Hawthorne Torrance Concrete takes the deck around a 1960s pool out to the bond beam and pours it again at 4 inches, falling away from the water. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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Why the old deck comes out
A coating cannot correct a deck that has tilted toward the water, and most of the decks around the older pools in Torrance have. The pools behind the tracts went in within twenty years of the houses, and their decks were poured at 3 inches or so over the backfill around the shell, which settled for a decade after the pool was dug. The slab followed it down at the pool side, so the fall that once carried rain to the lawn now carries it, and everything on the deck, into the pool.
The answer sold since has been a topping. A cement coat troweled on to hide the cracks, then a second when the first peeled, then an acrylic over that, and each lasts a shorter time than the one before because none of them changes the slope or the base. Kenji Okamoto, who spent 19 years on South Bay crews before founding Hawthorne Torrance Concrete in 2017, reads the level before he reads the surface, because a deck that drains into the pool is not one a topping can save.
So the slab comes out whole, to the bond beam, and goes back at 4 inches on compacted base with a sealed joint at the coping and a bonding wire under it, built to the California Residential Code under a CSLB C-8 license and liability insurance on every job. A fence or gate moved for the breaker has to meet the pool barrier rules again, and we check that with the City first. The deck carries a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.
Coat again or replace
A cement or acrylic coat that peels back in flakes the size of a hand has lost its bond to the slab underneath, and the slab is what moved. Scraping and recoating puts a new skin on the same crack pattern, and the sheets come up again along the same lines within a summer or two.
Water after a rain or a swim that stands against the coping instead of running off toward the lawn means the deck has tilted at the pool side. Every splash then drains into the joint and the pool rather than away from it, and it will drain that way for the rest of its life.
The flexible joint between the deck and the coping was sealed once, when the pool was built, and on most 1960s pools it is now a gap a coin slides into. Water gets behind the coping and under the deck through it, and a coping stone that rocks underfoot has lost its mortar bed.
Tap the deck near the pool and a hollow note means a void under the slab, usually where a leaking return line or the gap at the coping has been washing the backfill out for years. A lip where the deck meets the house slab or the patio door is the same slab settling toward the water.
In every deck
Eight things go into every deck at no separate line, and each answers something a 1960s pool on a tract lot does. Backfill that settled after the pool was dug, a coping joint that failed decades ago, and a deck coated more often than it has been looked under.
The whole deck, every coat on it and the mastic at the coping are broken out and hauled off, back to the pool's own bond beam, however many layers.
The ground around the shell is probed with a bar before anything goes back, because a void left under a new deck is a crack with a date on it.
Crushed rock goes in against the bond beam and is plate-compacted in layers, so the new deck sits on tested ground, not fill that has already sunk.
A 4-inch slab on welded mesh, broomed across the direction of walking so a wet foot grips. The pour is written on the estimate at that depth.
The forms are set a quarter inch a foot downhill from the coping, so splash and rain leave the pool side of the deck instead of going back in.
A half-inch flexible joint runs the length of the coping and takes a polyurethane sealant once the slab has cured, the joint the old deck lost.
A bare copper conductor is laid 18 to 24 inches from the water and tied to the pool's bonding before the pour, and photographed for your file.
The cover comes off, the pool is netted and the filter run, and we walk the deck with you against the estimate before the guarantee is handed over.
How it can be built
Four ways to put a deck back around a pool here, set against the state of the slab that is there now. Three of them take the old deck out; the fourth keeps it, and is only offered once a level check has shown it never tilted.
| Option | Suits | At the coping | Underfoot | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4-inch broom finish | A 1960s deck that has tilted toward the pool | Half-inch sealed joint, full length | Broomed, grips wet, warms by July | 30 years or more |
| Exposed aggregate deck | A deck looked at from the house all day | The same joint, aggregate stopped short of it | Rough enough without a broom | 30 years or more |
| Poured to brick coping | A pool whose brick coping is still sound | Joint cut against the brick, coping kept | Broomed, the same as new | As long as the brick holds |
| Overlay on a sound slab | A deck that passes the level check | Old mastic dug out and resealed | Topping sets the texture | Shortest of the four |
An overlay costs least on the day and is the one of the four that will be done again; a new broomed slab is the middle of the list and exposed aggregate the top.
Pools and lots
The backfill the deck was poured over when the pool was new, and a tract lot small enough that the deck is the whole yard, set a pool deck here more than the finish on it does.
A gunite pool is dug oversize and the gap around the shell is filled back with whatever came out of the hole, and on the sandy loam of the Torrance plain that fill went in loose and settled for years. The deck was usually poured within a season of the pool, so it settled with it, and the pool side of the slab has been dropping toward the water ever since. That is why so many decks in West Torrance and Southwood drain into the pool, and why the fill is probed to the beam first.
The size of the lot is the other. A 1950s tract yard off Anza Avenue or Prairie Avenue is 40 to 50 feet across, and a pool in it leaves 3 to 6 feet between the water and the fence, so the deck is the patio, the walk from the side gate and the pad the pool equipment stands on, all in one slab. It is formed to fall away from the house as well as the water, with a drain where the two falls meet, since no lawn is left to take it. Where the yard has more room, a patio is poured beside it.
From call to cure
Five stages, one crew, and the person who reads the level on the old deck is the person on the pour. The pool is covered before the breaker starts and stays covered until the deck is swept and the joint is sealed.
Kenji Okamoto shoots the fall of the old deck from the coping outward, taps for voids, checks the coping joint and writes the figure at your house.
You choose broom or aggregate and whether the coping stays, and take a date. A gate or fence that has to move is checked against the barrier rules.
The pool is covered, the deck comes out in pieces to the beam, and the backfill is probed and dug where it is soft until it proves under a plate.
The bonding wire is laid and photographed, base compacted in layers, forms set to fall from the coping, then the pour, broomed away from the water.
Joints sawn the same day, the slab kept damp seven days, the coping joint sealed once it is dry, and the pool netted before the walk-through.
Behind the number
The old deck moves the figure more than the new one does. How many coats are on it, whether the coping stays, and what the probe finds in the fill can put two decks of the same size a day apart. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
The deck is the whole yard, so it is measured to the fence on three sides and formed to two falls with a drain between them, and the pump pad.
The deck goes in halves so the barrier stays closed and tenants keep a way through, and the gate and fence are checked against the safety rules.
Where a wall holds the deck up on the downhill side, the wall and its footing are priced with it, and the clay under it is cut out for base.
Exposed aggregate takes a second visit to wash the stone out, and a cantilever coping poured with the deck replaces the old brick and its joint.
The visit and the written figure cost nothing, and the call to book it comes within 1 business day. Bring any leak test you have and it is read on the spot. (424) 484-9860 or send us a message.
Send the form or call, and you hear back within 1 business day with a day. Kenji Okamoto checks the fall, taps for voids, reads the coping joint and writes the figure at your house, and there is no charge for any of it.
Decks we replaced
Three reviews from Google, Facebook and the BBB, each about a pool deck rather than a patio or a driveway, and each naming what was wrong with the old deck before it came out.
“The deck around our 1964 pool had been coated twice before we bought the house and it drained straight into the water. They broke it all out, found the fill had dropped nearly 2 inches at the shallow end, packed base in and poured it to fall the other way. Clean pool after the first rain.”
“Ours sounded hollow by the steps and the coping rocked. Kenji found a void under a third of the deck where the return line had been leaking. A plumber fixed the line, then his crew dug it out, compacted rock and poured 4 inches with the bonding wire in, photographed before it was covered.”
“We wanted to keep the brick coping on a 1960s pool and every other company said replace it. They cut the old deck back to the brick, formed a new joint against it and broomed the slab to match the width of the old one. Sealed the joint two weeks later like they said they would.”
Before you book
How long the pool is out of use, what the estimate covers, whether the City is involved, what the bonding wire is for and what is guaranteed once the joint is sealed, for a deck around a pool here.
Because of the old deck, mostly. How many coats have to come off with it, whether the coping stays or is replaced, and how much settled backfill the probe finds and has to be dug out and replaced with base. The new slab is the most predictable part of the job. One topping over sound fill and three coats over a void are different jobs at the same square footage, and both are measured at the pool first.
About two weeks, though the crew is on site for four or five days of it. A day to break out and haul, a day to probe, dig and compact base, a morning to lay the wire and pour, and the joints are sawn that afternoon. The slab then cures under a wet cover for seven days before it takes feet, the coping joint is sealed once it is dry, and the cover comes off the pool last. Swimming is fine the day the deck is swept.
Yes. Breaking out the slab, every coat on it and the old mastic at the coping, and hauling all of it away, is written into the figure, and so is digging out any soft fill the probe turns up. What sits outside it is named at the visit rather than added later, and it is nearly always a leak. A return line or skimmer found leaking under the old deck is a pool plumber's job, and the pour waits until it is fixed.
Not as flatwork on its own, since the California Residential Code exempts a slab inside the lot line. Two things can bring the City in. The bonding wire is electrical work and may take an electrical permit and inspection, which we file where the City asks for one, and a fence or gate moved for the breaker has to go back meeting the pool barrier rules. We ask the Community Development Department which applies.
Rarely, and it turns on the cause. A deck that settled over sixty years on the fill it was poured on is wear, and a policy treats it as maintenance. A deck that dropped because a pipe under it burst and washed the ground out is a sudden loss, and some policies cover the ground repair even where they exclude the pool. Photograph the deck and the wet ground before anything is broken out and ask your carrier first.
The build. The fill dug out and the base compacted, the 4 inches poured, the fall set away from the water, the mesh, the joints and the seal at the coping, with those terms printed on the estimate you sign. It is a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built. Wear, chlorine staining, the sealant's own life and a leak that starts after the pour sit outside it.
A 3,500 psi ready-mix placed the morning it is batched, crushed rock base compacted under it, welded mesh held at mid-depth on chairs, and a bare number 8 copper conductor for the bonding, tied to the pool's own bonding lug. The coping joint takes a foam backer and a polyurethane sealant made for pool decks, and a broom finish carries no coating at all. Each is named on the estimate so what arrives can be checked.
The pool stays full, and you need to be home only for the measurement and the walk-through. Draining a gunite pool on this ground risks the shell lifting, so the water stays under a cover for the whole job, and the crew needs the side gate unlocked, a hose bib and the equipment switched off on the pour day. If the deck is the only way to the equipment, say so at the visit and the pour is planned around it.
Towns we pour in
The eight nearest towns on the list, with the straight-line distance from the office on Hawthorne Boulevard beside each. Every deck is leveled and probed at the pool before a figure is written.
Four jobs that tend to be booked with a new deck or in the same week, on the same base, by the same crew, and itemized on the one written estimate.
Where the yard has room, the slab the table sits on, poured with the deck and jointed to it.
The wall that holds a Riviera slope off the deck, on footings dug into the clay.
Exposed aggregate or a salt finish on the deck, washed out on a second visit.
The old deck sawn back to the coping where the brick is being kept.
Call or send the form and you hear back within 1 business day. Say roughly when the pool went in and how many times the deck has been coated, and the visit can be booked for a day inside the same week.