Pool Deck to Patio Lip Dress Up

[ToneCap]

Hey all,

This is my first post...

My wife and I moved into this house about 2.5 years ago. Our pool is a mid 1980's in ground gunite Anthony & Sylvan pool (I know... it's in the signature).

So we are currently planning a pool renovation that will include replacement of the existing concrete pool deck and brick pavers. Furthermore, we will be expanding the layout of the existing patio. We are deciding between stamped concrete and pavers. I am well aware of the pros and cons of both and have enough info to make a decision between the two, less one thing...

If you look at the attached photos, you can see that there is about a 3 to 4" elevation difference between the pool deck and the brick patio that butts into it. We have had landscapers / pool builders put transforms and lasers to it to determine the pitch and feasibility of making the lip go away. Unfortunately, it's been painfully determined that it cannot go away because of how close the pool / pool deck is to the house (it COULD go away but the pitch would be so severe that a large portion of the patio would be rendered unusable with furniture, etc). We have come to accept the reality that we need to embrace the lip / step.

I'm looking to see if anyone has run into this issue before and if so, have they come up with any creative ways to deal with it. We're leaning towards pavers and thinking that maybe we run bull nose along the pool deck to dress up the lip and make it look like it was on purpose... Or... maybe put a little low wall along the threshold that could hide the elevation difference. The only draw back there is that I would lose another 6" of what is already a skinny patio between the house and the pool.

Any ideas? Even better if anyone has similar conditions and would be willing to share photos of solutions, it would awesome! Thanks all.

Anthony

 

[Perpetual summer]

And the pavers area can't be raised because of the door threshold?

 

[PoolGate]

Wow that is a serious trip hazard and looks terrible. I would raise it to the pool deck height no matter what that entails. Even if you have to raise the door threshold some. If the only issue is that threshold I don't think that is a big obstacle to overcome. At the bare minimum you need a transition strip that eases that lip.

 

[jbb2388]

While I agree there are complications, I'm not sure that I see why you couldn't just install a channel drain against the house and slope the concrete from the coping to the channel drain. The only issue then becomes where to pipe the drain to. I see the rain gutter attachments in the one pic there so I'm assuming there exists the possibility of making sure the drain leads the runoff far enough away from the house to not cause drainage issues.

 

[Mcow]

I am guessing the door prevents raising the pavers. This may be completely goofy but have you considered a wood deck? The goofy part would be that you would have to have stairs right in front of your back door going up. If the deck was slightly above the concrete though its a step down instead of a tripping hazard and in general I think it would look better (more purposeful). This one is a pickle hopefully someone will come along with a great idea!

 

[ToneCap]

And the pavers area can't be raised because of the door threshold?

Correct.

 

[ToneCap]

While I agree there are complications, I'm not sure that I see why you couldn't just install a channel drain against the house and slope the concrete from the coping to the channel drain. The only issue then becomes where to pipe the drain to. I see the rain gutter attachments in the one pic there so I'm assuming there exists the possibility of making sure the drain leads the runoff far enough away from the house to not cause drainage issues.

We plan on a channel drain against the house no matter what the solution. The elevation difference from the back edge of the coping to the door threshold is nearly 5". The coping runs as close as 8'-6" to the house which would result in a slope of nearly a 1/2" per foot... I think that's too severe.

- - - Updated - - -

Wow that is a serious trip hazard and looks terrible. I would raise it to the pool deck height no matter what that entails. Even if you have to raise the door threshold some. If the only issue is that threshold I don't think that is a big obstacle to overcome. At the bare minimum you need a transition strip that eases that lip.

When you say "transition strip", I assume you mean where the pavers meet the pool deck? I agree. Looking for recommendations on how to do that. I was thinking bull nose along the edge. Any other thoughts?

- - - Updated - - -

I am guessing the door prevents raising the pavers. This may be completely goofy but have you considered a wood deck? The goofy part would be that you would have to have stairs right in front of your back door going up. If the deck was slightly above the concrete though its a step down instead of a tripping hazard and in general I think it would look better (more purposeful). This one is a pickle hopefully someone will come along with a great idea!

That's a good suggestion. We've considered doing something like that or, on the flip side, we've even considered lowering the paver patio and making it a true step as opposed to a little lip... Obviously doing that presents more problems with regards to drainage and basically creating a second pool even closer to my house! Really just looking for creative ways to "embrace" the lip at this point. Thank you!

 

[elizardbethday]

Can you build an entrance "ramp" where you want people to make the transition. Like, poured concrete that makes the transition smoothly, trip hazard free. (Or maybe pavers or flagstone steppers, again installed on an incline.)

Then along the rest of the transition, install a strip of egg rocks or mulch or something, and fill it with landscaping/planters