Concrete Pool Decks in San Gabriel CA - a surface that's easy on wet, bare feet

Most calls we get start with a deck that's cracked, sunk in spots, slick when it's wet or pulling away from the pool's edge, and by then a patch usually won't hold, so the job is tearing it out and pouring new. The price moves with the size of the deck, how much old concrete has to come out, how easy it is to get into the backyard and the finish you pick. The schedule mostly turns on the tear-out, any permit the city asks for, the weather and curing, the wait while new concrete hardens before you can use it. I'll give you a figure for your own yard once I've seen it.

I start by walking the yard with you to see where water runs now, because a deck that falls toward the house or the pool is the first thing we fix. Our crew breaks out the old concrete carefully along the coping, the cap on the pool's edge, then digs out and packs the subgrade, the ground the slab sits on, since a base that's only raked flat settles and takes the deck down with it. Before we pour, I show you how we build the joint between the deck and the coping, a flexible joint that runs the full depth of the concrete, because a deck pushing against the coping is what usually knocks it loose and cracks the tile at the waterline. We set rebar, the steel that holds the slab together, pitch the forms so water runs away from the house, and cut control joints, planned grooves that give the concrete a place to crack where it won't wander. Then we put on the finish you picked with my help and leave the yard swept. If the budget gets tight, I'd rather you give up a fancy surface than skimp on the base, because you can redo a finish later but a bad base means pouring the whole deck again.

Pool decks often connect to other work. If steps come down from the back door or a raised patio to the deck, we can build the concrete steps at the same time so the heights and finish match. If you're adding a pool house or cabana, it needs a slab foundation built to carry a building, and it's easier to plan both together so the slabs meet cleanly.

Whether your deck needs a permit is the city's call, and it's not something I'll guess at from the street, so the place to ask is San Gabriel City Hall, which takes applications by type of project and usually needs planning approval before it issues a permit. Before work starts, we settle with you who will handle any permit the city asks for and what it needs from us. A contractor with employees also has to show the city proof of workers' comp insurance when the permit is issued, which is worth asking any bidder about.

We're based in San Gabriel and work in the cities around it, and a lot of the pools we see sit behind older houses with decks that have settled or cracked along the coping, so I check the coping and tile before I quote and tell you up front if part of it needs a pool tile pro instead of us. We see the same thing on jobs in Temple City and Arcadia.