Pebble Pool Resurfacing in Salado, Texas
Killeen Pool Resurfacing handles pebble pool resurfacing in Salado, Texas, the Bell County village 15.0 miles southeast of Killeen's center. In its product packet, Pebble Technology International sells PebbleTec as an exposed-aggregate interior with an earthy look for pools, spas and water features, and lists durability, slip resistance and stain resistance among its traits.
The Census Bureau estimates Salado's population at 2,565 on July 1, 2025, up from an estimates base of 2,390 in 2020. For a pool near Pace Park, Sirena Park, the Salado Sculpture Garden, the Green Walking Bridge or the Boles-Aiken Log Cabin, a free estimate is where pebble sizes, colors and the start-up get settled.
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Pebble resurfacing for Salado's established homes
An 87.4% owner-occupied village
Salado had 2,394 residents in the 2020 Census, living in 1,103 housing units, 1,013 of them occupied. Owners live in 804 of the 920 occupied homes counted by the 2020–2024 American Community Survey, or 87.4%. The same survey dates the median home to 1992 and values it at $445,900, puts the median household income at $107,679, and finds 6.8% of homes in buildings of five or more units. The Village's list of development agreements names Eagle Heights, Mustang Springs, the Sanctuary and the Stagecoach economic development area.
How a pebble finish's color is judged
Even color is the one thing no pebble maker promises. Pebble Technology International's packet says "the uniformity of color cannot be guaranteed by PTI or by the Applicator," since it rests on how consistent the batches are, how clean the equipment is, how the finish is placed and worked, and on the start-up, the cure and years of water chemistry afterward. It adds that pool lights, or any light that shines across the surface instead of onto it, amplify imperfections and waviness and are not a defect, and it follows the National Plasterers Council in viewing and appraising pools during the daytime.
Additives play a part too. Pebble Technology International keeps calcium chloride to no more than 2% of the weight of the cement in any of its products, warning that it can raise the amount of plaster dust after filling, give light colors a darker hue and leave dark colors blotchier. In a bulletin written with the Portland Cement Association, the National Plasterers Council takes the milder view: kept to 2% or less of the binder, the accelerator leaves the finish no weaker and no more prone to etching, because there is no steel inside a pool finish for it to corrode. NPT puts a modifier it calls Lobo, a mix of pozzolan, polymer and water-repellent chemistry, into its finishes and says it reduces mottling and plaster dust. Pebble types, textures and color ranges are on our pebble pool finishes page.
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Get free estimatesThe Village's pool zoning and permit rules
Private and commercial pools in the zoning ordinance
Salado's Zoning Ordinance No. 2013-08 defines a private swimming pool as one built for the exclusive use of the residents of a one-family, two-family or multiple-family dwelling, and adds that it "shall not be operated as a business nor maintained in a manner to be hazardous or obnoxious to adjacent property owners, and shall be constructed below the average natural grade level." The same ordinance calls a pool commercial when it has accessory facilities, isn't part of the municipal or public recreational system or a private swim club, and is open to the general public for a fee.
The use tables permit private pools by right in every residential district they list, and commercial pools by right in some districts and as a conditional use in others; a commercial pool needs one parking space for every 100 square feet of gross water surface and deck area. In the agriculture and residential districts, pools "shall be constructed and enclosed in accordance with the Village Building Code," and fences around them must comply with "the Standard Swimming Pool Code and the Village of Salado's codes or ordinances pertaining to same." Pools, like tennis courts, walkways and patios, may sit in areas counted as a development's useable open space.
The Residential Swimming Pool permit
The Village's online Building Permit Application lists Residential Swimming Pool as a permit type of its own, beside new homes, commercial buildings, accessory buildings, fences, remodels, re-roofs and additions, and trade permits. The codes the Village names on its contractor registration page are the 2023 National Electric Code, the 1994 Texas Accessibility Standards and the 2021 International Mechanical, Plumbing, Residential, Building, Energy Conservation, Fire, Fuel Gas and Existing Building Codes; no International Swimming Pool and Spa Code appears on that list. Ask the Village's Development Services whether a pebble resurfacing needs the pool permit before the job goes on the calendar.
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Get free estimatesSalado's water and a new pebble surface
What Salado WSC's 2025 report says
Salado Water Supply Corporation, public water system TX0140035, describes its supply in its 2025 report as purchased surface water. The report lists chlorine as the disinfectant, averaging 2.17 mg/L in 2025 across a range of 0.87 to 4.97 mg/L, against a maximum residual disinfectant level of 4, and it prints no hardness, alkalinity or dissolved-solids figure. Kempner Water Supply Corporation's 2024 drought and conservation plan names Salado WSC among its wholesale customers; Kempner WSC draws all of its own water from Stillhouse Hollow Lake, and the Cliff and Eldine Poe Regional Water Treatment Plant treats it.
Testing the fill water on the day
With no hardness printed, the numbers come from a test. The National Plasterers Council's start-up card has the fill water checked for pH, total alkalinity, calcium hardness and metals, and the readings recorded. The Council's reason for care in the first month is the cement itself: about 70% of its hydration happens in the first 7 days after mixing and about 85% by 28 days, and the rest continues for years. Ask Killeen Pool Resurfacing at the free estimate which start-up your chosen finish calls for.
Clearwater district drought stages and refilling
The Clearwater Underground Water Conservation District, which covers the Edwards BFZ and Trinity aquifers beneath Salado, including the spring flow of Salado Creek, runs a voluntary four-stage drought plan written for groundwater well owners. The District says Bell County's water suppliers have their own conservation and drought plans that accomplish the same intent, and it leaves to the water supply corporations how their customers cut use.
For well owners, the stages are specific about pools. At Stage 1 (Awareness) and Stage 2 (Concern), no pond, tank, swimming pool or other impoundment holding more than 50,000 gallons may be filled, except by public water supply systems, and Stage 2 adds: "Keep swimming pools, landscape or decorative ponds and fountains covered (where possible), re-circulate water, and wait 5 to 7 days to refill." At Stage 3 (Serious), filling pools under 50,000 gallons is discouraged and pools are filled only to support aquatic life, and Stage 4 (Critical) bars filling regardless of capacity, apart from aquatic life and public water supply systems. On September 17, 2025, the District's dashboard showed the Edwards BFZ Aquifer in Stage 2, with a Precipitation Deficit Index of 90.08%. A pebble resurfacing ends with a full refill, so ask Salado Water Supply Corporation what its own plan requires before the old finish comes out.
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Get free estimatesStage line, stone mill and a village reborn
From a stage stop to Salado College
By 1852 a post office was serving a growing community on the Burney and Blair Stage Line from Austin to Waco. The Texas Historical Commission's marker says Salado was officially established in 1859, when Col. E. S. C. Robertson donated land for a townsite and a college, and Col. Hermon Aiken drew the town plat. The name is Spanish for salty, used by explorers who likely confused Salado Creek with the Lampasas River. By the 1860s the town had a thriving economy of farming, ranching, milling, mineral baths and education. Salado College opened in 1860, and in 1890 Dr. Samuel J. Jones and his wife, Charlotte Hallaran Jones, set up Thomas Arnold High School, in fact a private academy, in the stone buildings the college had left; it closed in 1913.
William A. Davis built the Davis Mill in 1864, the first stone mill with a carding machine in the vicinity. A sawmill and gin followed in 1866, and in 1871 French burrs, a Leffel water wheel and a silk bolt came from Galveston by wagon.
The Grange, the fair and the long quiet
In 1873 the first Texas branch of the Grange opened in Salado, and the town hosted Bell County's first Agricultural Fair the same year; the fair moved to Belton in 1876. Salado became a virtual ghost town in the early decades of the 20th century, with around 250 people in 1950, and it has grown since then as retirees moved in and the arts were promoted. It incorporated again in 2000. Its schools are Salado ISD, which has its own police department.
Other pool services for Salado
Pebble is one finish among several. Plaster pools can be replastered in white or a color, or given quartz or glass beads instead; fiberglass shells get refinished and older pools painted; and the list runs on to new liners, waterline tile, coping, decks and repairs to plaster, cracks, skimmers and leaks. Apartment complexes, HOAs and other commercial owners are served as well as backyards.
For the county seat, see the page on fiberglass pool resurfacing in Belton, and Holland's page covers pool plastering and replastering in Holland.
Steps in a pebble resurfacing job
Look at it in daylight
At a free estimate we'll look at the pool by daylight, the way Pebble Technology International and the National Plasterers Council judge a finish, and talk through why no maker promises perfectly even color.
Ask the Village and the water supplier
Check the Residential Swimming Pool permit question with the Village's Development Services, and ask Salado Water Supply Corporation whether a drought stage limits the refill.
Get the filtration ready first
Before any finish goes on, the National Plasterers Council wants the pump and filter running properly; where they can't keep up with the plaster dust, it calls for a portable filter system alongside.
Expose the stones
For its River Rok pebble finish, SGM calls water washing with brushes the only approved way to expose the stones. A light acid wash may follow, preferably later the same day or early the next morning.
Fill without a break
The Council's start-up card fills the pool to the middle of the skimmer without interruption, with a clean cloth on the hose at the deepest point, no outside water reaching the finish and nobody in the pool, and starts the filtration as soon as the pool is full.
Follow the maker's start-up
For StoneScapes, NPT specifies the Council's own start-up and upkeep guidelines, and the Council in turn says a proprietary finish should always follow its maker's fill and start-up instructions.
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Get free estimatesSalado pebble resurfacing questions
Does a pool contractor have to register with the Village of Salado?
Yes. The Village requires every contractor working inside its limits to register, fill in a Contractor Registration Application, file a certificate of insurance showing general liability coverage of at least $300,000, and pay a fee. It lists Swimming Pool Contractor as its own category, at $50.00, separate from general, electrical, plumbing and mechanical contractors. Ask any contractor you're weighing whether it is registered with the Village.
How hard is the water in Salado?
Salado Water Supply Corporation's 2025 report doesn't print a hardness figure. TCEQ's records do place one of Bell County WCID No. 1's four treated-water entry points at 10461 Cedar Knob Church Road in Salado, and on January 12, 2026 the water leaving it measured 176 mg/L of total hardness as calcium carbonate; across the samples from January 2024 to January 2026 it ran from 176 to 206 mg/L, while its chloride dropped from 117 mg/L to 64 mg/L. Those figures describe WCID No. 1's plant water, not Salado WSC's taps, so test the fill water on the day, as the National Plasterers Council's start-up card asks, and raise it with Killeen Pool Resurfacing at your free estimate.
What does pebble pool resurfacing cost?
A national price breakdown for 2026 puts a pebble finish at $9,000 to $20,000 or more, where the same list starts basic plaster resurfacing at $5,000 to $10,000. Those are published averages, not our prices; a real figure for a Salado pool starts with a visit.
Request a free pebble resurfacing estimate in Salado
Killeen Pool Resurfacing takes estimate requests for Salado pools at any hour of the day, from Pace Park to Sirena Park.