Poolside landscaping

If you have, or are intending to have, a swimming pool installed in your garden, then you will ideally need a hard landscaped area around the pool.

Hard landscaping covers everything from tiles and pavers to cement (concrete), timber decking and vinyl surfaces. The term is generally used to indicate a purpose built area for some practical purpose, in this case connected with a swimming pool and its associated recreation. Most areas of decking, tiling or paving are used for relaxing on poolside furniture before, after or bewteen using the pool. The advantages of hard landscaping are multi-fold.

• Hard landscaping makes it possible to clearly define the overall pool area and adds an attractive and practical feature to the zone surrounding the pool.


• Hard landscaping ensures that a perimeter is maintained between the swimming pool and vegetation, lawns or other potential debris producing environments. Debris that gets into the pool will affect its appearance and will make the cleaning of the water and any pool liner a more time consuming process.


• Tiles can be used to match, contrast or link in with the colours or pattern of the swimming pool liner. This provides a look of continuity from the pool base and walls to the landscaping and links the pool to the area surrounding it.


• Having a hard landscaped area around a swimming pool provides a clean and easy to maintain zone for chairs, tables, poolside equipment and drying off after a swim.


• Hard landscaping can also be used to link the poolside area to the house or other recreational areas with access paths or pavements.

Poolside options

When it comes to hard landscaping around the sides of a swimming pool there are many option. They range from the overall area and shape of the landscaping to the materials used and the colours selected. In short how this area is treated will have a big impact on the appearance of both the pool and the garden surrounding it.

The cheapest option is to have a path-like perimeter running around three sides of the pool with the fourth side having a larger area for chairs and a table. Keeping edges straight (i.e. avoiding curves and interesting shapes) also keeps costs down.

More elaborate designs use curves and interesting shapes to soften the angles of the pool and create a more interesting and eye catching aesthetic.

The most common poolside landscaping material is ceramic tiling. Tiles can be selected to match the pool base and walls and, even if a swimming pool liner has been used, it is not a difficult task to find tiles that will match the liner’s colours.

Pavers and slabs are two other potential material choices, however they move away from the finish and style of the swimming pool (i.e. its tiles or liner) and therefore they are not as common.

Colour selection is an important factor in determining how the area surrounding a pool will look. Most people will try to match one or more colours from the pool liner to the tiles that they select. This links to pool to the area around it and most find this desirable.

Hard landscaping can be a time consuming and messy process. It involves the excavation of the area where the tiles, pavers etc will be placed for the creation of a structural sub-base. Because of this it is advisable to complete this part of the work prior to the installation of a swimming pool liner or the filling of the pool with water. Having soft landscaping immediately surrounding a swimming pool is not a practical option.