If you live in a place with scorching summers you may wonder which material is the best for a deck that won’t burn the bottoms of your feet. We tested that out on our own deck this Summer on a day where it was around 100 degrees outside. Dan took off his shoes and stepped on each paver and rated the heat by how long he could stand on the pavers.
The ivory retained less heat as compared to a silver travertine paver. At around 100 degrees the ivory travertine pavers were warm, but he could still stand on them. The silver and noce were noticeably hotter. When Dan stepped on the porcelain pavers, it was burning his feet within a second or two and he had to step off the pavers immediately. He felt the burning sensation for a period of time after he stepped off the porcelain pavers. The material that did the best in heated condition was the white limestone pavers. They stayed cool even in 100 degree weather.
It was impossible for Dan to step on the marble pavers because they were so hot.
One step you can take in order to make it possible to step on the pavers is to wet them down. We wet down the travertine pavers and they did cool down for a period of at least an hour. The porcelain pavers cooled down when we sprayed them with water but they also heated back up in about 5-10 minutes.