New Orleans — Pool Contractor Recs for Resurfacing and Decking

I’m having my pool re-plastered and tiled now (Old Metairie). In fact, they just drained the pool this morning, and are about to start chipping out the old plaster. I’ll let you know how it goes and recommend the guy I’m using if it all goes well. He’s been pretty good to work with so far.

Until then, my advice is to start getting guys out to give you pricing. The BR guys gave me slightly better pricing, so invite them over, too. Get their certs of insurances up front. If they pop your pool, know they are covered to replace it. And if they can’t/won’t give you references, just walk away.

Also, know if you get one of the plastering guys out and don’t go through a pool builder, they will still try to charge you the full mark up, so they have a good bit of margin built in to negotiate. You’re probably not going to get them down to what they’re charging the pool builders, but you should be able to get them to come off at least a good 10%.

I won’t be addressing my pool deck just yet. It looks like shite, but I have some little garden niches I want to concrete in before I do. From what I’ve seen, you can expect $4-6/SF on a spray deck product, depending on the contractor. I got Ninja out for shits and giggles, but they were like $12/SF. Hard pass.

If anyone has some feedback on their experience on the spray deck front, I’d love to hear it.

I got prices ranging from $6,000-9,000 for white plaster and $7,100-$11,000 for diamond brite.