Stamped concrete vs pavers around a pool in Ohio

Stamped concrete is one poured slab. While the concrete is still plastic, the crew colors it, presses textured mats into the surface to imprint a stone, slate or brick pattern, then cuts control joints and seals it once it cures. You get one continuous surface that reads like stone from a few feet away.

Pavers are hundreds of individual units, factory made from concrete, laid on a compacted stone base and a sand setting bed, with sand swept into the joints and a solid edge restraint holding the field together. Natural stone pavers work the same way.

That one difference, a single slab versus many small pieces, explains almost everything about how each one behaves through a Northeast Ohio winter.

A Northeast Ohio winter rarely stays frozen. Temperatures cross 32 degrees again and again between November and March, and every time water in the surface or in the soil below freezes and thaws, it pushes on whatever is sitting there.

Stamped concrete resists that at the material level. The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association says concrete exposed to freezing and thawing must be air-entrained, which means millions of tiny air bubbles are mixed in to give freezing water somewhere to expand. For severe exposure it calls for 6 to 7 percent air. Concrete also shrinks as it cures and will crack somewhere, so control joints decide where. The NRMCA recommends joints no farther apart than 24 to 36 times the slab thickness, about 10 feet for a 4 inch slab, with panels close to square. On a stamped deck, those joints need to be planned with the pattern so they fall along grout lines and do not look like mistakes.

What stamped concrete cannot do is move. If the base under it settles or heaves, the slab cracks, and a crack through a colored, patterned surface is hard to patch invisibly.

Pavers handle it differently. The units themselves are dense and strong. The U.S. standard, ASTM C936, sets requirements that include freeze-thaw durability, and ASTM C1645 is the test method for freeze-thaw and deicing salt durability. The Concrete Masonry and Hardscapes Association, which absorbed the old Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute, says pavers should not be installed if they do not meet ASTM C936 or the Canadian CSA A231.2 standard. And because the surface is broken into small pieces, a little ground movement shows up as a paver sitting slightly high, not as a crack.

Neither material fixes a bad base. On the wet clay and glacial till common across Summit, Portage and Medina counties, both need proper excavation, a compacted stone base and a way for water to get out from under them. That base work is where durability is won or lost, and it is the part you never see once the job is done.

Most pool decks are not shoveled all winter, but plenty of pool patios connect to a back door, a walk or a driveway that is. Salt is hard on concrete. The NRMCA says not to use deicing salts such as calcium or sodium chloride in the first year after the concrete is placed, and never to use ammonium sulfate or ammonium nitrate, which it says are chemically aggressive and destroy concrete surfaces. It also recommends a breathable silane or siloxane sealer to keep water and salt out of the surface.

The Pennsylvania Aggregates and Concrete Association adds that concrete should be kept above freezing until it reaches design strength, usually at 28 days, and that deicers tend to amplify freeze-thaw damage. That matters in Ohio because pool decks are often poured in late summer or fall, only weeks before the first hard freezes.

Pavers made to ASTM C936 are tested against freeze-thaw with deicing salt, and a paver that does get damaged can be replaced on its own. If you know a path will be salted every winter, that is a point in favor of pavers for that stretch.

This one surprises people. Stamped concrete is usually sealed with a clear acrylic that deepens the color and protects the surface, and a glossy sealer gets slick when wet. The fix is a grit additive, usually aluminum oxide or a polymer, mixed into or broadcast over the sealer. Concrete Decor magazine notes that these additives wear away with the sealer and that sealed stamped decks typically need resealing every two to three years, depending on foot traffic and sun.

Pavers have a textured face and many joints, which gives bare feet more grip, and they do not need a sealer to perform. Some owners seal them for color. If you do, the same rule about grit applies.

Either way, choose a pattern with some texture near the water. Very smooth stone-look stamps and polished-look sealers do not belong where wet kids run.

Yes, and it affects the order of work. The National Electrical Code requires equipotential bonding of the perimeter surface around a pool, which it defines as extending 3 feet horizontally beyond the inside walls of the pool. The idea is to keep everything a swimmer might touch at the same electrical potential.

With poured concrete, the reinforcing steel in the slab can do that job when it is tied into the pool's bonding grid. With pavers, the code calls for bonding by reinforcing steel, welded wire, or a copper grid under the paving, and the Residential Code version of the rule says the conductor is secured 4 to 6 inches below the subgrade. That has to be installed and inspected before the base and pavers go down, so it belongs in the plan from the start.

Stamped concrete: clean it, reseal it every few years with grit in the sealer, keep salt off it, and keep an eye on the joint between the deck and the pool coping. Hairline cracks are normal in any concrete. A crack that opens up or a panel that tips usually means a base or drainage problem underneath.

Pavers: top up joint sand when it washes out, pull the occasional weed, and reset any paver that settles or lifts after a hard winter. Ants like sand joints. Polymeric joint sand helps with weeds and washout.

Over 15 or 20 years, a paver deck tends to need small, cheap repairs. A stamped deck tends to need nothing for a while, then a reseal, and occasionally a repair that is hard to hide.

Every Ohio State Pools fiberglass package, from $68,400 installed, includes a 4 ft concrete wrap deck. That is enough to walk around the pool. Most families add patio for chairs, a table and a grill, and that added area is where the stamped concrete or paver choice comes in.

Plain broom-finished concrete is the lowest cost surface per square foot. Stamped concrete adds color, stamping labor and sealer. Pavers usually cost more again to install, because of the deeper base, the edge restraint and the labor of laying every unit, and natural stone sits above that. What moves any of those numbers on your lot is mostly the same list: how much digging and base the soil needs, how far materials travel from the street, steps and grade changes, drainage, and how many curves the layout has.

If the deck is a separate phase from the pool, our outdoor living projects start from about $15,000. We work with lenders, including PoolLoan.net and HFS Financial, and a lot of families finance the pool and the patio together so the whole backyard is done at once.

Our honest take for Northeast Ohio: choose based on how you want it to look and how you feel about upkeep, then insist on the base either way.

• If you want a continuous stone look at a lower first cost and you will reseal every few years, stamped concrete is a good choice.
• If you want easy spot repairs, better grip without sealer, and a surface that forgives some frost movement, pavers are worth the extra up front.
• Plenty of pool yards mix them: concrete right around the pool, pavers or natural stone for the patio and paths, and a coping that ties the two together.

We show the options in the 3D design before anything is dug, so you can see the colors, the joints and the size of each area next to the pool and the house.