Help make my Pool Deck not UGLY - Kool Deck, Sun Deck, Something Else?

[SonVolt]

We purchased a house with a pool that has the standard swept concrete pool deck. It's rough and ugly. Lots of mold/mildew areas and just overall kind of an eye-sore IMO. Some cracks here and there, which I assume is to be expected. Without ripping everything up, what's some options for making this more aesthetically pleasing? A local pool builder is replacing our liner this summer and quoted me $10,500 for a "Kool Deck" treatment (@$7 square foot with 1,504 total square feet of concrete). That seems expensive but I don't have a frame of reference to compare it against. Is it a good durable product? Ideally I'd like pavers or flagstone, but I'm assuming that's triple the expense if not more...

Does anyone have any thoughts on Kool Deck for existing concrete? Any other options or recommendations?


This is a pic right after we bought the house, before we added outdoor pool furniture, plotted plans etc.

 

[Joshii]

There's another thread below yours talking about this exact thing. I shared some photos of what I did with my ugly deck:

Paint the deck. Have a reputable contractor do it. They'll power wash it, fill all the cracks, etc beforehand. The paint will really freshen it up and gets rid of the real eye-sores: the stains. We went with a sand color to get away from the "industrial" concrete look.

Here's a before and after picture of painting the deck. The second picture in the album shows the fence as well.

Pool deck before + after - Album on Imgur. You can see the original concrete color in the walkway of the "after" picture. It hadn't been painted yet.

We had a pro do the deck painting and prep work. We used this product in color Sandstone: H & COLORTOP Water-Based Solid Color Concrete Stain - Homeowners - Sherwin-Williams

 

[SonVolt]

Very cool. If you don't mind me asking, how much did it end up costing you for deck prep and paint work altogether? Also, how slippery is it? Once painted, is it no longer susceptible to stains and mildew?

 

[kimkats]

For right now I would get some bleach, a good push broom, beer for afterwards and go to town cleaning it up to see how it looks then.

Kim

 

[Joshii]

Very cool. If you don't mind me asking, how much did it end up costing you for deck prep and paint work altogether? Also, how slippery is it? Once painted, is it no longer susceptible to stains and mildew?

Couple grand. The paint costs what the paint costs, but your labor rates may be a bit lower than mine. It isn't slippery at all. I'm pretty sure it will be just as susceptible to stains and mildew. But starting fresh, I'm hoping to keep up with it.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I've gotta say a good pressure washing with bleach would do wonders here.

Be aware that Kooldeck/Sundek type finishes do eventually need to be re-done if they peel or chip off. They do make the surface "cooler" somehow, I dunno how though?

Maddie