Location: Chattanooga, Tennessee

Project: Residential Pool Deck – Decorative Concrete Overlay System

Installation by: Architectural Concrete Finishes

Material Supplier: SureCrete Design

Total Sq Ft: 960 sq ft

Products Used: SCR, SureSpray, Flash Patch, Eco-Stain, SureSeal 20%

With the damage that cold winters can have on concrete surfaces, you can imagine how a pool deck would look over time. The situation for this project in Tennessee is an existing broom finished concrete pool deck with multiple cracks and a old weathered look to the surface. If you where the homeowner you are probably thinking the same thing, it’s time we created a nicer aesthetic look to our outdoor living area. Let’s look at how the team at Architectural Concrete Finishes (ACF) tackled this pool deck makeover and what obstacles they encountered.

This particular client had a short schedule in which the new pool deck makeover could take place, the time frame given was one week. Not typically a difficult task, except the weather was not going to cooperate that well with showers coming during the middle part. This required the team at ACF to work 28 hours over 2 days.

With the pool deck having cracks, they chose to use an epoxy crack treatment system. They followed that up by patching any low concrete areas with Flash Patch. This material allowed for a quick setup time, typically 30-45 minutes, and allowed them to quickly get to the base coat of the pool deck makeover. ACF choose to use the latest technology in resurfacing concrete overlays, the product is called SureSpray. What makes this material desirable is its simplicity and bonding strength. It is a single component mix design, “just add water”, and it is zero VOC making it an Eco-friendly concrete overlay.

The base coat of SureSpray was applied with a stand up squeegee and left to dry overnight. The next morning they used 1/2″ reinforced tape to create 48″ square patterns on a 45 degree angle. Along the coping of the pool they created a 12″ border to complete the design of the pool deck makeover. Once the tape pattern was completed, they mixed up some more SureSpray but used an air compressor with a hopper gun to create the top surface design. Allowing the top coat to dry for several hours, they began the first phase of color. Keeping with the Eco-friendly product theme, they used Eco-Stain. Espresso was the color chosen and it was mixed with water 6-1 to create the desired color scheme. After the stain dried, they pulled the reinforced tape to reveal the pattern and began to put the first coat of sealer on the surface. The used brushes along the area close to the coping in order not to prematurely seal that area.

Once the sealer cured hard enough, they began staining the 12″ coping border with Espresso Eco-Stain at full strength, leaving a rich and much darker brown border. At this point they used a HVLP gun to spray the stain on the border. This tool is neat because it allows you to control the amount of a material going to the pool deck surface and it creates a solid look rather than a modeled look seen from typical pump up sprayers. Once the stained coping was dry, the entire pool deck received its final coat of sealer, SureSeal 30% clear.