Non slip pool surrounds in the Bay of Plenty

A pool surround is the hardest surface on a residential property, and it is not close. Think about what it deals with. It is wet for most of the summer. The water carries chlorine or salt. People walk on it barefoot, which rules out anything harsh. They walk on it with sunscreen on their feet, which is effectively a lubricant. Children run on it, and no amount of signage has ever stopped that. Then it sits under full New Zealand UV for five months of the year and gets washed with rain for the other seven.

Almost every non slip product on the market is designed for one or two of those conditions. Very few handle all of them at once, and the ones that do it best are not products at all. They are texture cut into the concrete.

Applied grip versus cut grip

There are two ways to make concrete less slippery. You can add something to the top of it, or you can change the surface of the concrete itself.

Adding something means a coating with grit broadcast into it, an anti slip additive mixed into a sealer, or a textured overlay. All of it is a sacrificial layer. It sits on top of the concrete and it is thinner than a business card. Bare feet, sand and pool furniture abrade it, UV degrades the binder, and the grit that is doing the actual work sits proud of the film and wears first. It works well, for a while, and then it needs redoing. Around a pool that cycle is short, and coatings tend to fail worst in the traffic paths where you most need them to hold.

Cutting the surface means removing material to leave a profile in the concrete itself. There is nothing to peel because nothing was added. There is nothing to delaminate because there is no bond line. Wear does not remove the grip, it just slowly rounds the profile over a very long time, and the sand and stone in the concrete is harder than the paste around it so the profile tends to stay proud. On a residential pool surround, texture cut into the slab is measured in decades rather than seasons.

Bush hammering, explained plainly

Bush hammering is mechanical impact. A rotating head fitted with hardened points strikes the surface repeatedly and fractures away the top layer of cement paste, leaving a consistent pitted profile with the sand and stone in the slab exposed. The name comes from the hand tool masons used to use. The principle has not changed, only the machine.

It is not grinding. A grinder abrades and flattens. A bush hammer fractures and roughens. The result is a matte, stone like surface with a uniform texture across the whole area rather than the random variation you get from an exposed aggregate wash or a broom finish.

Depth of profile is controlled by the head, the number of passes and the pressure. That is where the judgement sits, and it is the difference between a surface that grips and a surface nobody wants to stand on.

Barefoot comfort is a real design constraint

It is easy to make concrete grip. Make it rough enough and it will hold a shoe on a wet slope. It will also take skin off a knee, catch on a towel and be unpleasant to stand on for more than a few seconds. Around a pool that is a failure, because the surface will simply not get used the way it was meant to be.

The skill in this work is landing on a profile that is aggressive enough to hold a wet bare foot with sunscreen on it, and gentle enough that a child can lie on it. That means a fine to medium profile in the main lounging and walkway areas, and a coarser profile reserved for the places where the risk is genuinely higher, which is steps, ramps, the coping edge and anywhere with a fall on it.

We treat those areas differently on purpose. A single texture over an entire pool area is a shortcut, and it is usually either too coarse to relax on or too fine where it counts.

The TextureSafe system

We are an approved applicator of the PeterFell TextureSafe System, which is the specified route where a textured concrete surface has to hold grip when wet. Approved applicator status means the preparation, the profile and the sealing are done to the system requirements rather than to whatever the operator felt like on the day, and that the work is backed by a manufacturer who documents it.

Where a project needs a stated slip resistance figure, for a commercial pool, a public space or a building consent condition, we work to the TextureSafe documentation for the specific profile and sealer being used and provide it with the specification. We do not quote numbers off the top of our heads, and we would rather answer that question with a document than with a claim.

Coastal Bay of Plenty conditions

A pool at Mount Maunganui, Papamoa or Omokoroa is dealing with more than the pool water.

• —Salt air carries in continuously and drives into the surface. It does not attack concrete the way it attacks steel, but it accelerates the failure of anything filmed over the top of it.
• —Sand is tracked onto the deck all summer and behaves as a loose abrasive underfoot. It is the fastest way to wear out a coating and it barely affects a cut profile.
• —UV is severe here through summer. It embrittles organic film formers and yellows some of them. A penetrating sealer has no film to break down.
• —Wet and dry cycling is constant, which pushes water into and out of the surface repeatedly and finds any weakness in adhesion.
• —Chlorinated and salt water splash out is a chemical load, sitting on the surface and drying on it several times a day.

That combination is why we default to penetrating sealers on coastal exterior work rather than film formers. A penetrating sealer reduces water and salt ingress and helps with staining without adding a layer that UV and sand can take apart. It also does not change the grip, which matters when the grip is the whole reason for the job.

Working on an existing pool surround

Most of this work is done on pool surrounds that already exist and have become slippery, usually because an old coating has worn out or a smooth trowelled finish was the wrong call to begin with. It is done in place, with the pool still in the ground and the landscaping still around it.

1. 01Assess the deck. Slab condition, existing coatings, drainage falls, and where the actual traffic and risk sit.
2. 02Sample area. A small patch textured to the proposed profile so you can test it wet and barefoot.
3. 03Protect. Pool covered, planting and glazing protected, joinery and coping masked.
4. 04Remove any failed coating. Anything sitting on top has to come off before the concrete can be profiled.
5. 05Texture. Bush hammering worked across the deck, with the coarser profile applied to steps, the coping edge and any ramp.
6. 06Clean down. Full dust and debris removal, then the surface is left to dry properly.
7. 07Seal. Penetrating sealer applied to the system requirements once the surface is dry and clean.

A typical residential pool surround runs two to four days on site depending on area, the state of any existing coating, and the weather. Sealing needs dry conditions and a dry substrate, so the schedule flexes around rain rather than pushing through it. The deck is generally usable the day after sealing, with full cure taking longer.

What it does not do

Texture is not a substitute for drainage. If water ponds on a deck it will still be a hazard, and standing water is a maintenance problem regardless of profile. Falls get checked before we quote, and where a deck holds water we say so.

Texture also does not stop dirt. A profiled surface holds a bit more than a smooth one, so it wants a wash with a stiff broom and clean water a few times a season, and a rinse after heavy pollen or sand. That is the whole maintenance regime.