Diamond Black granite pool copings, 600x400x30mm with a bullnose front edge, exfoliated finish. Sold per piece. Also listed as Carbon Black.
Diamond Black Is Not Raven Black
These two get confused, including by suppliers. They are different granites. Diamond Black, sometimes sold as Carbon Black, is a dense near-black stone with very little visible speckle. Raven Black is G684, which is a dark grey-black basalt-granite with a finer, more visible grain.
Laid side by side the difference is obvious: Diamond Black is blacker and more uniform, Raven Black reads slightly grey. If you are matching copings to paving already on site, check which one you have before ordering, because the two will not pass as each other.
Black Coping Around a Pool
A black coping does one thing extremely well: it makes the water look deeper. Against a pale surround the dark edge frames the pool and the water reads blue-green rather than washed out. It is the reason black coping keeps being specified even in projects where everything else is light.
The exfoliated face is flame-treated, so it grips wet. That is not optional on a pool edge, and it is worth confirming on any black granite coping you compare, because a honed or polished black stone at a pool edge is genuinely hazardous.
The Heat Question
Being honest about this matters more on a coping than anywhere else, because the coping is exactly where people sit and stand with bare feet.
Dark granite absorbs heat, and in full summer sun a black coping gets hot. If the pool has all-day sun and is used by children, consider a mid-tone or pale coping instead, or use black coping only on the shaded side. A common approach is a black coping with a pale surround, which keeps the framing effect while giving people somewhere cool to stand.
Cooler alternatives in the same format are Silver Grey granite copings, and sandstone or travertine copings run cooler again.
Fixing and Supply
Copings bed on a full mortar bed with the bullnose set to overhang the pool shell by 20 to 30mm. At 600x400mm the coping gives a 400mm deep edge, wide enough to sit on and to conceal the shell and waterline tiling beneath.
Crates run 1300kg. We import direct into Keysborough, Melbourne, and quote pool builders at crate rates rather than per piece. Freight goes Australia wide. Samples are free, and the matching Diamond Black pavers and tiles carry the stone across the surround.
