A Nanaimo Pool Deck Is Slick With Rain For Eight Months And Splash For Four
Rubber surfacing keeps a pool surround grippy underfoot in every one of those months. A pool in North Nanaimo or on a Hammond Bay view lot is used from June to September and then sits under the rain until spring. Bare concrete around it grows a green film in the shade of the fence and a black one where the water pools by the drain.
Rubber surfacing has texture from the granules themselves, not from a coating that wears off. It dries in minutes after a shower, and the moss that plagues a concrete pool deck has nothing to cling to.
Pale Rubber Surfacing Around A Pool Needs The Right Binder
Rubber surfacing in sand, pale grey or cream looks right by the water, and it only stays that way with an aliphatic binder. Aromatic binder is cheaper and works well under dark blends, but a light colour poured with it ambers after a few summers of south-facing sun. On a Nanaimo pool deck that catches the afternoon light off the Strait of Georgia, we quote aliphatic and say so on the paper.
Light colours also run cooler on bare feet in a July heat spell, which is one more reason to pick a pale rubber surfacing and protect it.
Preparation Is What Makes Pool Deck Rubber Surfacing Last
Rubber surfacing bonds to a clean, dry, sound deck and peels off a sealed, wet or dusty one, so the first day is spent on the slab rather than the rubber. We pressure wash the moss and the old pool chemicals off, grind away any sealer or paint, let the concrete dry, and repair cracks that are still moving. Hairline cracks are simply bridged.
Then the deck is primed, the rubber surfacing is troweled to the agreed depth, and the coping edge is wrapped so there is no hard lip. The rubber surfacing takes foot traffic the next morning and the pool can be back in use within a couple of days.