Pavement and pool borders

(in the picture: wood all over around the pool (c) Baires Piscine)

The pavement around the pool contributes to defining the style of the entire atmosphere. How do you choose among so many available materials for the one most suitable for the solarium of your pool? A choice that follows aesthetic criteria has an assigned rule: a more technical and linear choice of pavement is to be chosen when placed near the home or architectural structure. On the other hand, if there is less contact that exists between the pavement and surrounding environment, a more rural and/or natural material is more suitable. Combinations often add a touch of charm to pavement, multiple and various: different sizes and forms of the same material as regular slabs combined with cube inserts; free-form or geometric designs in the pavement, created with materials of different types; combination of different materials, for example, stone and wood; combinations of different colors, like natural stone with inserts of colored cement and vice versa, colored mosaic with tropical wood and many others.

The charme of natural stone

Technically more difficult to realize but still more refined: a pool where the pavement in salvaged natural stone meets with the water, while the remaining area is covered in slabs of recovered stone. Pictures from left to right: cubes of natural porphyry; Serena stone slabs.

Pictures from left to right: the porphyry stome from Sorentino lines the pool inside and out and allows the water to assume colors of the seasons and change with the light in the sky. (ph. Tecnocstudio). Colored gravel and natural stone inside the pool. Natural stone slabs inside the pool: a great solution in order to create a pleasant environment according to the existing architecture (ph. Arch. Lamberto Caponi).

Traditional earthenware

Earthenware pavement is simple in its natural state, but refined and versatile since it lends to a plurality of style solutions and various needs. Its color and unmistakable “warmth” make it ideal for the solarium of an outdoor pool. Significant in its value: it has a low degree of heat absorption that avoids excessive overheating of the surface, good resistance to acids, and in case the pool is near the sea it is also resistant to salt.

Ceramic

The choice here is vast for both color and the material’s effect: we’re referring to ceramics, a practical solution, aesthetically valid and a more accessible cost. For a particular environment like the pool, the quality of ceramics promises durability and resistance, absorbance, resistance to freezing, strong temperature changes, trampling and is an excellent coefficient of friction. The numerous solution of available ceramic formats allow original designs, thanks to the special pieces like pool borders and overflow grids (ph. Florim)