Old Pool Deck Options - Repair vs. Replacement

[metta]

My mom has dementia and was not taking care of her home for a while. I'm working on getting things repaired and replaced around her home. Right now, I'm having her pool re-tiled, re-plastered, and new equipment. The cement deck is also a mess.

There is an area where the roots of plants lifted the concrete deck up. I realize that will need to be pulled up and replaced. Looking at the cost of replacing a deck, it is extremely expensive. 2/3 of the cost is the cost of removing it. I bought some stuff called EcoBust ( http://www.ecobust.com ) and I'm going to try and remove the section that pulled up myself. And then have new cement put in there.

Other areas of the deck, there are cracks. I would like to remove the area that was lifted up by roots and replace that concrete and if it is cheaper, repair the cracks and put something over it (resurfacing concrete) so that the cracks are not visible. Any options I found seem to be very expensive as well. There is an area of the deck that has a brick bench that would have to be destroyed if I had to take all of the concrete out. The pebblestone looks like it might work but I don't know if it can be done inexpensively.

I would be curious to know if anyone has found of a good inexpensive solution (cheaper than tearing it out and putting in new concrete) to cracked concrete pool decks?

 

[Glock]

Have you thought of having a decking company come out and replace only the bad spots and then refinish or stain it? It might be less than redoing the entire decking.

Edit: That Eco-bust looks pretty cool but you are going to run into rebar in that deck I would wager and I don't see Eco-bust dealing with that very well.

 

[JayBauman]

Edit: That Eco-bust looks pretty cool but you are going to run into rebar in that deck I would wager and I don't see Eco-bust dealing with that very well.

The Ecobust website says that "It breaks both concrete and reinforced concrete", so maybe it can handle the rebar. The gallery pics show some examples of rebar-reinforced concrete that has been successfully broken up. Of course, the pictures may not reflect the effort required to make this happen....

 

[Glock]

The Ecobust website says that "It breaks both concrete and reinforced concrete", so maybe it can handle the rebar. The gallery pics show some examples of rebar-reinforced concrete that has been successfully broken up. Of course, the pictures may not reflect the effort required to make this happen....

I would imagine the rebar would still need to be cut but that would be convenient if it did it for you.