Resort-Style Pool Decks & Water Features
Pool deck resurfacing, water features, and outdoor living areas that transform the space around your pool into the backyard you imagined when you installed it.
The Pool Doesn't Age. The Deck Around It Does.
The pool in most Northeast Atlanta backyards was installed over a decade ago and still looks great. The deck surrounding it aged out in the first five years. That contrast — a pool that holds its value against a dated, cracked surface — is the project we get called in to fix.
Most original pool decks in this region were finished with brushed concrete or basic pavers selected for cost rather than longevity. They've since shifted, stained, and cracked while the pool itself remains perfectly functional. The result is a backyard where the centerpiece looks great and the surround looks neglected — a combination that reads immediately to guests and quietly erodes the enjoyment of the entire outdoor space.
Timberstone Landscape specializes in pool surround work precisely because it requires a different skill set than a standard patio installation. Proximity to water, wet foot traffic, heat from sun exposure, and the presence of pool chemistry in the environment all affect material selection and installation method. We've done enough of this to know what holds and what fails at the water's edge.
"The pool deck is 70% of what visitors see when they look at your backyard. The pool itself is the other 30%. Most homeowners invest accordingly — backwards."
Timberstone Landscape — Grayson, GACustom Pool Design & Build
A custom-built pool is a permanent architectural decision. The shape, depth profile, entry style, and material palette will define how your outdoor space looks and functions for the next 20–30 years. We design and build to that standard.
Custom pool design starts with the site — the footprint available, the grade, the sightlines from inside the house, and how the pool will integrate with the existing or planned hardscape around it. A pool that works architecturally is positioned, shaped, and finished to feel like it was always meant to be there, not dropped into the yard as an afterthought.
We build gunite pools, which allow fully custom shapes — freeform, geometric, L-shaped, or anything in between — rather than the limited silhouettes that prefabricated fiberglass shells offer. Sun shelves, beach entries, integrated spa and spillover spa configurations, tanning ledges, and deep-end diving areas can all be incorporated into a single design. Every pool we build receives a 3D rendering before excavation so you see exactly what you're approving.
Pool and hardscape are designed as one scope. The coping, deck material, water features, and surrounding outdoor living areas are resolved in the same design phase — not bolted on afterward. This integrated approach is why Timberstone pools look different from pools that were built by a pool company and then surrounded by a separate contractor's patio work.
- Custom gunite pool construction — any shape or size
- Sun shelves, beach entries, and tanning ledges
- Integrated spa and spillover spa configurations
- 3D design rendering before excavation
- Pool + hardscape surround designed as one scope
- Coping, decking, and water feature integration included
Resort-Style Pool Decks
Material selection for a pool deck is different from any other hardscape application. Safety, heat management, and chemical resistance are all specification requirements, not aesthetic preferences.
Travertine has been the premium pool deck material for decades because its natural porosity and light color work together to manage both heat and slip risk. Modern large-format porcelain in travertine-look finishes achieves the same thermal and slip performance with greater consistency and lower maintenance — a practical choice for high-use pool environments. Tumbled concrete pavers split the difference: they offer Techo-Bloc-level design flexibility while staying cool and providing grip.
Every pool deck we install is pitched away from the pool structure — typically 1/4 inch per foot minimum — to direct water away from the pool shell and coping joint. Coping selection and installation is an often-overlooked decision point: the coping is the transition between the pool shell and the deck surface, and it needs to be both watertight and visually resolved. We handle this as a unified design decision, not two separate scopes of work.
- Travertine-look large-format porcelain
- Tumbled concrete pavers — Techo-Bloc line available
- Natural travertine, cut and set
- Coping selection and installation integrated
- Heat-reflective light-colored surface options
- Non-slip surface texture standard for wet areas
Water Features
A water feature changes how a backyard sounds. The ambient noise of moving water masks road and neighbor noise, creates privacy, and signals a level of outdoor design investment that pool water alone cannot convey.
Spillway water features — sheer descent, arched, or multi-port — mount to a raised bond beam or attached wall and create a curtain of water that falls into the pool. They're visually dramatic from inside the pool, audibly calming from the deck, and relatively simple to integrate into an existing pool during a deck renovation. We coordinate the hydraulic installation with the structural and hardscape work to ensure a clean finish.
Pondless waterfalls and fountain features bring natural stone movement into the landscape independent of the pool. These systems recirculate without an exposed pond surface, which eliminates standing water maintenance and the safety considerations that come with young children. The water emerges at the top, flows over a stone feature or cascade, and disappears into a gravel-filled reservoir below — no standing water visible, full sound and visual effect retained.
Sheet-water walls — a vertical hardscape face with a thin layer of water flowing across the surface — are used in contemporary designs to create a visual focal point that reads more architectural than natural. We build these as standalone garden features or as pool-integrated elements.
- Spillway water features — sheer descent, arched, multi-port
- Pondless waterfall systems
- Natural stone fountain features
- Sheet-water walls — freestanding and pool-integrated
- Integration with existing pool hydraulics
Outdoor Living Around Pools
The pool deck is one component of what the full resort-style backyard looks like. Outdoor kitchen, fire feature, pergola, and lighting bring the rest together. We build all of it — and we design it to work as a unified environment.
A poolside outdoor kitchen positioned on the opposite end of the deck from the water creates a natural flow: guests migrate from the water, dry off at the transition zone, and arrive at a fully equipped cooking and serving area without crossing through the wet splash zone. This kind of traffic-flow design is the difference between an outdoor kitchen that gets used and one that's positioned poorly and feels awkward in practice.
Fire features near pools add ambiance for evening use — the pool becomes usable after sunset in a way that a pure hardscape cannot achieve. We incorporate safe clearances from pool water and equipment, proper gas line infrastructure, and fire pit or fireplace designs that work with the hardscape material palette rather than against it. Pergola and shade structure placement over pool decks requires footings that won't compromise the pool shell, and we coordinate this work to ensure the structural and hardscape scopes don't interfere.
- Poolside outdoor kitchen and bar areas
- Fire pit and fire feature near pool areas
- Pergolas and shade structures over pool decks
- Outdoor lighting integrated into hardscape surface
- Full resort-style pool surround buildout
Time to Make Your Pool Deck Match the Pool?
Free pool deck consultations across Grayson, Suwanee, Johns Creek, Alpharetta, and throughout Northeast Atlanta. We assess the site before we write any proposal.
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