Plaza Orange Concrete lifts the old surround off a pool that stays, digs the soft fill behind the shell and pours a 4-inch deck that drains away from it. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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The shell stays, the deck goes
A pool deck is replaced far more often than the pool inside it, and the replacement has to be built to the shell that is already there. The bond beam around the top of that shell does not move. The deck around it sits on whatever was shoveled back against the shell the year the pool was dug, and that is what moves. So the new deck is poured as its own slab, separated from the coping by a joint that can flex, on fill that has been dug out and compacted before a form board goes in.
Plaza Orange Concrete was opened in 2018 by Curtis Ballard, after 18 years on central Orange County crews, and he stands at the coping for every deck pour. Most of them show one picture. The shell went in with the tract in the 1960s or 1970s, and the surround was poured thin, tied to nothing, and sprayed with a textured topping every ten years to hide the settlement. By the time we are called the topping is coming off in sheets and the slab has tipped toward the water.
The work is done under a CSLB C-8 concrete license with liability insurance on every job. A deck around an existing pool is a question for Building and Safety Services, because the answer changes once the job touches the pool's bonding, its barrier or the pipes beneath it. We ask through the Civic Portal before the estimate is written, so the permit position is on the sheet, and the deck carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.
Replace or resurface
Run a foot along the joint where the deck meets the coping. If the deck has dropped below it or lifted above it, the slab is moving on its fill while the shell stands still. A bare toe finds that lip before the eye does, and no topping levels a slab that is still sinking.
The sprayed texture most decks here were given in the 1980s and 1990s bonds to concrete, not to the dust and salt on an old slab. Once it lets go it comes off in plates the size of a hand, and each respray lasts less time than the last. The topping is telling you about the slab.
A deck is poured to fall away from the water, so a storm carries leaves and runoff to drains at the outside edge. When the panels nearest the shell settle, the fall reverses and the yard drains into the pool. A skimmer full of soil after rain is the shape of the deck, not the garden.
Tap the deck with a broom handle along the coping. A drum note means the fill has washed out beneath the slab, usually because water has run through the open coping joint for years. That void sits against the pool wall, so it is the sign that puts a date on the job, not a season.
In every deck
Eight things are in every surround we pour and none is a separate line. Each answers something an Orange pool asks. A shell older than its owner, a ring of soft fill behind it, and a joint at the coping that has leaked since the first summer.
The old deck is broken out and hauled the same day, worked by hand within a foot of the coping so the bond beam is never struck.
The backfill behind the shell is dug out where it sounds hollow and where it is wet, which is where the old slab was already sinking.
Crushed base goes back in shallow layers, each one plate-compacted, so the deck sits on a bed that was tested rather than shoveled.
A foam strip separates deck from coping, and a flexible sealant closes it, so the slab can move a fraction without prising the coping off.
The steel in the 3 feet nearest the water is tied into the pool's bonding wire before the pour, and inspected where the city asks it.
The deck is screeded to drop a quarter inch in every foot away from the coping, to a channel or drains at the outside edge.
Joints are cut inside 12 hours in panels near square, and the surface is broomed on a light mix that stays walkable in August.
Any barrier taken down for access goes back up the same day, then we walk the deck against the estimate and hand over the guarantee.
Four ways to finish it
Four surfaces a new surround can be given, judged on how hot they get in the sun, what steel they carry and when the family gets the pool back. The slab, the joint and the base under it are the same in all four rows.
| Option | Suits | Heat underfoot | Steel in it | Back in use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broom finish, pale mix | Most tract pools, any age of shell | Coolest of the four | Welded mesh at mid-depth | 7 days for feet, 28 for furniture |
| Stamped or colored deck | Matching a stamped patio behind it | Hottest, darker colors worst | Number 3 rebar on a grid | 7 days, sealed at 28 |
| Brick coping on new deck | Old Towne pools with brick already | Cool deck, warm brick edge | Rebar, coping set on mortar | 10 days, coping cures first |
| Sprayed texture topping | A sound, flat deck under 20 years old | Cool while the topping holds | None, it is a coating | 2 to 3 days only |
Broom finish costs least and a stamped deck most; the sprayed topping costs least of all but only earns it on a slab that is still flat and still sound.
Pools and their ground
A pool in this city is usually older than the person paying for its deck. Most went in with the tracts of the 1950s to 1970s, and the shell is fine. The ring of ground around it is what has moved.
Digging a pool leaves a trench between the shell and the yard, and in the tract years that trench was filled with the spoil out of the hole, sand and river gravel off Santiago Creek, never compacted because nothing was going to stand on it. Then a deck was poured on it. Across the flat middle of the city that fill has spent fifty years settling toward the shell and the surround has followed it down, which is why the coping stands proud of the deck on so many pools here.
East of the 55 in the hill tracts the ground is different again. Those pads were cut on one side and filled on the other, and a pool at the back of the pad often sits in the fill. The deck there is dug deeper and based thicker on that side, because its two halves stand on different ground. In Orange Park Acres the problem is width instead, a deck running out to the lawn on a lot with room to spare, and we pour it with the patio as one job so the two never disagree in level.
From the first look to first swim
Five stages, the same crew at each, and the pool stays full for most of them. Curtis Ballard sounds the old deck on the first visit, and whatever he finds behind the shell is written into the figure before the breakers arrive.
Curtis Ballard taps the slab along the coping, shoots the fall with a level and lifts a corner of topping. The figure is written before he leaves.
You pick the surface, the coping stays or is reset, and a date is held. The permit question goes to the city on the Civic Portal first.
The old deck is taken up, by hand near the shell, then the soft fill behind the wall comes out until the base under it proves under a plate.
Base compacted in lifts, steel set and tied to the bonding wire, the joint strip fixed at the coping, and concrete poured before 8 AM in summer.
Joints sawn inside 12 hours, the coping joint sealed once the slab has cured, the fence back up, and the guarantee handed over on the walk-through.
Behind the figure
The area of the surround starts the figure and what is behind the shell finishes it. Two pools the same size can be a day apart in work once the old deck is up, so nothing is quoted from a photograph. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
The common job. One ring of settled fill to dig, coping that stays, and a deck poured to fall to the outside edge. Steel and bonding are in it.
Access sets the figure here. Concrete pumped over the house or wheeled down a narrow side yard costs more time than the deck, and it is measured.
Where one side of the surround stands on fill, that half is dug deeper and based thicker, and the two halves are estimated as different ground.
A stamped surface, an integral color or brick coping reset on mortar adds days rather than material, and each is itemized on its own line.
The visit and the written figure cost nothing, and the call to arrange it comes within 1 business day. Bring the pool's age if you know it. (657) 236-3410 or send us a message.
Send the form or call and someone rings back within 1 business day to fix a time. Curtis Ballard sounds the deck, checks the fall and writes the figure at the pool, and you are free to keep it in a drawer until the season suits you.
Decks we rebuilt
Three reviews left on Google, Facebook and the BBB, each about the surround of a pool rather than a patio or a walk, and each naming what was found behind the shell once the old deck came up.
“Our pool was dug in 1968 and the deck had dropped a good inch below the coping on the shallow end. They took it all up, dug out fill that was soaking wet, and packed new base in before the pour. Two summers on, the joint at the coping is still flat and the water runs to the drains.”
“Our pad backs onto the slope and the deck on that side had cracked right through and tilted. Curtis explained the fill side before he priced it and built that half deeper. He also had the bonding wire tied in and inspected, which nobody mentioned when the pool went in.”
“Narrow side yard, old brick coping we wanted to keep, and a deck that had been sprayed three times. They pumped the concrete over the garage, reset the brick on the new slab, and left the fence back up the same evening. The deck is pale enough to walk on at three in the afternoon.”
Before you book
How long the pool is out of use, what the figure covers, whether the city wants a permit, what bonding is, and what stands behind the deck once the sealant is in. Answered for a pool in this city.
Because of what is behind the shell, not the size of the deck. Two surrounds of the same area differ in how much settled fill has to come out, whether the coping stays or is reset, and how the concrete reaches the pool, over the roof by pump or down a side yard by barrow. A hill pad adds a deeper dig on the fill side. All of it is measured at the pool and written on the sheet.
About two weeks from break-out to first swim, and the water stays in the pool the whole time. The old deck comes up in a day, the dig and base take another, and the pour is a morning. The slab then cures for 7 days before it is walked on, and the coping joint is sealed once the concrete has stopped shrinking. Furniture waits 28 days. In summer the truck arrives before 8 AM and nothing is shortened for the heat.
Yes. Breaking out the old slab, its sprayed topping and whatever was patched over it, and hauling it away, is inside the figure, and so is digging out the soft fill behind the shell. What sits outside it is named at the visit rather than added later, such as a pool pipe found broken under the old deck, a pump moved to make room, or a permit fee where the city asks one. The figure you sign is the one billed.
It depends on what the job touches, so we ask rather than assume. A slab at grade around an existing pool is a small question for Building and Safety Services, and the answer changes once new steel within 3 feet of the water has to be bonded, or once a fence or gate is part of the work, because the state pool barrier rules apply to a pool being worked on. The question goes in on the Civic Portal first.
Almost never. A deck that has settled over decades on the fill behind the shell is wear, and a policy treats wear as maintenance rather than as a loss. The exception is damage from one sudden event, most often a pool pipe or a service line bursting under the slab and washing the base out. If the deck dropped quickly rather than slowly, photograph it before anything is broken out and ask your carrier first.
How it was built. The fill dug and replaced, the base compacted, the 4 inches poured, the steel and its bonding, the joint at the coping and the fall away from the water, all printed on the estimate before you sign. It is a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built. The sealant in the coping joint is a wearing part, and staining and ground moving beyond what the joints control sit outside.
A 3,500 psi ready-mix poured at 4 inches on compacted crushed base, welded mesh through a broom deck or number 3 rebar through a stamped one, and a foam strip and flexible sealant at the coping. Bonding is a bare copper wire tying the deck's steel to the pool's own bonding grid, so the deck, the water and the pump sit at one electrical potential and a fault cannot put a voltage across a wet foot.
Only for the first visit and the walk-through at the end. In between the crew needs the gate unlocked, the pool equipment left running so the water stays clear, and pets kept in while the fence is down. A pumped pour means a truck on the street for a morning and a hose over the roof, worth warning a neighbor about. If the pool is the only route to the house, say so and the deck is poured in halves.
Towns we pour in
The eight nearest towns on the list, with the straight-line distance from the office on N Tustin St beside each. Every deck is sounded and measured at the pool before a figure is written.
Four jobs that are usually booked with a new surround or the year after it, on the same base and the same fall, by the same crew, and itemized on the one written estimate.
The slab between the deck and the house, poured with it so the two meet at one level.
A surround stamped to match a patio behind it, sealed once the slab has cured.
Where a hill pad falls away behind the pool, a poured wall holds the slope off the deck.
Exposed aggregate around the water, a surface that stays pale and grips a wet foot.
Call or send the form and you hear back within 1 business day. Say roughly when the pool was built, whether the deck has dropped at the coping, and how a truck would reach the yard, and the visit is booked for a day in the same week.