Leander Pool Resurfacing: Remodeling, Replastering, Pebble and Quartz Finishes, Residential & Commercial

Published prices go by surface area and finish, not gallons. In the Austin area, most homeowners pay around $10,791, within a typical range of $5,886 to $14,715 (2026); the 2026 national average is about $11,000 for a 1,000 square foot pool. The water is a small line: 20,000 gallons of refill water at Leander's in-city rates comes to $97.25 before the monthly charge, when billed alone in one cycle. A firm price needs a look at the pool, and the estimate is free.

No standard sets one. The National Plasterers Council notes there is no rule limiting air temperature for plastering, and names wind as the main cause of shrinkage cracking. NPT doesn't recommend installing its finishes below 40°F and says a new finish mustn't freeze in its first 48 hours. At Camp Mabry the average first freeze is December 1 and the last February 15, and normal highs stay above 90°F from May 26 to September 23.

It depends on the old finish. Universal White Cement counts these as signs plaster has reached the end of its life: roughness with aggregate exposed over large areas, widespread etching, large hollow sections, and deep stains that no longer respond to treatment. It warns that delamination sooner or later turns into pop-offs and bigger tear-outs, while mild mottling and light roughening on steps are normal aging.

Texas figures run by metro. For a standard residential pool in white plaster, typical 2026 prices run $4,500 to $6,500 in the Austin area and $4,500 to $6,000 in the Houston area; Dallas-area figures for 2025 run $4,500 to $7,000, and San Antonio's 2026 figures put a 400 to 600 square foot pool at $5,000 to $7,000. Colored or upgraded plaster runs $6,000 to $8,500 in the Austin metro.

Among cement-based finishes, the National Plasterers Council rates pebble longest, a 12 to 18 year surface, and calls it the most durable available because river pebble is chemically inert. A fiberglass pool is a different case: River Pools says one is usually 20 or 30 years old before it needs refinishing.

Yes, though not like a plaster pool. River Pools says gelcoat isn't suitable for resurfacing a whole pool in the ground, and recommends a coating such as ecoFINISH, a polyethylene powder sprayed onto epoxy and set with heat, so the pool can be refilled the same day. Paint makers that allow fiberglass specify epoxy. Latham warns that a fiberglass pool drained without first relieving hydrostatic pressure will buckle and crack.

For a backyard pool, the city's code applies. Texas law adopts the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code as the municipal pool code and, where a city regulates pools, applies it to repairs and remodels as well as new pools. Leander's code requires a pool enclosure at least 48 inches high. The state's enclosure law and public-pool rules cover apartment and HOA pools, not single-family backyard pools.

Ask the City before the pool is drained. Leander requires a permit before any construction inside the city limits and lists swimming pools among the work that needs one. Its building code exempts repairs and remodeling unless structure, floor space, plumbing or electrical work is involved, without naming pools, and the building official can decide whether a permit is needed. HOA approval is separate: in Crystal Falls, the owner, not the contractor, files with the committee.

They can. Phase 4 lets the City stop approving new pool permits and restrict any water use, and a City resolution in February 2024 restricted filling pools unless the water came from outside the City's system. Lake levels aren't the only trigger: on October 1, 2026, Lakes Travis and Buchanan held about 1,844,297 acre-feet, more than twice the Phase 2 lake trigger, and Phase 2 was still in force.

Leander's stormwater ordinance lets pool water into storm drains only when it is dechlorinated to under 1 ppm, and bans water carrying chlorine, muriatic acid or other pool chemicals, backwash included. Fines run up to $2,000 a day. TCEQ rules also allow drained pool water to be reused on the property, such as on landscaping, five or more days after any shock or acid treatment.

Not until the water is balanced. The Pool & Hot Tub Alliance says swimming can begin only once the water is balanced and properly sanitized; the National Plasterers Council's start-up adds no chlorine for 48 hours, then chlorine at 1.5 to 3.0 ppm on day 3. The finish keeps curing for weeks, with about 70 percent of cement hydration in the first 7 days and about 85 percent by day 28.

Texas has no state license for pool builders or plasterers; the electrical and plumbing licenses that exist belong to whoever does that work. In Leander, every contractor and subcontractor must register with the City before a permit is issued, with a certificate of insurance and copies of its state trade licenses. Pebble Technology International sells its finishes only through trained, authorized installers.

Yes, under the state health rules. The Department of State Health Services counts a pool run with an apartment complex, condominium, property owners association, club or school as a Class C pool, which must be run under a trained and certified pool operator. A pool serving only one home or a duplex is residential and outside those rules.

It shapes the start-up and the upkeep. The National Plasterers Council warns that fill water high in pH, calcium hardness or alkalinity can scale a finish, and water low in them can etch it, so it keeps the saturation index between 0.0 and +0.3, especially in the first six months. Leander's report gives total hardness, not calcium on its own, so testing the fill water at the pool is the way to know.

Often, because they share the drain-down. Pebble Technology International says a remodel usually does the finish and the waterline tile together, and an HOA reserve-planning guide advises bundling tile, coping and light niche work into one event, since mobilization and the drain and refill costs are shared. In the Austin metro, a full resurface with new waterline tile and coping runs $12,000 to $18,000 or more in 2026.