A lot of pool deck calls start with a slip. Somebody’s kid went down on the coping last August, or a guest’s foot went out from under them at the steps, and now the homeowner wants the old gray concrete covered with something that grips. The instinct is right, though grip is only one thing a pool surround asks for. Sun and splash get a vote, and so does the date the pool opens. This is the order we work through them on a Villanova deck, before any material gets mixed.

Picking the texture a bare foot will trust

Smooth and glossy is what people picture when they hear epoxy, and around a pool it is the wrong picture. A wet, polished surface under a bare heel is exactly the slip you are trying to get rid of. The finish on a pool surround needs a texture you can feel, and the real question is how much of it.

We build that texture two ways. One is the surface itself, a broadcast or knockdown pattern that leaves a gentle, irregular profile. The other is an anti-slip aggregate worked into the top layer, fine enough that it does not scrape skin and coarse enough that water has somewhere to go besides between your foot and the floor. More aggregate means more grip and a deck that takes a bit more effort to hose clean, so it is a genuine choice, and we make it with you.

Usually we lay out small sample boards, wet them down and ask the family to step on them barefoot. The aggregate options are laid out on our anti-slip coatings page.

Coping, step noses and the edges that take the abuse

Edges fail before the open field of a deck does. The coping where people sit and push off, the rounded nose of each step, and the lip where concrete meets a planter or a fence post all take concentrated wear and a lot of standing water. A coating that runs thin at an edge, or simply stops short of it, starts lifting right there.

We carry the material over the nose of a step and down its face, which is what the photo below shows on a patio step, with the texture following the rounded front and meeting bare concrete underneath. That continuous skin keeps water from getting behind the finish and gives the nose the same grip as the tread.

Some pools have poured concrete coping we can coat along with the deck. Others have stone or precast pieces that should be left alone and neatly detailed against. We look at what yours is made of during the walkthrough and tell you which kind you have before anything gets scoped.

Heat underfoot and color that holds in full sun

A deck that grips but burns is still a deck nobody wants to cross at two in the afternoon. Dark surfaces soak up summer sun and hold on to it, and a charcoal finish that looks sharp on a sample can be miserable on a clear July day. Lighter tans, sands and warm grays stay far more comfortable, which is the corner of the palette we steer pool owners toward.

Color stability is the other half. Bare epoxy ambers under ultraviolet light, and a pool deck has almost no shade to slow that down. Open afternoon sun is about the harshest exposure a residential slab ever gets. That is why the exposed layer on an outdoor deck is polyaspartic, which keeps its color through that kind of daylight, while the pigment and texture sit protected underneath.

The chemistry behind that top layer is on our polyaspartic coatings page for Villanova. Our advice: go a shade lighter than your first instinct, and make sure the top layer is built for daylight.

Splash-out, pool water and the old cracks underneath

Everything that leaves the pool lands on the deck. Treated water sheets off swimmers, a cannonball empties a bucketful onto the concrete, and whatever keeps the water clean rides along with it. Across a season that adds up to a lot of wetting and drying, and bare concrete shows it as pitting, staining and a chalky top. A sealed resin surface sheds that water and rinses clean with a hose, which covers most of the upkeep a coated deck needs.

What concerns us more is what the old deck already carries. Pool surrounds around here go through freeze and thaw every winter, and older decks nearly always arrive with cracks, a sunken section or two, and joints packed with failed caulk. Coating over a moving crack only paints a line that comes back. Static cracks get routed out and filled so they vanish under the finish. Joints that exist to let the slab move stay working, with the coating detailed around them.

Working back from the day the pool opens

A common scheduling mistake is a call the same week the cover comes off. By then the pool company has a date, the family has a weekend planned, and the deck is the one piece nobody lined up. Resin wants a dry slab in the right temperature range, then undisturbed cure time before chairs and wet feet come back. A pool that is already open and full of kids leaves no room for any of that.

Book the deck for the window before opening, and talk to whoever opens your pool so the two jobs do not overlap. Cover removal and startup put hoses, water and people all over the surround, so the coating should be finished and cured first. The weeks after closing are the other good window on many properties while the weather still cooperates, and they leave you a finished deck waiting in spring.

On the day itself, a slab that is too cold or a morning with condensation sitting on it pushes the install back, and we would rather move the date than coat damp concrete. Finished outdoor slabs are in our gallery, and the pool deck coatings service page lists what the system includes.

Questions about coating around a pool

Can you coat right up to the pool edge?

Usually, yes. Poured concrete coping and deck edges can be coated and wrapped so the finish runs continuously out to the edge of the coping. Stone, tile and precast coping are different, and we detail the coating cleanly against them instead of covering them. We check what your edge is made of at the walkthrough and put the answer in the written scope.

Will the anti-slip texture be hard to keep clean?

A little harder than a smooth floor, and much easier than bare concrete. Leaves, pollen and sunscreen residue rinse off with a hose and a soft push broom. The more aggregate we add, the more a stiff brush helps now and then. That is why we choose the level with you on wet sample boards, weighing grip against how much scrubbing you want to do.

Does pool water hurt the coating over time?

Normal splash from a properly balanced pool is exactly what the system is built to shed. We ask that you rinse the deck now and then instead of letting puddles of treated water dry in place all summer, and that pool chemicals get stored and poured somewhere other than the finished surface. A spilled container of concentrate is a different matter from splash.

More posts · Patio coatings · Ask for a quote