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Tavertine vs Cooldeck

farmo83

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My house has a pool with a big wood deck that is time to replace. We don't want wood as I'm tired of little critters crawling under it. Our plan when the deck is out to replace all our pool lines as they are original to the pool (25 ish tears old). My uncle has cool deck around his pool and we both like it as it looks nice and isn't hot in the summer. I live in south Texas so it's plenty hot. My father in law is currently trying building a new pool and is trying convince me to go the travertine route. What is everyone's opinion?

My goal is bang for the buck.
 

grumpy88

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I just built a pool and we did cool deck but that was just because of cost . I really wish we had travertine
 
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Motor Boater

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Travertine pavers! I love the look and you can remove, replace etc if you need to fix anything. My uncle did 1000’s of square feet of travertine tile and the ground settled so it’s all cracking, looks like shit.
 

fmo24

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Cool deck is great until it fails then it’s a pain in the ass.
 
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FishSniper

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My house has a pool with a big wood deck that is time to replace. We don't want wood as I'm tired of little critters crawling under it. Our plan when the deck is out to replace all our pool lines as they are original to the pool (25 ish tears old). My uncle has cool deck around his pool and we both like it as it looks nice and isn't hot in the summer. I live in south Texas so it's plenty hot. My father in law is currently trying building a new pool and is trying convince me to go the travertine route. What is everyone's opinion?

My goal is bang for the buck.
We just finished a build and did travertine pavers and are very happy with it. This is just after they finished the decking.
897A18C1-D7C0-4CD6-8CE4-221A3F91C3EC.jpeg
 

El Rojo

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There's nothing "cool" about cool deck when the sun hits it at my place in Blythe...that being said, it's a great bulletproof coating on a raised wood deck...
 

500bbc

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Travertine is like walking on snot.
 

HB2Havasu

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X 2. I used the same pavers. Very happy. Travertine looks great, but slippery as f... when its wet, like around a pool.
That’s why we went with concrete pavers around our pool. Using travertine coping though
 

Ace in the Hole

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We have cool deck coating in Havasu...it’s not held up well. We are deciding what to do ok replacing it...I’m inclined to do tile...
 

steamin rice

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I did travertine pavers and Im happy with them. I have a saltwater pool and have a few pavers that are showing wear after about 3.5 years, but 95% of them are holding up fine. The travertine pavers are noticeably cooler than concrete pavers and I think they look much better than cool deck. Artistic pavers as was already noted are an option to consider as well
 
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boatpi

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At 2 year my Artistic pavers all look like new. They are one of the coolest pavers made, even at 108 degrees in sunlight, just have feet wet, walk across them without getting burned. Any temp below 97 or so, dry feet will not burn. They make them smooth top, or a slightly rough finish.
 

MooreMoney

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Thanks. It’s a full time job to be on contractors to get things done in havasu. Don’t get me started on the pool guy we used. As you can see the fire pit isn’t completed with rock and the burner for the flame isn’t installed. By the time it’s done it will be to warm for a fire pit. Ha that’s life I guess.

That’s beautiful 👍🏻
 
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petie6464

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Have had a few houses with cool deck, everyone had issues with it coming off, some worse than others.

I would never use it by choice. The constant discontentment of seeing your deck looking like a bunch of scabs falling off will far out way the lesser cost. If there's no way to swing a paver deck I would use a salted concrete.

I would also shop around, I imagine even concrete is super high right now, perhaps find someone with a bunch of pavers they want to discount to get rid of?
 
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snowboat

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I know it defeats the purpose of COOL deck but if you spray the mix and knock it down, it's easy to repair. Then paint it and repaint as needed.
 
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Mandelon

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Travertine pavers are a much more high quality look. The honed finish is less slippery. Look for a close out tile store to see what deals you can find.
 

Ziggy

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Cooldeck is like having brass bathroom fixtures...so 80's/90’s imo.
My travertine is a lesser grade so it has some slight surface degradation which makes it less slick than the finely finished type.
 

grumpy88

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With the beautiful travertine decks you guys have you must have serious money in your pool builds . They look amazing 👍🏻
 

530RL

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We have the same 18 X 18 travertine tile on the outside patio and around the pool as we have in the house.

It has held up very well over the 15 years it has been in. Couple caveats.

1) It is slippery when wet. Not good for young kids that like to run around.

2) It requires cleaning, grout touch up, re-polishing and sealing every two or three years which is about .75 cents a foot and takes a couple days.

3) It looks dirty quick and requires hosing off and a squeegee every week or two so it is quick and easy to clean but is some work.

We didn’t really have a choice as our house opens the inside up to the outside, but if I wasn’t hamstrung by that issue, I’d probably go with a paver or something easier and cheaper to maintain like travertine pavers or some other type of paver.

I’d avoid cool deck. It’s very 70’s (although the most favorite decade of my life) and it just doesn’t look that good. But it is much cheaper and easy to maintain.

87239DE0-92A5-457C-BD9B-8678DD6E63B0.jpeg
 
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calkid

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We went with travertine and are very happy with it. It can be a little hotter than cool deck but generally there's pool water on it so it's not an issue. I notice a big deference when I step off the travertine onto the concrete, the concrete is much hotter.
 
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