where the old pool was.

We are planning to rebuild the deck next year to connect to the new pool, but for the time being at least(and who knows if what I have planned for the deck will actually happen), what will be something good to put around the pool?

The oval pool we had had no "border" around the pool so to speak, so grass was right up to it. I want to avoid that with this pool. I was thinking of like those small white stones as something to go around the pool. Has anyone done anything like this? Keeping in mind of planning to rebuild the deck too, I would preferably need something that would still allow us to set the posts for the new deck as needed.

Thanks

Chaz

[Trigger]

Hello,

Hope you all can give me some advice. We recently just replaced out 15x30 oval with a 20' round Sharkline pool. In doing this, we also had to take our upper deck down. So now we have a good amount of dirt around the pool, especially from the area where the old pool was.

We are planning to rebuild the deck next year to connect to the new pool, but for the time being at least(and who knows if what I have planned for the deck will actually happen), what will be something good to put around the pool?

The oval pool we had had no "border" around the pool so to speak, so grass was right up to it. I want to avoid that with this pool. I was thinking of like those small white stones as something to go around the pool. Has anyone done anything like this? Keeping in mind of planning to rebuild the deck too, I would preferably need something that would still allow us to set the posts for the new deck as needed.

Thanks

Chaz

Hi Chaz.

I just had my 20 year old AGP taken down and installed an Ester Williams pool. I too hopefully will be upgrading my decks around the pool....if the budget allows. AS of now, I had the new pool installed right up to theedge of the old deck.

What I just did was buy a black fexiable plastic "no dig" boarder edging at home depot and placed that around the pool. (about 14 " out from the pool wall). I filled the area in with gray stones. It looks clean and neat. I also put down a 30 yr weed mat under the stones to help keep weeds from comming up through.

Next I need to do a bit of grading to bring the sod level even to the stone boarder edge.

I was told that dirt and sod around the pool wall (esp steel walls and supports) is not a good idea. It can cause corrosion. I also did not want my lawn tractor accidently dinging up the pool wall, nor have the weedwahcker hitting it.

I don't think placing stones next to the pool will be a problem for the deck and footings at all. If it is, it's easly removed. Footings for a deck wont be poured fight next to the pool anyhow, usually a few feet away. So I think it's a non issue. My current deck is this way. The footings are about 14 inches away from the pool, but the decking comes right to the edge of the pool.

The no dig boarder was easy too. I used landscaping pegs (about 12" long) Buy extra. they don't give you enough in the box. It installed in a snap. I also cut a leanght of board 14" (the width I felt looked good) that I placed/measured between the pool wall and edging as I peg the edging into the ground to ensure I had trhe same distance out all around.

I got everything from Home Depot. Edging was$20 per 20 foot section. ( a 21 foot round pool need almost 80 feet of eding . remember Cirumfance = Pi X Diameter,) I needed 4 units.

The stones were $4 a bag. I needed 25 bags. You might get a better deal from a local lawn and garden shop and have them delivered.

Goood luck.

[chaz]

thanks Trigger. Sounds like exactly what I am looking to do. You don't happen to have a pic of what you have done? If you wouldn't mind sharing it of course.

I hated the old pool, thank god it was on it's last legs. Gave me an excuse to get it out of there. Mowing the lawn and weedwhacking was a chore just making sure I didn't hit it.

That's the main reason I am looking to do something like this. And well, since most of the area is dug up already, part of it's already done!

[Trigger]

thanks Trigger. Sounds like exactly what I am looking to do. You don't happen to have a pic of what you have done? If you wouldn't mind sharing it of course.

I hated the old pool, thank god it was on it's last legs. Gave me an excuse to get it out of there. Mowing the lawn and weedwhacking was a chore just making sure I didn't hit it.

That's the main reason I am looking to do something like this. And well, since most of the area is dug up already, part of it's already done!

You and I are in the exact same boat. Old pool that finally gave way! I'll take some pics tonight. I am not done yet, as the rain here in the north east has put quite the damper on things.

[chaz]

where in the north east?

I'm in CNY, so we got the rain too...although not as bad as just east of NY. Thanks, I'd appreciate the pics.

I am surprised the old pool never gave way, underneath the deck was no longer supported my the metal supports, it looked like 2x4's were propped up against the side. Of course we bought the house in the winter, and didn't see that.

Oh well. Made it one season swimming in it and it didn't give way, so that worked!

Funny thing is, wouldn't have even known this year either. We had a house fire and were out for this past winter. When we got back in, I looked out back, and saw the skimmer wall ready to just blow!

[Trigger]

thanks Trigger. Sounds like exactly what I am looking to do. You don't happen to have a pic of what you have done? If you wouldn't mind sharing it of course.

I hated the old pool, thank god it was on it's last legs. Gave me an excuse to get it out of there. Mowing the lawn and weedwhacking was a chore just making sure I didn't hit it.

That's the main reason I am looking to do something like this. And well, since most of the area is dug up already, part of it's already done!

I'm in Central MA.

My old pool was a no name steel unit. It was there when I bought the house. It held up well, and when the liner went, i could have just replaced the liner and gotten a few more years out of it, but I also wanted to eventualy upgrade the pressure treated deck and felt a new pool was needed. I didn't want to put $10K of decks around a 20 year old POS pool.

I also had an aqua illuminator light put in. It looks pretty sharp at night.

Doing the landscaping/boarder edge now made sense to me. The area around the pool was dug up and putting the edging in was easy.

[Trigger]

Chaz,

As promised here are some photos of what I am doing. I wish it looked a bit better, but I am not yet done. Hopefully, once I have the rocks down, I'll level out the loom and sod for a cleaner look. If the budget allows, the decks will be redone as well to wrap around 1/3 of the pool and made significanty larger.

Anyhow, I hope this gives you a better understanding what I am doing and helps you make a decision on what to do (or not to do).

Heres pics of the current set up:

Here's a shot of the "no dig" edging I put in. It went down pretty easy. It helps if someone is helping handle the 20 foot thing when placing it down.

We also put a 30 year weed mat down to help:

And here is a pic of a finished section. I'm hoping to clean up the edge with fresh loom leveled in and plant some grass. The install team messed up my lawn pretty good. I'm hoping to have it look decent by mid july.

The edge is 14" out from the pool side wall. I wanted to go in closer (more lilke 10") but my wife liked it this way, and it won't hurt to have the extra few inches when mowing. (I'm accident prone)

I chose the gray rocks to match the pool wall. Funny, when they are wet they are gray. When they are dry they are white.

I mentioned that having dirt/grass up to the sidewall is discouraged, but my last steel pool had it that way and lasted for 20 years. I would consider doing that, but this pool has the corithian pillers, and caps, I wouldn't want to bury them, and to level out the yard so the sod line was level with the bottom caps would be more work than i am willing to do.

I hope this will last for a while. My brother in law did the same thing a few years ago and so far it's held up well.

Good luck. Let us know what you decided to do. (and post some pics too)

I looked around the web for ideas, and it seems (accoridng to pool brouchures, at least) many folks choose to plant flowers around the edge. That's not my style.

Hopefully, someday I can wrap a paved patio around the whole deck/pool/spa/firepit area.

Does anyone else have ideas?

[chaz]

looks great. That is right along the lines of what I am planning to do.

Did you replace your old pool with one the same size or was it different?

I've got a big round pool in a big oval hole now! So I have a bunch of sod on the one side to level out.

But as I said, your pics give a great reference point as that is almost exactly what I had in mind. No plants for me around it either, just some stones works.

Thanks again.

[Trigger]

I had an 18' round (48" high) steel wall that came with the house.

This is a 21' (52") round alluminum. So it's slightly larger. I also had it moved out a little further from the house, so the installer did have to do some digging and re-leveling.

[chaz]

cool.

We ended up going from a 15x30 oval 48" high to a 20' round 54" high.

[Trigger]

Oh yea, if you are going to do a landscaping edge around the pool. Take a second look at where you filter is, and how far it's away from the pool.

Chances are the filter will interfere with the edging. What i did was start the edging on one side of the filter, go around the pool and finish it on the other side.

[Crystal864]

On 6/8/2006 at 12:00 PM, Trigger said:

Hi Chaz.

I just had my 20 year old AGP taken down and installed an Ester Williams pool. I too hopefully will be upgrading my decks around the pool....if the budget allows. AS of now, I had the new pool installed right up to theedge of the old deck.

What I just did was buy a black fexiable plastic "no dig" boarder edging at home depot and placed that around the pool. (about 14 " out from the pool wall). I filled the area in with gray stones. It looks clean and neat. I also put down a 30 yr weed mat under the stones to help keep weeds from comming up through.

Next I need to do a bit of grading to bring the sod level even to the stone boarder edge.

I was told that dirt and sod around the pool wall (esp steel walls and supports) is not a good idea. It can cause corrosion. I also did not want my lawn tractor accidently dinging up the pool wall, nor have the weedwahcker hitting it.

I don't think placing stones next to the pool will be a problem for the deck and footings at all. If it is, it's easly removed. Footings for a deck wont be poured fight next to the pool anyhow, usually a few feet away. So I think it's a non issue. My current deck is this way. The footings are about 14 inches away from the pool, but the decking comes right to the edge of the pool.

The no dig boarder was easy too. I used landscaping pegs (about 12" long) Buy extra. they don't give you enough in the box. It installed in a snap. I also cut a leanght of board 14" (the width I felt looked good) that I placed/measured between the pool wall and edging as I peg the edging into the ground to ensure I had trhe same distance out all around.

I got everything from Home Depot. Edging was$20 per 20 foot section. ( a 21 foot round pool need almost 80 feet of eding . remember Cirumfance = Pi X Diameter,) I needed 4 units.

The stones were $4 a bag. I needed 25 bags. You might get a better deal from a local lawn and garden shop and have them delivered.

Goood luck.

How tall was the border you used? I’m planning to do the same thing to my pool this week. I’ve seen different heights and I’m not sure which is best. Thank you.