Shellcrete pool decks
Slip-resistant and cool underfoot, Shellcrete is built for the surface people cross barefoot between the water and the house.
- Cooler underfoot than dark paving
- Textured finish holds grip when wet
- Can overlay a sound existing slab
Code & climate notes
What a pool deck has to do here
Three things, and they are not negotiable: it has to shed water away from the pool rather than toward it, it has to keep grip when it is wet, and it has to be non-absorbent enough that chlorinated and salt water do not soak in. A surface that fails the third one looks fine for two seasons and then starts to spall from the inside.
Salt is the one people underestimate. Salt systems and coastal air both put chloride on the deck constantly, and chloride travelling into a porous surface is what eventually lifts it. Sealing is not a finishing touch on a coastal deck; it is part of the assembly, and it is a consumable that gets re-applied on a schedule.
Slope, drainage and the transition at the coping all get checked on site before any number is quoted, because they decide whether an overlay is even the right answer.