Concrete pool decks in Tacoma WA - a surface that grips wet feet and drains well

Most people who call me either have a new pool going in or an old deck that's cracked, sinking at the edges or holding puddles after every swim. The price moves mostly with the deck's size, the finish you choose, how much old concrete has to come out and how many drains and curves we have to work around. The schedule turns on the weather and on when your pool builder has the coping and plumbing in. I come out and look at the site, then give you a written estimate with your own numbers on all of it.

Before we set a single form, I work out where the water goes. The deck slopes away from the house and toward or away from the deck drains, so dirty runoff doesn't wash back into the pool. Next we lay out the control joints around the curves, drains, corners and the pool's shape. Those are the cut lines that give the slab a planned place to crack, and we lay them out so no panel ends up narrow and uneven, because those are the panels that tend to crack. The coping, skimmers, drains, equipment pad and pipes all get lined up before the forms go in. The deck and the pool shell can move differently, so the usual advice is to follow the pool designer's joint details instead of tying everything together with steel. Then we dig out, pack the subgrade, the soil and gravel the slab sits on, and pour. We finish the top with a broom finish, light ridges dragged across the wet surface for grip, or with another texture you've picked. When the budget gets tight, people usually want to trim the base and keep the fancy finish. I'd do it the other way around, because a nice top on a soft base settles and cracks like any other slab.

A pool yard usually needs more than the deck. If the yard drops down from the back door, we can pour concrete steps in the same job so they match. If you're adding a pool house or an equipment shed, that's slab foundation building, and we do that too.

In Tacoma, permits go through the city's Planning and Development Services, which runs TacomaPermits.org. I can't tell you from here whether your deck needs a permit, so that's the office to ask, and before work starts I check what it covers for your address and what it will want to see. When a job calls for a permit, we handle the paperwork. If it's one you have to get as the owner, I'll tell you what to bring. The city has also updated its stormwater manual, and it applies to applications filed now. For a job that's mostly about where water goes, that's the version your permit would go under.

Rain shapes a pool deck here too. Western Washington's wet weather affects curing, the days fresh concrete spends hardening before you use it, and rain on a new pour can ruin the surface. We time the pour around the forecast and keep covers on hand. We're based in Tacoma and work across Pierce County and south King County, and we deal with the same wet weather and sloped backyards on jobs in University Place and Lakewood.