Pebble Pool Finishes in Harker Heights, Texas
Killeen Pool Resurfacing installs pebble pool finishes in Harker Heights, Texas, the Bell County city on U.S. Highway 190 just east of Killeen. The surface is real stone: the National Plasterers Council describes pebble finishes as small pebbles, glass and other materials, hard-troweled and then exposed, and rates them at 12 to 18 years against 5 to 8 years for traditional white plaster.
Harker Heights has grown from 12,932 people in 1990 to an estimated 35,195 on July 1, 2025. Whether your home is near Community Park on Knights Way or Kern Park on South Ann Boulevard, we'll go over pebble sizes, colors and the start-up during a free estimate, and calls and requests get an answer 24 hours a day.
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Pebble finishes for Harker Heights homes
Housing from the 1970s to the 2000s
The U.S. Census Bureau's 2020–2024 American Community Survey puts the median Harker Heights home's year of construction at 2001 and its median value at $287,800. Of the occupied homes, 61.7% are owner-occupied, and 7.0% of all homes sit in buildings of five or more units. The same survey counts 2,359 homes built in the 1970s, 2,141 in the 1980s and 3,548 in the 2000s. The city also grew by annexation: in December 1988 it took in the 2,200-acre Comanche Hills utility district, growing the townsite from 4,400 to 6,600 acres and adding almost 3,500 people.
Pebble against plaster and quartz
The National Plasterers Council's ratings run 5 to 8 years for traditional white plaster, 10 to 15 for quartz, 8 to 12 for polished finishes and 12 to 18 for pebble. Its reason for pebble's lead is the stone itself: river pebble is chemically inert and unlikely to react with pool water. The Council lists the trade-offs as well, a slightly more textured surface, a higher cost and possible damage under the most extreme chemical conditions. Because a finish spends its life under treated water, the Council adds, its look changes over time, and the finish chosen at the planning stage does much to decide how well a pool keeps its looks.
According to Pebble Technology International, a project usually starts with leaks or cracks, hollow pool walls, loose pebbles or tiles, or mottling, mildew or algae. In a remodel, it adds, the finish and the waterline tile are usually done together. Textures, colors and the makers' ranges are set out on our pebble pool finishes page.
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Get free estimatesLake Belton water and a new pebble surface
What the City's 2025 water report lists
The City of Harker Heights's 2025 drinking water report says all of the City's water currently comes from Lake Belton. It is treated at Bell County WCID No. 1's Lake Belton and Lake Stillhouse Hollow plants, which give the City 16.25 million gallons a day of combined treatment capacity, and the City holds Brazos River Authority contracts for 8,500 acre-feet of raw water in Lake Belton and 300 acre-feet in Stillhouse Hollow. The report lists chloramine as the disinfectant, averaging 3.68 ppm in 2025 (range 1.78 to 4.23 ppm, against a maximum residual level of 4), and sodium averaging 20 ppm.
The report's newest hardness reading dates from 2013. For a recent figure, TCEQ sampled the water leaving WCID No. 1's three Belton entry points on January 12, 2026 and recorded total hardness, as calcium carbonate, of 142, 143 and 144 mg/L. Those are WCID No. 1's plant figures, not readings from Harker Heights taps.
The first 28 days
Pebble makers tie their warranties to how a new surface is started and kept. Wet Edge Technologies says a new finish is hard to the touch but takes 28 days to be mostly cured, and it asks owners to register the finish within 60 days, keep start-up and monthly water records, and follow the National Plasterers Council's start-up for all its products. CL Industries' warranty wants a monthly water test, recorded by a company on a computerized system. Pebble Technology International recommends nylon, nylon-and-stainless or polypropylene brushes for its exposed finishes, but nylon only for the smoother PebbleFina and PebbleBreeze. Killeen Pool Resurfacing will go through the start-up and the records each maker asks for at the free estimate.
Plastering in summer heat
At NOAA's station in Killeen, the 1991–2020 normals average 104.8 days a year that reach 90°F and 18.4 that reach 100°F. The National Plasterers Council says hot, dry or windy weather shortens set time, dries the surface faster with a risk of abnormal shrinkage cracking, makes cold joints more likely, and can leave uneven color between sunny and shaded areas. For the mix itself it lists cold water or ice, a slower-setting cement, a pozzolan, and set retarders used to the maker's recommendation.
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Get free estimatesPermits, contractor registration and drain water in Harker Heights
The 2024 pool code and the City's fees
Since January 1, 2025, Harker Heights has used the 2024 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, adopted alongside the 2024 building, residential, plumbing and mechanical codes and the 2023 National Electric Code. The City's fee schedule charges $300.00 per structure, plus $10.00, for an in-ground swimming pool or spa permit, and $50.00 plus $10.00 for an above-ground one. Ask the Building Official at 305 Millers Crossing whether your resurfacing job needs a permit before any work is booked.
Registered swimming pool contractors
The City's Code of Ordinances defines a swimming pool contractor as "a person who contracts to install, repair or modify swimming pools, whirlpools, or hot tubs." Like other construction contractors, such a contractor must hold a valid city certificate of registration before working inside the city limits. Registration costs $75.00 plus a $10.00 technology fee, and the chapter exempts work people do on property they own or occupy, and work for which the City requires no building permit.
Where drained pool water goes
Harker Heights amended the plumbing code with a rule written for pools: "Wastewater from swimming pools, backwater from filters shall discharge to the nearest public roadway or approved drainage reserves by means of adequate piping."
Drought stages and refilling
The City's drought plan counts filling, refilling or adding to a swimming pool as non-essential water use and sets four stages. At Stage 2, a pool may be filled only between 8 p.m. and 9 a.m. on the customer's designated watering day. At Stage 3, filling or refilling a pool with potable water is prohibited, and Stage 4 keeps every Stage 3 rule. A resurfaced pool has to be refilled, so check the current stage before the old finish comes out.
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Get free estimatesParks, pools and history around the city
Carl Levin Park pool and the City's parks
The City's public pool is at Carl Levin Park, 400 Millers Crossing. Its 2026 season ran May 30 through August 9, closed on Mondays for maintenance and deep cleaning, and its posted rules keep chlorine between 0.5 and 1.5 ppm and pH between 7.2 and 7.8, checked four to six times a day. Community Park at 1605 Knights Way covers 62 acres with four softball fields, four baseball fields and a 1-mile lighted trail. Purser Family Park at 100 West Mountain Lion Road has 35 acres with a dog park and a disc golf course, Kern Park is an 8-acre neighborhood park with a splash pad, and Skipcha Park on Prospector Trail is a 5-acre joint-use park. Goode-Connell Park and the Summit Soccer Complex complete the City's list, and residents also have Stillhouse Hollow Lake and the Killeen Municipal Golf Course.
From a 1957 subdivision to a city of 35,195
Harker Heights began in 1957, when landowners Pinckney R. Cox and Harley Kern started subdividing and selling lots on a 400-acre plot that matched Water Control and Improvement District No. 4, created in 1955. The water system was finished in September 1960, and on September 24, 1960 voters approved incorporation and named the city in honor of Harley Kern, who had died earlier. It is a bedroom community: most residents work in Killeen, at Fort Hood or elsewhere in Bell County, and a 1987 study put about 8 percent of Fort Hood's off-base personnel, roughly 4,300 people, in Harker Heights. The population went from 17,308 in 2000 to 26,700 in 2010, and the city's schools are part of the Killeen Independent School District.
Other pool work beyond pebble
Not every Harker Heights pool needs a new pebble surface. We also replaster pools in white or colored plaster, install quartz and glass bead finishes, resurface fiberglass pools, replace waterline tile and coping, resurface pool decks, and repair plaster, cracks, skimmers and leaks, for backyard pools as well as apartment, HOA and other commercial pools.
In Nolanville, 7.5 miles from Killeen's center, the median home was built in 2007, and that town's page covers quartz pool finishes in Nolanville. Belton, the Bell County seat, has its own page on fiberglass pool resurfacing in Belton.
How a pebble resurfacing job runs
Look at the pool
At a free estimate we'll look at the finish, the waterline tile and the fittings, and talk through pebble sizes, colors and whether the tile should be done at the same time.
Check the permit and the stage
Confirm the permit question with the Building Official and check the City's drought stage, because the refill has to fit it.
Drain the pool
The City's plumbing amendment sends pool wastewater to the nearest public roadway or an approved drainage reserve through adequate piping. Pentair's main drain guide explains that a hydrostatic relief valve in the drain lets groundwater pressure under the pool relieve into it.
Strip and sound the old surface
Pebble Technology International's remodel process strips the existing surface first. SGM's manual, written for crews working over old plaster, sounds out every hollow spot and saws a cut 3 inches beyond it before the loose plaster comes out.
Apply and expose the pebble
NPT cites a National Plasterers Council guideline of 200 square feet at 1/2 inch thick per 1,000 lb batch of exposed pebble. Once the finish is hard, at least 4 hours and most often the next day, NPT acid washes it, ideally with a three-person crew, then pressure washes it with a fan tip.
Fill without stopping
A fill can run 18 to 36 hours, NPT says, and overnight the water should be turned down rather than shut off. Pebble Technology International gives the finish about 28 days before its final water and surface color are judged, and calls the loss of a few pebbles or glass beads during start-up normal.
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Get free estimatesQuestions from Harker Heights pool owners
Can a gunite pool be resurfaced?
Yes. The National Plasterers Council defines a pool's shell as formed concrete or shotcrete, wet-mix or dry-mix (also known as gunite), sprayed over a steel reinforcing grid, and the shell is the surface the interior finish is applied to. Resurfacing replaces that finish, not the shell. Makers prepare the old surface differently: Pebble Technology International strips it, CL Industries sells its PermaKote to bond new plaster over a properly prepared old surface without heavy preparation such as sandblasting, and Premix-Marbletite treats a bond coat as "absolutely mandatory" for any renovation. Killeen Pool Resurfacing will talk through which route suits your pool at the free estimate.
What does a pebble pool finish cost?
National figures reported in 2024 put name-brand pebble finishes such as Pebble Tec, PebbleSheen and BeadCrete at about $9,000 to $13,000 to install. Typical Austin-area pricing in 2026 runs $12,000 to $18,000 or more for a full resurface that also replaces the waterline tile and coping. If the City requires a permit, its in-ground pool fee is $300.00 plus $10.00. Those are other companies' published numbers rather than our prices, and a real quote starts with a look at the pool.
Request a free pebble finish estimate in Harker Heights
Killeen Pool Resurfacing answers the phone and the estimate form 24/7 for Harker Heights pool owners, from Millers Crossing to Mountain Lion Road.