I have a 15 year old pool and the current acrylic surfacing of my concrete deck is starting to flake off. It's flaking off on the vertical coping edge (into the pool) , as well as some of the regular horizontal surfaces. Additionally. the caulking on the edge where the concrete deck intersects my water line tile has separated and some of the concrete has chipped off.
Shared album - Michael Hartman - Google Photos
I'm getting quotes from some landscape companies on covering it with travertine pavers and bullnose coping. One company (a combination pool builder and landscape company) said it's best to remove the entire concrete deck before doing the pavers. They said this would be the "best look" as adding the 1.25" of pavers can make the edge of the pool look clunky. This sounded like a good idea because it would ensure no concrete decking in the future would flake off into the pool. Another plus is that they would have to re-do the caulking between the new pavers and the waterline tiles. I don't think they were trying to upsell me more work as this company did not do the demolition themselves, but gave me a name of subcontractor I could contact myself.
Another company came out (landscape only) and highly suggested to not remove the current concrete deck. They said the act of removing the deck could damage the pool walls. The mentioned the rebar of the pool walls might have been tied into the pool deck. They said since my pool is 15 years old, any concrete cracking is over with and putting the pavers over the current decking is preferred. "The pavers were designed for exactly that". They mentioned they would "sand the current deck" to get a good bonding surface for the coping tiles.
I'm aware that the common installation method for overlay pavers is to have the edge tiles cemented to the underlying surface, while all the tiles in the middle are just "floating". I'm thinking that my current acrylic coating should be removed and the tiles be cemented into the concrete surface under that. Cementing to the current acrylic surface to me sounds like a cheap way out that is a recipe for trouble in the future.
If anyone has gotten this done before, or is a contractor that does this, I'm curious to know your thoughts on the best method for installation here. I'm spending 5 figures to get this done, and I want to have it done the right way, but avoid superfluous work.
Shared album - Michael Hartman - Google Photos
I'm getting quotes from some landscape companies on covering it with travertine pavers and bullnose coping. One company (a combination pool builder and landscape company) said it's best to remove the entire concrete deck before doing the pavers. They said this would be the "best look" as adding the 1.25" of pavers can make the edge of the pool look clunky. This sounded like a good idea because it would ensure no concrete decking in the future would flake off into the pool. Another plus is that they would have to re-do the caulking between the new pavers and the waterline tiles. I don't think they were trying to upsell me more work as this company did not do the demolition themselves, but gave me a name of subcontractor I could contact myself.
Another company came out (landscape only) and highly suggested to not remove the current concrete deck. They said the act of removing the deck could damage the pool walls. The mentioned the rebar of the pool walls might have been tied into the pool deck. They said since my pool is 15 years old, any concrete cracking is over with and putting the pavers over the current decking is preferred. "The pavers were designed for exactly that". They mentioned they would "sand the current deck" to get a good bonding surface for the coping tiles.
I'm aware that the common installation method for overlay pavers is to have the edge tiles cemented to the underlying surface, while all the tiles in the middle are just "floating". I'm thinking that my current acrylic coating should be removed and the tiles be cemented into the concrete surface under that. Cementing to the current acrylic surface to me sounds like a cheap way out that is a recipe for trouble in the future.
If anyone has gotten this done before, or is a contractor that does this, I'm curious to know your thoughts on the best method for installation here. I'm spending 5 figures to get this done, and I want to have it done the right way, but avoid superfluous work.