Pool Deck Pavers in Tempe, AZ

Tempe is a mature, built-out city, which means a lot of its pools went in decades ago and are now surrounded by cracked, sun-bleached concrete that was poured when the house was new. That is the pool deck work we do most here: resurfacing and rebuilding the deck, coping and coating around a pool that already exists. To be clear up front, Solterra does not build, install or remodel pools. We never touch the shell, the plumbing or the equipment; we work on everything you walk on and the edge that caps the pool.

The number one complaint about an older Tempe pool deck is a surface too hot to cross barefoot by mid-morning. Dark, aging broom-finish concrete climbs well past comfortable in a Phoenix July, and on the small lots common across Tempe the deck is often the only standing room you have around the water. We fix that two ways. First, material and color: light-toned travertine, buff and gray pavers, and troweled cool-deck coatings reflect more sun and hold less heat than dark concrete. Second, texture: a matte, lightly textured finish reads cooler and grips better when it is splashed than a smooth, sealed slab.

Coping is the capped edge where the deck meets the pool, and it earns its keep: a comfortable lip to grab and sit on that also sheds splash-out away from the shell. We set travertine, precast or paver coping to a clean line with a slight pitch so water runs off instead of pooling at the edge. Drainage is the desert detail people miss. Tempe sits dead flat outside of Tempe Butte, caliche soil sheds water rather than absorbing it, and on the flood-irrigated lots near Maple-Ash there is already water moving through the yard, so we grade the deck and add channel or deck drains where needed to clear a monsoon downpour fast and keep it away from both the pool and the house.

Most of our Tempe pool-deck jobs are a resurface, not a tear-out. If the existing slab is structurally sound we can lay pavers or travertine over it, or trowel on a cool-deck overlay, which is faster and less costly than demolition. Where the concrete is badly cracked, heaved or sitting on poor base, we rebuild on compacted aggregate so the new surface stays flat. On the tight interior lots near ASU and downtown we plan access and haul-out through narrow side yards before we start. In South Tempe communities like Warner Ranch and The Lakes that run design review, we choose materials and colors that clear the HOA and prepare the documentation for your submittal.