Wet feet and smooth concrete are a bad pairing
Pool decks coated with traction as the first specification and heat underfoot as the second. Chlorine resistant, ultraviolet stable, ready before the season.
Outdoor concrete
Traction gets specified first
A pool deck is the one surface where the finish is a safety decision before it is a cosmetic one. It is wet for most of the summer, there are children running on it, and smooth sealed concrete under a wet foot has close to no grip at all. Everything about the way we build a deck starts from that.
The flake texture is what gives a coated deck its grip, and on a pool job we choose the chip size and the topcoat to leave more of that texture standing than we would indoors. It has to be aggressive enough to hold a wet foot and gentle enough that a child kneeling on it or an adult lying on a towel is comfortable.
That balance is a real specification rather than a slogan, and it changes depending on whether the deck is broom finished concrete, a smooth trowelled pour or an older surface that has already been sealed once. We work it out on site and you can feel the sample before we start.
We show up, finish on time, and get it right. No hidden fees, no surprises.
Jimmy and Justyn, Cobra EpoxyWhat the price covers
Every one of these, every time
Every one of these is in the price as standard. The only thing that moves a number is what we find in the concrete, and you hear that at the walkthrough.
Heat, chlorine and sun
Dark surfaces get hot. A near black deck in full July sun will burn bare feet, which is why the blends that get picked around water tend to be the lighter warm tones. Saddle Tan, Camel, Cookie and Tan and Bone all sit noticeably cooler than a dark grey, and they hold their colour better under constant sun.
Chlorinated water splashing out of the pool is mildly aggressive and it lands on the same strip of deck all summer. A coated surface shrugs it off. Untreated concrete slowly bleaches and etches along that line, which is why you can usually see the shape of an old pool on a deck that was never sealed.
The topcoat is ultraviolet stable for the same reason it is on a patio. A system that was not chosen for sun exposure will amber, and a yellowing cast on a light deck is very obvious very quickly.
Scheduling around the season
Deck work happens either side of the swimming season, not in the middle of it. The coating needs the deck dry and it needs the pool cover off the surface, so the practical windows here are late spring before the water goes in and early autumn once the pool closes.
The work itself is quick, usually two days on a normal residential deck, and the pool does not have to be drained. What it does need is a couple of dry days, so we book with the forecast in hand and we will move a date rather than lay a coating that is about to get rained on. Booking in winter for a May slot is the way most people end up getting the date they want.
A floor that was ground properly and repaired before the first coat will still look right in ten years.
Cobra Epoxy and Flake Coatings, Boyertown PAHow the floor gets built
It starts with grinding rather than cleaning. Acid etching and pressure washing leave a surface that looks prepared and is not, which is why coatings applied that way come off in sheets. We run diamond grinders with dust extraction until the concrete is open and clean.
Then the slab gets fixed. Cracks and divots filled, pitting levelled, spalled areas cut back to something sound. Whatever we find gets told to you rather than buried, because the finished floor is only ever as flat as the concrete underneath it.
The base coat goes on next, American made, and while it is still wet the flake goes in by hand across the whole area until the surface is completely full. Doing that inside the working time of the base is why it takes two people.
The following day the excess chip is scraped and vacuumed off and the polyaspartic topcoat goes over the top. That is the wear layer and the reason the floor still looks like this in ten years.
Working around the water
The pool stays full. That surprises people, but there is no reason to drain it, because the work happens on the deck rather than in the shell. What we need is the deck surface dry, clear of furniture and covers, and a couple of settled days in the forecast.
Timing is the real constraint. Nobody wants their deck out of use in July, so the windows that work are late spring before the season properly starts and early autumn once the pool has closed. Both fill up, and the spring slots in particular go early, so a deck booked over the winter is a deck that gets done when you want it done.
Access matters more here than on most jobs. Grinders, extraction and material have to get to the deck, and on a lot of properties that means through a gate, down a side path or around a garden. Worth walking that route with Jimmy at the quote so there are no surprises on the morning.
On the map
Where we do this work
Boyertown sits where Berks, Montgomery, Chester and Lehigh all come within reach, which is the only reason a company this size covers four counties properly. The service areas page has the full list.
At the far edge of the radius we will be straight with you about whether a small job stands up as its own trip. Asking costs nothing.
Questions
Before you book
Straight answers to the questions that come up before anybody commits to anything.
Can you make it grippier in one area?
Yes, and we do it regularly. Traction is zoned rather than uniform, so an entrance that takes rain off the street or a ramp can be finished with more texture than the rest of the room. It is the same system with a different topcoat specification in that area, and it is decided on the walkthrough.
Do I have to drain the pool?
No. The deck has to be dry, but the water can stay where it is. Deck work happens either side of the swimming season rather than in the middle of it, so late spring and early autumn are the usual windows. Most people who get the date they want booked it over the winter.
Will the colour fade outdoors?
Not with the right topcoat. Exterior work gets an ultraviolet stable system, because a standard epoxy left in direct sun ambers and chalks within a couple of seasons. That is one of the specification differences between an outdoor deck and an indoor garage.
Does the freeze and thaw damage coated concrete too?
Not the way it damages bare concrete. The mechanism is water soaking into the pore structure, freezing overnight, expanding and pushing the surface apart from the inside. A sealed surface does not let the water in, so the cycle has nothing to work on. Untreated concrete next to it keeps pitting every year.
Is it safe for children and pets?
Yes. The system cures to a hard, non toxic surface with nothing continuing to come off it, and the flake texture gives better footing for a dog than sealed concrete does. It also stops the slab shedding the fine grey dust that bare concrete gives off constantly.
Does it need resealing every few years?
No. This is not a sealer that wears off and gets reapplied, it is a bonded system with a polyaspartic wear layer on top. Day to day it wants a dust mop and the occasional wash with a neutral cleaner. Skip the wax and anything acidic and it looks after itself.
Who actually does the work?
Jimmy, Justyn and the crew. The person who quoted your job is the person holding the grinder, which is most of the reason customers keep mentioning the prep work in reviews. There is no call centre, no salesperson who has not seen your slab and no subcontractor you have never met.
Do you work weekends?
For commercial work regularly, because that is often the only way a business stays open. For residential we mostly work weekdays, though we will do a Saturday where it genuinely solves a problem for somebody. Out of hours work costs more and we will tell you what and why rather than absorbing it quietly.
Book a walkthrough
Get pricing on your pool deck epoxy floor
Tell us roughly what you have and Jimmy will be in touch inside a business day. The walkthrough is where the real decisions get made, standing on your slab with the samples in hand rather than guessing off a screen.
We cover four counties from the shop in Boyertown, which is most of Berks plus a good piece of Montgomery, Chester and Lehigh.
Prefer the phone? (484) 942-3219 reaches Jimmy directly, or email jfaust@cobraepoxy.com with a photo of the slab. The contact page has the same form with a bit more room.
Tell us about the floor
Send it across and Jimmy will be in touch inside a business day to arrange a look at the floor.
More of what we coat: patio epoxy flooring, flake epoxy flooring, commercial epoxy flooring. See finished floors in the gallery, read about Jimmy and Justyn, or check the towns we cover. Ready to talk? Book a walkthrough.