concrete overlayment

We’re going to do some backyard landscaping this summer, a pretty major reconfiguration of our yard, including adding a swimming pool. To give you some scale, the yard is being enlarged from about 80x30 to around 100x75.

The pool will be set away from the house. Next to the house, we’ve got a pretty large (~35x45) old concrete patio, which we’re thinking of using concrete overlayment on to spruce it up. The surface of that patio will probably need to match whatever new decking we add around the pool. The alternative is to bust up the old patio and start over. We’re trying to save money by going with the overlayment.

The new pool will have stone and boulders placed strategically, but the expense of all-stone surfaces for the pool decking & patio is out of the question – they need to match, and we’re talking about a huge amount of square-footage. We need to find a good mix of stone + other (less expensive) surfaces. Saving the existing patio seems like something to try for. We’re going for a “country garden lagoon” look, if that makes any sense.

Does anyone have good/bad experiences with this sort of treatment? Will it look good next to new contruction, or next to old or new concrete? Would it make more sense to demo the old patio and spend the money for new surfaces?

Here are some random concrete overlayment pix I googled up. I have not yet talked to a contractor or vendor of this sort of product.

Speaking to a concrete contractor (or several) is the best thing to do. The topping products sold at the big box stores aren’t going to give the longevity you want. Many specialty concretes for repair and rehab of older surfaces are manufactured, often using proprietary cleaning/prep methods along with special bonding additives. If I were bidding the job, I’d need to evaluate the existing substrate and take into account local climate extremes before a recommendation could be made.