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When Brent and Denis Hermansen looked at their pool and backyard, they saw tired and weary. Outdated and frankly a bit cheap for bradenton pool resurfacing.

Have you heard of the "wow factor"? This was the “flow factor”.

“It wasn’t like an outdoor entertainment place,” says Denis Hermansen of his outdoor eyesore.

The cure for the Hermansens, who live in Bradentons Bayshore Gardens area, was a massive backyard renovation - a $ 40,000 panacea that included a summer kitchen, improved landscaping, electric fire bowls, a paving deck, water features, and a new white plastered surface with a soft blue for their 10 'by 25' underground pool.

“Now that we're having fun, it's wow,” says Denis Hermansen of the guests' reaction.

According to some of the leading Bradenton pool resurfacing companies, usually a facelift like the Hermansens starts with the homeowner noticing a dull and dirty pool surface.

“This is what people seem to focus on first,” says John Labrech, owner of Pool Creations, which renovates 1,000 to 1,200 underground pools annually. “They see the terrible surface of the pool and want the plaster to be reapplied in the pool. Then, it seems, it grows from there. "

Growth can mean all sorts of updates and improvements, including decking, pool lighting, water features, landscaping for bradenton pool resurfacing, and even kitchens.

Brent Hermansen, 67, chief executive of a Washington, DC-based consulting firm, admits that he spent a lot of effort on renovations because his pool and backyard looked dated.

“We bought the house in 1995 when he was 6 months old and the pool has been around for so many years,” he said. “And the original owners, I think they just saved on a lot of things. ... Everything looked old. There was a time."

Very often the driving force behind these upgrades is the pool surface, a cement-based coating about three-eighths of an inch above the gunite structure.

Where, when to start

An underground pool surface for Bradenton pool resurfacing may last 20 years or more, but the hard water in Las Vegas makes this kind of durability untypical, says Ron Haire, sales manager for Adams Pool Solutions, which performs about 500 plastering jobs annually - 60 percent residential.

Hair says a 10-12 year lifespan is more likely because most homeowners pay little attention to water chemistry. When his company is called in to evaluate a plaster renovation project, the surface is usually long gone, showing delamination or cracking.

“The # 1 reason we are repairing pools is chipping,” Volos says, describing the crumb of the pool's smooth surface.

At this point, homeowners are faced with a choice between three types of new surfaces. The most commonly used white plaster, a mixture of Portland cement and marble chips (and sometimes a dye for painting).

White plaster accounts for about 40 percent of Adams' plastering work and about 70 percent of Peak's work.

Blue quartz, containing quartz chips and polymer-based cement, is a step up from white plaster.

And the third option, premium plating, are pebble-based surfaces that combine tiny pebbles into hydraulic cement.

Think of white plaster as hard and durable, blue quartz as harder and more durable, and pebble coatings as the hardest and most durable.

Labres and Volos say spring and fall are the busiest periods for repairing pools in the Bradenton Florida because it's best to shut them off when temperatures are consistently below 85 degrees. Higher temperatures can cause concrete surfaces to cure too quickly.

What will you pay

Most residential pools in the Bradenton area are 70 to 120 linear feet in length, and renovation companies use this perimeter measurement to determine cost.

For white plaster, barring any color improvements, re-plastering can range from $ 3,500 to $ 5,500. The cost of a blue quartz project can range from $ 4,000 to $ 6400. Premium pebbles range from $ 5,700 to $ 9,000.

These prices do not include spa re-plastering, which typically adds around $ 500 for white plaster, $ 600 more for blue quartz, and another $ 800 for pebbles.

Each surface is applied with a nozzle-type “gun” that sprays material, which is smoothed and shaped by hand.