Staycations: Plan for Some Backyard Thrills This Summer
Staycations are back — if they ever went away. And our next few blogs will highlight elements that help create a wonderful home-vacation. This week we’re showcasing Deck and Patio water slide projects.
Believe it or not, mid-January is the ideal time to plan for such summer backyard thrills.
Swimming Pool Slides
Families that have visited waterparks may already be familiar with such names as Vortex, Typhoon, or Cyclone. And such exciting water slides are possible at home, too.
Deck and Patio has installed such slides on Long Island and the New York Metro area for years (see below). Their sizes and shapes have varied, as well as the scope of the project installations — depending on the client’s budget, property size, and the amount of adrenaline rush desired.
Of course, you can have a slide, on its own, well-secured to your pool without any special landscaping. Or you can have a landscaping firm like Deck and Patio design/build a special setting around the slide you choose.
Beyond even that, one company makes a slide that can be custom-built to fit your existing landscape or future landscape plans. BYOS 1 and BYOS 2 slides, for example, are configured and designed to fit your plans and ideas.
“One thing very special about BYOS,” says Deck and Patio’s Dave Stockwell, “is they can be set into a sloped landscape to look almost natural or just plan funky and fun. You decide everything. That’s the real fun of it.”
Kids love water and action. Pool slides and diving rocks are two favorite pool amenities. “When we add a slide, we build it safe for the kids by setting it in around boulders and plants so if they ever fall when climbing up its steps, it won’t be far and with a soft landing,” says Dave.
“Also note that next to this Deck and Patio-installed Wild Ride water slide with its water falling into the pool, we installed a moss rock waterfall that flows with force over extended rock.
Side Benefits of Swimming Pool Slides
No matter the scope of the slide project, when not in use by thrill-seekers, the calming sounds of water spilling from the slide into your pool transforms your new Cyclone, Typhoon, Wild Ride etc. into a gentle water feature.
So readers: You learned it here first. Water slides aren’t just for thrills. On any given day, they can also help you relax.
It is important to have sufficient room to allow easy access to the slide and any surrounding patio. For this Deck and Patio project, in order to cut back on having too much hardscape, we used stepping stones up from the patio to the slide, which are more in keeping with the slide’s natural setting.
Talk about thrills! Deck and Patio created this award-winning feature several years ago. It called for installing a large serpentine slide around a huge moss rock water feature.
This is the same slide project as pictured immediately above. When we worked on this water feature, we added large natural stones for the climb up to the top of the slide. Also note how an additional waterfall from the hilltop stream falls into the slide itself for an additional thrill.
When planning out this project, we suggested using Rocka steps, moss rock boulders, and creeping plant material instead of the usual retaining wall. This more natural setting provided the sloping landscape required for a fun pool slide. And it makes for a beautiful natural retaining wall, doesn’t it?
This slide is not one of ours. It was custom built by BYOS for Pulliam Pools in Texas. It’s a great example of perfectly fitting a custom-slide into a beautiful landscape plan. Photo: Courtesy of BYOS.