We've had our pool for 8 years and used pavers. A big reason for our choice was drainage. They did a great job and we've had no settling issues, there was even a leak that required repairs under part of the decking so that turned out to be a good choice. We did experience some mold in the wetter sections and weeds growing between pavers after a while. We recently hired a highly rated, professional paver company to redo the sand between the pavers which requires a good powerwash cleaning, replacement of the joint sand, machine-tamping it all, and a sealant. Unfortunately after a couple strong rains the sand was partially washed out in some areas. They came back and redid the entire job again only to have the issue repeat itself and now we're discussing next moves.

Swapping gives you so many more choices! It should be less expensive, especially if you leave part of the LR wall. I think that is where you should concentrate, deciding what the wall support footprint will be, then the layout choices will be more clear. I grabbed your planner and played around leaving a portion of the LR wall and a support post since you had one in the original plan. Do you have existing soffits as the plan shows and are they necessary? Unless you have a desire to have the stove on the island, I made room for it on the perimeter. The windows make optimal use of cook space limited. Can windows be relocated? Does something like this work? This post was edited by bbtrix on Thu, May 15, 14 at 19:31

Oh Slow, What can I say!!! Wonderous!!!! L.O.V.E. your patio...looks cool and shady! I am ready to spraypaint my clear plastic roof as it is about as hot a Hades!!!lol! DH vetoed to uv protection roof as he deemed it too much money..ya. Well you have inspired me to go wild with it and maybe paint a mosiac style!!!lol! Each square/checkered...hmmm. I am building a arbor with trellises on either side and have finally made a decision about the GOG that's going in it! Yeehaw! And now that my pond is built, I plan to BLING it up with dangly stuff off the pergola that's over it. I am so gonna paint and bling up my chairs/furniture now that I see yours...YOU sooooo Inspire me!!!! Did I mention that I plan to have a peach tree grow along side the deck/house, then up under the deck roof, and it will be like a green house for it!!! I love the little frog lamp you have, I just was given a turtle one!! Well, it's cookin' here, so I better get out there watering!!! Now enjoy that masterpc of yours Slow!!!!

Sigh....Ok now we get into some SERIOUS installation issues. The reason: you must leave those caps FREE. As in DO NOT COVER. And there are only a few products that can handle this requirement and they are NOT laminate. Sheet vinyl can handle this. Small format TILE (as in 1" x 1" mosaic tiles) can handle this. Larger tiles (yah...I mean porcelain) can handle it but it looks ugly with big nasty cuts. And EPOXY can handle this. Of course a polished concrete can also handle this but I would put that under 'epoxy'. If you decide to continue with the laminate, your installer will need to DEVISE a "hatch door". This can be difficult with laminate because laminate is a FLOATING floor install. To get a hatch door to work the best, the hatch will need to "float" with the floor. And that gets TRICKY. So tricky that the hatch could cost you $$$$$ more money than you ever thought possible. The hatch will have to be designed in such a way that it is somewhat visible (though not too ugly - good luck with that...sigh) AND it must be easily removable (usually involves a handle of some sort...oh dear). I've seen some VERY creative solutions that were extremely handsome. These were created by COMMERCIAL installers working with HUGE amounts of knowledge and skill. The very worst attempts have been 'guys' who will charge you a small amount of money for the install and then you will never hear from them again. I HIGHLY recommend you bringing in a WELL established company that deals with commercial and residential flooring and see what they come up with. They will definitely charge more - but you will also GET more. Personally I would look at glue down sheet vinyl and be done with it. If you have more than one of these things then the install costs for the laminate will be astronomical. And probably not work (after all is said and done). Please bring in a professional to give you some ideas about how to go about this. A commercial installer will have more tools in his knowledge-toolbox than most other flooring installers. This is a far from easy job.