Kerrie, I live in Victoria and my pool in completely internal, that is to say it is part of the house and not an addition to the house. I planned to have an external door with the required regulation lock height and seld closing mechanism. Hubby was dead against this door and so I agreed to have a window instead, not long after, we found out that the laws had changed and you are no longer permitted to access to an indoor pool from the outside, so it was just sheer luck that we changed the door to a window. Further, when we purchased the awning windows (2) with regulation restricted 10cm windouts, our building inspector tried to tell us that the windows weren't allowed and that they would have to remain shut and we were also going to have to concrete "bars" into the brickwork on the outside. I argued that regulation pool fences had the same 10cm restriction and after contacting the Victorian Building Commission, I have confirmation in writing, that the windows are deemed to be adequately safe and the inspector has accepted the finding. My access to our pool now, is only from the inside of the home obviously and if that becomes illegal, then we'll just have to sit and look at the pool longingly through the window, as there won't be any access at all ha-ha I'm not advocating that people argue with regulations but if I hadn't investigated my options further, who knows where I would be, having spent $1,500 on these two windows with laminated glass and how beautiful would my brickwork have looked with prisson bars attached. Cheers, Barbara

Thanks everyone for your further comments. No problem about it being an old post, always nice to communicate with people about design solutions/problems. Jilly, I posted some photos on 1st January 2016, they appear further up in the post. Garden Beet Pty Ltd, and Morel Construction Ltd, both of your solutions look great, but our problem still remains the western Queensland sun which is pretty vicious on anything that will either wilt, fade or break down. It was quite a difficult challenge to come up with something that was affordable, workable and durable. I would love to have had plants because I believe they soften large "hard" exterior areas, but we have decided that we will do that with pots around the pool area. Still have that to do, even after all this time. :) Thanks everyone for re-igniting this chat. Jilly, hope you find something that works for you.

there is also a difference between ceramic and porcelain tiles - often these issues come down to a combination of (a) tile batch size/consistency (b) tiler's skill/capacity (c) communication in that if the tiler opens the tile box and he can't practically achieve what he thought he might because of the general discrepancies in size then they should at least speak to you before they start. So often with many issues in this game, it's about managing people's expectations and having open/honest discussions at the right time. When this breaks down, problems and disappointment is more likely to occur......so coming back to it, if you have high quality porcelain tiles that are millimetre perfect, square and flat then the capacity to lay them with minimal spacing is higher. Also the substrate/prep plays a part as if it's all out of whack and not perfectly straight/plumb/square then you'll be in all sorts trying to achieve the minimal tolerance detail.

watchedpoppy, here's something about heat pumps designed for cold temperatures. Note, these are reverse cycled air conditioners (air-to-air), not pool heat pumps (air-to-water). I don't know how heat pumps stack up. It's an American site, so FYI -13F equals -25C. http://www.mitsubishicomfort.com/benefits/hyper-heating On a side note, temperature is just the product of the motion of atoms & molecules (kinetic energy). These are in motion all the way down to zero Kelvin (-273C). So although it may feel cold outside, there's still energy available in the site, although heat pumps do become much less efficient when it's cold (the difference in input & output temperatures is important). One thing that has made heat pumps very inefficient in the past is that the condensing coil would ice up at around zero C. This would have to be thawed out with a plain old electric element (COP of 1). Greatly reducing the overall COP in temperatures around our below zero C. But the modern heat pumps, which use the CO2 compressors Luxury Home Heating has talked about don't have an electric element to thaw them out, greatly increasing their efficiency. As for the noise issues. Some modern heat pumps (but not all) are very quiet. So just pay close attention to the decibels they produce, listed on their spec sheets. FYI, here's a good read. Though it doesn't mention solar PV, which would be advantageous for a heat pump. https://www.pooledenergy.com/blog/choosing-a-pool-heater-what-are-the-relative-performances-of-solar-gas-electric-pool-heaters/