Pool Deck Resurfacing and Repair in Killeen, Texas

Knockdown spray-texture coatings

A spray-texture coating is sprayed onto the concrete and knocked down with the edge of a trowel, leaving a slip-resistant texture that is comfortable to walk on; SUNDEK then sprays two acrylic finish coats for the final color and protection. Its system goes down in 4 to 8 layers depending on the surface and pattern, and a typical installation takes about 2 to 8 clear, dry days. Sider-Crete, which makes a cement-based knockdown coating sealed with an acrylic, silicone-enhanced sealer, always recommends a knockdown texture for the most slip resistance and says its system is not a slip-proof product.

Cool deck (Kool Deck)

Kool Deck is a Mortex trademark: Mortex invented the Keystone Kool Deck topping in 1962, and once applied it makes a colored, textured cement surface as strong as the base concrete. Mortex says it significantly lowers the surface temperature of concrete and handles thermal expansion and contraction better than concrete, though its darker Designer Colors are warmer than the standard colors. Paint undoes that: Mortex says its own deck paint gives no cooling and leaves a Kool Deck surface hotter and slicker. Makers disagree about using it on old concrete: SUNDEK says Kool Deck is designed to bond to freshly poured concrete, while Mortex publishes instructions for existing concrete.

Thin cement overlays

QUIKRETE's Re-Cap Concrete Resurfacer is a polymer-modified portland cement product that restores worn or scaled concrete, from a feather edge of 1/16 inch up to 1/2 inch.

Killeen Pool Resurfacing will go over which coating suits the deck at the free estimate.

Why decks crack on Killeen's clay

Concrete expands and contracts with moisture and temperature, the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association explains, and cracks form where design and construction don't allow for that movement, though most early random cracks are unsightly but rarely affect strength or service life. At the Census Bureau's center point for the city the soil is San Saba clay; when it dries, NRCS says, it opens cracks 1 to 3 inches across that reach 20 inches or more deep, and they stay open 90 to 150 days in most years, and NRCS rates 30.8 percent of Killeen's mapped area very limited for houses mainly because of shrink-swell.

Cracks under a new coating

QUIKRETE warns that reflective cracking can't be completely prevented, especially where a slab lacks adequate control joints or settles, and that old cracks can reappear when the base concrete moves. SUNDEK says treated cracks may recur, usually as a hairline largely hidden in the texture, and offers another route: grinding the cracks open into a deliberate scoreline pattern.

Deck joints and the coping joint

The 2021 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code calls for a joint wherever a deck meets existing concrete work, so relative movement can't damage the pool; Killeen has since adopted the 2024 edition. W. R. Meadows makes DECK-O-SEAL, a two-part polysulfide sealant for pool decks that stretches or compresses up to 25 percent once cured, laid over a foam backer rod at a 2:1 width-to-depth ratio, 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep. Its care bulletin cuts out sealant that is damaged but still bonded and reapplies it; if the bond has failed, the sealant comes out and the joint is cleaned first. A failed joint at the pool's edge is pool expansion joint repair, and work on the coping itself, the edge between the pool shell and the deck, is pool coping replacement.

Settled and rocking slabs

Prime Resins, a maker of slab-lifting foam, says structural polyurethane foam injected into the voids under settling or rocking slabs can stabilize them and lift them back without excavation, and that cement-based mudjacking can fracture or over-lift slabs. In one of its pool deck case studies, slabs heaved by tree roots and undermined by poor drainage were raised while the pool stayed open.