I don't know much about this but I just finished my pool and flagstone coping and was told quartzite was the best type....no flaking, very durable. Mine was chocolate quartzite.

Be careful - we had some arizona pink something or other flagstone that was awful. (we are in Katy) It flaked and chipped constantly. Flagstone is easy for installers - you will be amazed how fast they can do the whole pool. After bad experience in pool 1, we did travertine bullnose in pool 2 and REALLY love it. It doesn't look as lagoon like, but is beautiful.

We have South Bay quartzite, from New York state I believe. It is very hard, is not porous, does not flake and is holding up beautifully around our salt water pool. We used it for the coping and dry stack wall but for economy used regular flagstone for the paving. The difference in the porosity of the two stones is apparent when it rains as the quartzite absorbs no water so stays lighter in color than the flagstone. When they are dry the two stones look identical. The spa overflows down the dry stack wall with no noticeable change in the quartzite after 2 years of year round use.

Quartzite is what we used in our front yard. It is very hard/but also more difficult to cut for that reason. It does not look as good stacked since it does not have as much color variation and looks just gray.

So we went with a stone called Red Mountain, which does flake more than I thought it would. I made them replace several pieces already. Anyway, if I had to do it over again, I would do a quartzite deck and use the Red Mountain only for the stacked stone.

Here is a link that might be useful: Our pool deck/pool build

Katherine/sdkath,
that looks like what we want, it seems to have all the colors. Called Red Sockeye? Is yours in Texas?
Now to advise PB on this. Was it more expensive than regular flagstone.

This is a major decision and I do not want any Itoldyousos from my better half.

For those of you that commented how about adding some pic's, I'm in the same situation and would love to see some of the stone.

Here is the link from the stoneyard we got it from. The picture they have shows much more of the "greys" and silvers that we really dislike in quartzite. We found some that had very few of those tones and much more of the richer colors. I do not believe it was any more expensive than the standard quartzite. It is less than 3 rivers, which is one of the more expensive quartzite in our area (but too wild and stripy looking for me).

http://www.krcrock.com/products.php?PID=1162

Here are a few more of our stone pix:

Here is a link that might be useful: KRC rock link to Sockeye Red

In response to your request for photos hmlinca, here is our South Bay quartzite. The coping and dry stack are South Bay, the paving is flagstone.

I have an Arizona Flagstone- "Autumn Flame" i believe. we really liked the variety of colors, especially violet; however, i would go with a quartz next time. Some of the pieces are erroding just like sand--- seems the browner colors are more like a soft sandstone. Has anyone else experienced this? Any recommendations on sealer?

we are also at a stalemate regarding stone choices, first choice was 3rivers, heard too many stories about it leeching so we got away from it, wife doesn't love it anyways. Right now the front runners are "Sunrise" and "OK multi-brown" - not sure if they are quartzite or not, we relied on the stone shop to tell us which ones leeched and didn't. We liked one called "wolf creek" but were told it's no good for coping either - basically are looking for earth tones, tans-browns-golds etc. It seems consesus is the arizona stuff flakes away, we don't like any of those anyways...any other brown/tan stones that would be a better choice from a density/durability standpoint?? We are doing three small patio areas around the pool, so using two different stones is a possibility, a less hardy stone for the patio and a denser/quartzite like stone for the coping...so two choices may work, although we want one to be irregular to match the coping, and the other two in a diagonal set pattern for a more formal contrast - so may just do travertine tiles, stone guy said better to cut them himself but we want the formal look.

We are considering a patio, table and benches of sandstone.My question is the duriblilty of the stone when the dog jumps on the table to get a view over over the wall THAT ENCIRCLES OUER Back yardl The dog is a bassett hound who will not land on the table gracefully. I am afraid of claw marks. Which types of sandstone are appropriate? Will quartzite handle the dog's paws if the sandstone doesn't? i DO NOT PLAN TO CORDON OFF THE TABLE EXCEPT THE DOG MAY NOT JUMP ON THE TABLE WHEN EATING OR ANOTHER ACTIVITY IS TAKING PLACE USING THE TABLE.

sdkath, I would love to hear if you are still happy with the sockeye quartzite. It, and Cameron are two of our possible flagstones for around a pool. It seems to be less shiny/glittery than some of the other quartzite stones. Your patio looks fantastic!