Pool finishes: pebble, plaster and quartz.

Plaster

White marble-dust plaster is what most older pools on the South Coast were finished with, and colored plaster is the same material with pigment. It is smooth, bright, and the most economical interior. It is also the most porous, which means it reacts fastest to water that drifts out of balance, shows etching and mottling sooner, and has the shortest life of the three. On a pool that is kept in balance and in a budget-led remodel, it remains a good choice, and it is the finish that gives the clearest, lightest water color.

Quartz aggregate

Quartz finishes blend colored quartz crystals into a plaster base. The quartz is harder than the cement around it, so the surface resists etching and holds its color longer than plaster, at a moderate premium. Texture is close to plaster. Quartz is the middle path when the budget or the look argues against pebble but the pool will see a lot of use.

PebbleTec

PebbleTec is the finish we install, and the only pebble finish we install. It bonds natural pebble into a cement matrix and exposes the stone, and it is the most durable and color-stable interior available to us, the one that tolerates chemistry drift best, and the one that goes on the majority of our new pools and resurfacings.

It matters that it is the licensed brand, applied by licensed applicators. Pebble as a category has a mixed reputation, and in our experience that comes from the cheaper competing products: their aggregate is rougher underfoot and less consistent in the bucket. PebbleTec's aggregate is sourced and tumbled through the manufacturer's own proprietary process, and the difference shows up under your feet and in how the surface still looks years later.

The range covers the textures: a pronounced river-stone surface at one end, finer and smoother products toward the other, and polished variants that read almost like stone. Color runs from pale sand to deep charcoal, and the darker the finish, the deeper the water reads. We keep samples on hand and we will tell you which product suits a plunge pool a child will use daily versus a vanishing edge you mostly look at.

Salt water and the finish

We install salt systems with chlorine generation when a client wants one, and they work with any of these finishes. We usually advise against them here. In this area a salt pool tends to cost more to keep, not less: the cell is a consumable that has to be replaced, salt is harder on plaster and harder still on some natural stone coping and soft tile, and the savings people expect on chlorine rarely cover the difference.

If you want a salt pool we will build you a good one, and we will make sure the finish, the coping and the equipment are chosen together to live with it. We would simply rather you hear the maintenance side from us first.

How the finish is applied

Every finish is hand-troweled by a plaster crew in a single continuous placement. The first weeks after fill are a chemical start-up: daily balancing so the surface cures properly, to the manufacturer's standards. The start-up is as important to the life of the finish as the product itself, and it is included in every job we do.

Our recommendation

For a new pool or a full resurfacing that you expect to enjoy for a long time, PebbleTec in the texture that suits how the pool will be used. For a budget-led refresh of an older pool that is kept in careful balance, plaster or quartz. We order the finish before the shotcrete shoot on new builds, so it is on site when the crew is.