Hey Paul, check out a place called ecooutdoors.com.au for inspiration. I'm not sure if they're up your way but I'm sure you could get materials shipped. They have such a beautiful store with brilliant ideas. I'd be considering a stone that is cool under foot on hot Brisbane days and at least 30mm thick. You have an oval-ish shaped pool so you might consider a small coping stone to replace the brick then move on to a larger stone instead of the dated pebble, maybe a 'cush' limestone or go a bit glam and do a herringbone pattern with the right stone. Good Luck.

I'm not an expert, but we have renovated a pool and made 1 big mistake. We had similar coping that formed a big hob all the way around (unlike yours). We leveled it out with paving (and then coated the pebblecrete with an epoxy sandstone-look product). The mistake? Part of the yard sloped down to the pool. Every time it rained.....all the sand, dirt and debris from down the side of my house and around the pool went straight into the pool. If we had our time over- we'd leave a small hob around the side of the pool where the land sloped down. Yours looks like it is on the downside of your house with some garden. The hob might be there for a reason.....as we learned.

We built a pool exactly the same, however we didnt use laminated glass but a monolithic piece of 80mm thick Plexiglass 3mx2m from Germany. This reduced the overall cost of the pool considerably. Pool was fantastic and doubled as a water feature when not in use. Incorporating LED lighting allowed the pool to take on the mood of the night. The only downside we found with the pool was that after heaving swimming and sunscreen the waterline of the Plexiglass would need a clean. Other than that it gained lots of comments and was even used for photo shoots and promo work.

Tiling over the top is the short-term solution that has long term problems. Looks great until there is any movement, expansion or cracking in the pavers below the tiles. If you are spending the money on a new pool surround make sure it is going down on a stable substrate that will last decades. The key to selecting the right pool surround material is to select materials that are not affected by pool chemicals, have some non-slip properties, and work well with edging. I always look at concrete pavers first for pool surrounds, as they are hard-wearing and cost effective. You will find that the colours and types that are available vary from state to state. Natural materials, such as bluestone, are more expensive, and need more skilled and expensive labour to install. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls