Riverside Concrete Pro pours pool decks 4 inches thick on re-compacted backfill, jointed at the coping and faced light enough to cross barefoot in August. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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How we build them
A pool deck is the only slab in the garden that gets soaked every day it is used. Once it has lost its fall, splash-out and hose water run back at the coping and down the outside of the shell, into the one strip of ground least able to carry it. Set a quarter inch of fall per foot away from the water, out to a drain line and into the garden, and the deck stops feeding the ground it stands on.
Marco Delgado started Riverside Concrete Pro in 2021 after 15 years pouring flatwork across the Inland Empire, and he is on the deck for the finishing, which is the half hour that decides whether it grips a wet foot in five years. Riverside pools were mostly dug long after the houses around them, 1920s bungalows in the Wood Streets, the lots off Victoria Avenue, post-war streets through Magnolia Center, and the deck inherits that.
Decks are poured under a CSLB C-8 concrete license with liability insurance on every job, to the California Residential Code. Where the new deck shifts a fence line or a gate, the pool barrier goes over the counter at Building and Safety, City of Riverside, before a form is set, because the barrier is code rather than preference. The work carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.
Warning signs
A crack running parallel to the coping, a foot or two out, is the deck settling into the spoil that was shoveled back around the shell when the pool was dug. Filling it is a season of relief. The ring underneath has to be opened up and compacted again.
Hose down the deck and watch where it goes. Water tracking toward the pool means the fall has gone, and every rinse then carries leaf litter and grit over the coping into the skimmer basket. Fall is set in the forms, so no amount of grinding puts it back.
A dark deck in full afternoon sun reads past 140 degrees on an infrared gun in July, and a family that has to hop from towel to towel is not using the pool it paid for. Color and texture do more for that than shade sails do, and both are poured in.
A deck that has lifted or dropped at the fence line fouls the gate that closes the pool barrier, and a gate that does not latch by itself is the one defect an insurer will ask about. Packing under the post is temporary. The slab under it has to come out.
What's included
Standard on every deck we pour here, with no add-ons. Each one answers something the pool itself does to the slab around it: the ground it was dug out of, the water that comes over the edge, and the bare feet that cross it all summer.
The loose ground left around the shell is dug out to firm soil and rebuilt, so the deck is not bedded on spoil that was never compacted.
The pool is sheeted before breakout and the equipment pad boarded off, so no rubble reaches the water and the filter runs through the job.
Class 2 base goes in and is plate-compacted in lifts, giving the slab a drained bed rather than a deep loose layer that keeps settling under it.
Number 3 bar tied on an 18-inch grid ties the deck together across the backfill ring, so a settling patch cannot open its own crack line.
A half-inch expansion joint the full depth of the slab, filled with flexible sealant, stops the deck and the shell working against each other.
A quarter inch of fall per foot away from the coping, run out to a deck drain, so rinse water and winter rain leave the deck instead of the pool.
A light integral color with a broom, salt or aggregate face, chosen out at the pool so grip and surface heat are judged where they will be felt.
Two coats of penetrating sealer go on against chlorine and sunscreen, and the written guarantee is handed over at the walk-through.
Your options
Four surfaces we lay around a pool here, judged on how long each lasts, what it suits, what it asks of you and how long the crew is in the garden. The first three sit on the same rebuilt base, which is the half that decides the rest.
| Option | Lifespan | Best for | Upkeep | Time in the garden |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light broom finish | 30 years or more | Most Riverside back-garden pools | Reseal every 3 years | 3 days, then 7 to cure |
| Salt-finish concrete | 25 years or more | Older shells with cantilevered coping | Reseal every 2 to 3 years | 3 days, then 7 to cure |
| Exposed aggregate | 35 years or more | A busy deck with a diving end | Rinse monthly, reseal every 3 years | 3 to 4 days, then 7 to cure |
| Bonded overlay | 10 to 15 years | A sound deck behind a narrow side gate | Reseal every 2 years | 2 days, no tear-out |
Grip and surface heat both come off the face, not the mix, so the finish gets picked at the poolside in the afternoon rather than off a sample board.
Local knowledge
Two things a deck in a milder place never answers: the afternoon, which averages in the mid-90s in July and August, and the ground the shell came out of, which was rarely put back the way it left.
The afternoon is settled at the estimate, not at the pour. Marco takes a reading off the old deck with an infrared gun at about three, then off a light broom sample beside it, and the difference is usually large enough to end the argument about color on the spot. A light face with texture worked into it also grips a wet foot, so the cool answer and the safe answer are the same one.
The ground is settled with a shovel. Around the Wood Streets and the older Victoria Avenue lots, pools went in decades after the houses, and the spoil was pushed back around the shell and left. We open that ring, take it down to firm soil, rebuild it in compacted lifts and run bar across it. Where the deck meets a patio poured on undisturbed ground, the two are jointed rather than tied.
Our process
From the afternoon it is measured at the poolside to the day the furniture goes back out. One crew, one written figure, and the barrier question answered before anything is broken out.
Marco measures the deck, probes the ring around the shell, checks the coping and takes the surface reading. The estimate is written there.
You pick color and face. If the deck moves a fence or a gate, the barrier goes over the counter at Building and Safety before we book the pour.
The water is sheeted and the pad boarded, the old deck comes out in sections away from the shell, and the ring is opened to firm soil.
Base compacted in lifts, bar tied on an 18-inch grid, forms set to the fall we agreed, then the pour and the face worked with the owner on it.
Joints cut within 12 hours, the deck cured, then sealed twice and rinsed. You walk it with the owner and take the written guarantee.
What moves the estimate
Deck area sets the floor, and what the pool did to the ground sets much of the rest. A walk-round of 3 to 4 feet is about 300 square feet; a deck with a furniture side and a spa surround runs past 700. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
A probe that goes in easily a foot out from the coping means more dig and more compaction, and on an older shell that is often the largest line.
A side gate under 3 feet wide means every yard is barrowed or pumped over the house, which changes the crew and the length of the pour day.
Cantilevered coping formed off the new deck, a spa to work around or a raised bond beam all add forming to the same square footage.
A broom finish is the baseline. Salt and exposed aggregate put more hands on the slab while it is still plastic, and both are worked to a deadline.
The visit costs nothing, the figure is written at the poolside, and we call back within 1 business day to arrange it. (951) 584-0685 or send us a message.
Send the form or call, and someone rings you back within 1 business day. We measure at the poolside, probe the ground around the shell and write the figure before we leave, and nothing is owed if you go no further with it.
Reviews
Reviews left on Google, Facebook and the BBB by homeowners we poured decks for. All three are about work around a pool rather than driveways or patios.
“There was a crack running the whole way round about two feet off the coping and three people had filled it for us over the years. These ones dug the ring out, compacted it back and put steel across it. Second summer now and the deck has not moved a hair.”
“Marco put his heat gun on the old dark deck at three in the afternoon and then on the sample and just handed me the readings. We went with the lighter broom and the kids are out there barefoot in August, which they never once were before the job.”
“Our gate had stopped latching because the old slab had dropped under the post. They sorted the barrier side of it with the city first, then poured the deck so the gate swings and catches on its own. The pump ran the whole week they were here.”
FAQ
Ground, heat, grip, the barrier, the swimming and the guarantee, answered for a Riverside back garden rather than for concrete in general.
Area moves the figure most, then the ground. A 3 to 4 foot walk-round is about 300 square feet and a deck with a furniture side runs past 700, and on an older shell the dig around the backfill ring can be the single largest line on the sheet. Every estimate is measured and written on site, so none of that is guessed from a photograph.
Three to four days at the pool. A day to sheet the water, break the old deck out in sections and open the ring, a day for base and steel, a morning to pour and work the face, with the joints cut inside 12 hours. Then the cure. Rain moves the date and nothing else does, because the pool is not going anywhere.
Replacing the flatwork itself does not need one. The pool barrier does, and a deck that shifts a fence line, a gate or the height either sits at is a barrier question, so it goes over the counter at Building and Safety, City of Riverside, before we form anything. We make that call and stand the inspection ourselves.
A dark deck in full sun reads past 140 degrees on an infrared gun on a July afternoon here, which is why the color is chosen at the pool and not off a board. A light integral color with a worked face is the difference between a deck a family crosses barefoot and one they hop across. Shade over it helps, but the surface decides more.
Exposed aggregate grips hardest, salt finish next, and a broom finish is enough for most back-garden pools as long as the texture is worked across the line of travel rather than with it. What never grips is a smooth troweled surface, which is what most decks of this age around here were given. The face is agreed in writing before the pour.
Only where the slab under it is sound. A bonded overlay puts 10 to 15 years of new texture on a deck that is still flat and still falling away from the water, and it is the answer where a side gate will not take a breakout. Over a deck that has settled into the ring around the shell it cracks through again, usually inside two seasons.
Not during the working days. The water stays sheeted from breakout until the deck is rinsed down, though the pump and filter run right through so the chemistry does not go anywhere. Swimming resumes once the sheeting comes off, foot traffic on the new deck at 24 to 48 hours, and furniture back out at seven days.
Yes, in writing. It covers the defects that are ours to control: the compaction under the slab, the steel, the joint at the coping, the fall away from the water and the face. It does not cover a deck lifted by a leaking pool line, which is why the plumbing is looked at while the ring is open. Where the fault is ours, Marco Delgado comes back to it.
Service area
The eight nearest towns our crew pours pool decks in, with the straight-line distance from Riverside. The full list runs to 20 towns inside 25 miles.
Four jobs most often measured on the same poolside visit, and where the pours can be combined, put down by the same crew on the same morning.
The shaded slab beyond the deck, poured to the same 4 inches and jointed where the two meet.
The run from the back door down to the water, poured with the deck and faced to match it.
A poured wall holding a bank off the deck edge, so the slope stops washing grit into the pool.
Borders, bands and integral color worked into the deck while the slab is still plastic.
Call or send the form and someone rings you back within 1 business day to fix a time. We come out at the hour the deck is at its hottest, measure it, probe the ground and leave the written figure with you.