Pool Deck Rubber Surfacing Stops The Spalling Sudbury Winters Cause
We replace the flaking top layer of a pool deck with a rubber surfacing layer water can pass straight through. A pool deck here sits under snow for four or five months, freezes solid, and then takes the spring melt all at once while the concrete underneath is still frozen. Salt tracked from the driveway makes it worse. The surface flakes, the joints open, and the deck gets rougher every year.
Water does not sit on rubber surfacing, so there is nothing to freeze in the pores and nothing to spall. The rubber granules and the binder flex with the slab, and the deck goes back to one smooth, seamless surface from the coping to the fence.
Rubber Surfacing Goes Over The Old Concrete Pool Decks Of The South End
We pour over pool decks from the 1970s and 1980s that have never once been resurfaced. Most of the backyard pools in Greater Sudbury are in the South End off Long Lake Road and Regent Street, in New Sudbury north of Lasalle, and in the older parts of the Valley. Those decks are usually broom-finished concrete that has gone sharp and pale, and rubber surfacing is the practical way to cover them.
Rubber surfacing covers that concrete with a coloured EPDM layer, three-eighths of an inch to half an inch of it, so a grey, pitted deck becomes a tan, blue or grey-flecked one with a soft feel underfoot. The deck stays level with the coping and the patio door, and the pool itself is not touched.
Rubber Surfacing Around A Pool Must Drain, Grip And Stay Cool
We choose the granule and binder for a pool deck with sun and bare feet in mind. EPDM granules hold their colour in the sun. An aliphatic binder costs more, but on a pale tan or light grey deck it is the only choice that will not amber after a few summers. Rubber surfacing in darker colours can use the standard aromatic binder without any visible change.
The finished pool deck rubber surfacing lets splash water drain straight through it rather than puddling. The surface is slip resistant wet or dry and noticeably cooler than concrete in July. Coping edges are protected, and the rubber surfacing is finished cleanly where it meets grass or pavers so nothing lifts.
We start every pool deck rubber surfacing job with a free site visit: we measure the deck, look the slab over for sealer and moving cracks, and a quote is written naming product, binder, depth, area and price. On the install day the deck is pressure washed or ground, cracks are filled, the surface is primed, and the rubber surfacing is mixed and troweled in one continuous pour. A typical deck takes a day or two, and the next morning it can be walked on.
The pool can usually stay open while the rubber surfacing goes down. If the deck is combined with a patio or steps, the patio, walkway and step surfacing can be poured at the same time.