Pool Feature Walls & Water Features

Pools are the most demanding thing Miami Stone Veneer Specialists supplies into, and the reason isn't the water. It's the cycling — wet, dry, wet, dry, with chlorine or salt concentrating a little more each time the surface evaporates.

Three zones, three answers

• Below the waterline. Not our product. Fully submerged surfaces are tile or plaster. Anyone who tells you adhered veneer belongs down there is going to cost you a pool.
• The splash zone. Waterline, spillways, raised beam faces. Our stone works here and needs sealing on a shorter cycle — three to four years rather than seven.
• Surrounds and feature walls. Standard exterior specification. This is where stone does its best work anyway, because it's vertical and people see it at eye level.

Why pale stone wins here too

Same reason as waterfront elevations. Evaporating pool water leaves mineral deposits, and on a dark stacked stone that white bloom shows within a couple of months. Homeowners then attack it with acid wash or a pressure washer, which is how a good wall becomes a ruined one.

On a pale, shell-flecked face it's effectively invisible. Our Coastal range exists for this. Chapa is the other favourite — flagstone reads as natural around water in a way coursed stone doesn't.

The detail everyone forgets

Where the stone meets the deck. If the veneer runs down to the deck surface with no gap, water wicks up behind it by capillary action and stays there. Leave a small reveal and a weep at the base so it can drain.

It's a five-minute decision at install and it's the difference between a feature wall that's fine in fifteen years and one with efflorescence streaking down it in three.

What it costs

Material $11 to $18 per square foot. A typical raised beam and feature wall package on a residential pool runs 150 to 400 square feet. Budget sealer separately and plan on re-doing it — it's cheap and it's the only maintenance this really needs.