Hi – I have been working to make a plan for a Spring pool (and deck) renovation. The pool is old, dated, and needs resurfacing. The deck is concrete with an old kool deck type surface that has been painted over multiple times with some sort of deck paint. The kool deck is delaminating in spots from the underlying concrete, and the paint (multiple coats) gets slippery when wet (kids have fallen). I will attach a photo of the whole pool / deck enchilada.
I have met with 4 PBS and have received proposals for the pool work. Finalizing a plan for what I want to do on the actual pool will be pretty straightforward (replaster, tiling, coping, convert to salt, new drain, etc). Where I am in bad shape is any sort of plan on what to do about the deck. I asked all 4 PBS to include in their proposals options for fixing the deck. Of the four, number one PB recommended ripping out everything down to dirt and laying all new concrete, stone surfacing, etc. Number two PB said flat out he wanted nothing to do with the deck. Number three PB said he knew a guy who might be helpful. After trading a few calls that deck guy, he lost interest and stopped calling back. The fourth PB recommended a guy who I eventually got to come take a look, and he submitted a proposal for the deck as follows:
He thought it would be overkill to rip out all the concrete as it seemed to be in good shape – it just needed to be stripped of paint, stripped of kool deck, etc. and resurfaced. My instinct is similar – there doesn’t seem to be any major cracking or movement of the core concrete. In a two-hour long meeting he discussed laying a new 3-4 inch slab of concrete on top of the old deck and having it extend to create a new cantilever coping. He also discussed removing the existing kool deck and just grinding/polishing the concrete surface. In the end, however, he did not submit proposals for either of those ideas. He did submit a proposal for removing the old paint and prepping the existing surface for new kool deck ($6,000) and laying down new kool deck ($18,000). The total surface area of the deck is 900-1,000 square feet.
The PB who included a complete tear-out in his bid quoted $4,000 to remove the old deck and $30,000 for a new ‘wet laid stone deck’.
I don’t much like the cost of these options but in the end - it will be what it will be. But what I mostly don’t like is the feeling I have not had a thoughtful consideration of alternatives. I have been doing some internet research into all the resurfacing options for a pool deck – and at this point am pretty overwhelmed. There seem to be quite a few options – kool deck, synthetic spray coats, polishing the concrete, retrofit cantilever deck, etc. and I have not had real discussions about most of them.
Question 1 – how can I get my head around what the options are, and pros and cons of each? Is there a good website, or book? Should I be reaching out to a different type of tradesman (not a PB) for just the deck to de-link the deck discussion from the pool renovation discussion? If so, what type of tradesman should I be looking for? I feel like the folks I have been dealing with thus far either a) don’t want to do the job, or b) want to steer me to one path with little in-depth discussion of all the options. I would be willing to pay someone just to walk me through the various options I have, and the pros and cons.
Question 2 – if I decide to go with a thicker coping than I have now (existing is 1 ¼” thick) do I increase my deck options to include the possibility of laying down some sort of thin pavers over the existing concrete (after grinding off the existing kool deck)? Or are there other alternatives that open up if I effectively raise the deck level by using thicker coping? Hopefully this question makes sense.
Any thoughts are appreciated. I wanted to get started on this in the Fall but the lack of progress on a deck plan has killed that. But I’m not starting on the pool until I know what the plan is for the deck.
I have met with 4 PBS and have received proposals for the pool work. Finalizing a plan for what I want to do on the actual pool will be pretty straightforward (replaster, tiling, coping, convert to salt, new drain, etc). Where I am in bad shape is any sort of plan on what to do about the deck. I asked all 4 PBS to include in their proposals options for fixing the deck. Of the four, number one PB recommended ripping out everything down to dirt and laying all new concrete, stone surfacing, etc. Number two PB said flat out he wanted nothing to do with the deck. Number three PB said he knew a guy who might be helpful. After trading a few calls that deck guy, he lost interest and stopped calling back. The fourth PB recommended a guy who I eventually got to come take a look, and he submitted a proposal for the deck as follows:
He thought it would be overkill to rip out all the concrete as it seemed to be in good shape – it just needed to be stripped of paint, stripped of kool deck, etc. and resurfaced. My instinct is similar – there doesn’t seem to be any major cracking or movement of the core concrete. In a two-hour long meeting he discussed laying a new 3-4 inch slab of concrete on top of the old deck and having it extend to create a new cantilever coping. He also discussed removing the existing kool deck and just grinding/polishing the concrete surface. In the end, however, he did not submit proposals for either of those ideas. He did submit a proposal for removing the old paint and prepping the existing surface for new kool deck ($6,000) and laying down new kool deck ($18,000). The total surface area of the deck is 900-1,000 square feet.
The PB who included a complete tear-out in his bid quoted $4,000 to remove the old deck and $30,000 for a new ‘wet laid stone deck’.
I don’t much like the cost of these options but in the end - it will be what it will be. But what I mostly don’t like is the feeling I have not had a thoughtful consideration of alternatives. I have been doing some internet research into all the resurfacing options for a pool deck – and at this point am pretty overwhelmed. There seem to be quite a few options – kool deck, synthetic spray coats, polishing the concrete, retrofit cantilever deck, etc. and I have not had real discussions about most of them.
Question 1 – how can I get my head around what the options are, and pros and cons of each? Is there a good website, or book? Should I be reaching out to a different type of tradesman (not a PB) for just the deck to de-link the deck discussion from the pool renovation discussion? If so, what type of tradesman should I be looking for? I feel like the folks I have been dealing with thus far either a) don’t want to do the job, or b) want to steer me to one path with little in-depth discussion of all the options. I would be willing to pay someone just to walk me through the various options I have, and the pros and cons.
Question 2 – if I decide to go with a thicker coping than I have now (existing is 1 ¼” thick) do I increase my deck options to include the possibility of laying down some sort of thin pavers over the existing concrete (after grinding off the existing kool deck)? Or are there other alternatives that open up if I effectively raise the deck level by using thicker coping? Hopefully this question makes sense.
Any thoughts are appreciated. I wanted to get started on this in the Fall but the lack of progress on a deck plan has killed that. But I’m not starting on the pool until I know what the plan is for the deck.
