Renovation
Pool Remodeling in Los Angeles
Most pools that look tired do not need replacing. Tile, coping, the surface and the equipment pad age at different rates, and remodelling is deciding which of them is actually spent.
A pool does not wear out all at once, because it is not one thing. It is a plaster surface, a band of waterline tile, a coping edge, a deck, lights, plumbing and valves, and an equipment pad. Those parts age at different speeds and are replaced separately.
So the question is not whether to remodel the pool. It is which part of it is finished — and that is answered standing next to the pool, not over the phone.
Pool Care LA is a trade name of Luxury Estates Builders, Inc., California contractor licence #1117110, classifications B (General Building) and C-53 (Swimming Pool) — C-53 is what the state requires for pool work. Current to 29 February 2028, with a $25,000 bond through Jet Insurance. Check it on cslb.ca.gov before you talk to anybody, us included.
Seven parts, seven different clocks
Each has its own working life and its own way of saying it is over. Read the signs before anyone’s quote.
The surface
The shortest-lived part: the only one permanently in treated water. Rough underfoot, aggregate showing through, stains back days after a clean, patches chipping away. While plaster remains in reserve an acid wash buys time; below it, acid is no longer an option.
Pool resurfacingWaterline tile
Tile outlives the surface behind it, so it runs on its own cycle. A white calcium band that will not brush off, grout washed from the joints, tiles loose or missing. The fourth reason is not wear — the pattern is dated and the pool is open anyway.
Coping — the edge you sit on
The stone or poured edge between tile and deck. It fails from underneath: cracks through a section, one piece sitting higher than its neighbours, spalled edges, the joint to the deck opening. Behind it is the top of the shell.
The deck around it
Usually the largest area in the job, and judged separately. Cracking that runs rather than hairlines, a chalky or flaking coat, sections lifted by tree roots, a finish gone slippery. Deck resurfacing needs no drain, so it schedules around the rest.
The equipment pad
The only part that costs money every month it is left alone: a single-speed pump, a heater needing two attempts to light, a scaled salt cell, time clocks instead of automation. It is indifferent to the remodel — it can change on any Tuesday, pool full.
Equipment we installLights
An old halogen fixture is dim, hot and expensive to run; LED, and colour, is the cheapest change here that alters the pool after dark. A fixture that has taken on water, or that flickers, is a fault, not a styling decision.
Pool light repairPlumbing and valves
The least visible part, and the one most often left alone because it worked on the day. Leaking unions, valves that stick, actuators that no longer turn, pipework sized for a pump two pumps ago — cheap parts inside an expensive inconvenience once new tile is in.
Equipment repairWhat gets done together, and why that is genuinely cheaper
Not a bundle we invented to sell more — it is what draining a pool costs you.
Three jobs — surface, waterline tile, coping — need the water out, or below the tile line. The rest do not.
So if the pool is already drained for a new surface, the tile and coping are within reach. Doing them in that window means one drain, one refill, one start-up instead of two of each; a year later you pay for all three twice and lose the pool twice.
The logic runs the other way too, and that half is rarely volunteered: if the surface is sound and only the tile is scaled, that is a tile job. Nobody resurfaces a good pool to retile it.
| Job | Pool drained? |
|---|---|
| New surface / replaster | Yes |
| Waterline tile replacement | Yes |
| Coping replacement or repair | Yes |
| Deck resurfacing | No |
| Pump, heater, filter, salt system | No |
| Automation and valves | No |
| Light and fixture replacement | Lowered, not emptied |
Draining is not a DIY step and not risk-free: an empty shell behaves differently in wet ground. It happens as part of the work, not before it.
A new surface is not a finish, it is a start. Fresh plaster is refilled at once and brought up on a 28-day programme: daily nylon brushing, calcium hardness 200–400 ppm, pH 7.2–7.6, alkalinity 80–120, no swimming for 14 days, no salt until day 28. The start-up.
How to decide what to change, in the order that respects your money
Most remodel conversations start at the bottom of this list. Start at the top instead — and at every tier, ask to be shown the failure on your own pool before you agree to it. A contractor who cannot point at it is guessing with your money.
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First: whatever leaks or has stopped working
Water going where it should not, a heater that will not fire, a light fixture that has taken on water, coping someone can catch a foot on. Faults, not remodel items, and they worsen whether or not the tile changes. Start with a diagnosis: the standard one is free inside our service area.
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Second: whatever costs you money every month it stays
Overwhelmingly, an old single-speed pump: it runs daily, so it is the largest energy user on the pad, and manufacturers put the saving at up to $1,100 a year against a variable-speed replacement. California has settled the direction anyway — replacement pool pump motors of 0.5 total horsepower or more, manufactured on or after 19 July 2021, must be variable speed (Title 20 CCR section 1605.3(g)(6), administered by the California Energy Commission). That governs what may be sold, not what must be torn out. What it changes.
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Third: whatever only looks dated
A tile pattern from another era, a surface colour you have gone off, halogen where the neighbours have colour, a deck finish that dates the garden. Real reasons to spend money, just not urgent ones.
How the work runs, and what happens to the pool
We look at the pool
In person: surface, tile, coping joints, deck, and what is on the pad.
The scope goes in writing first
What is replaced, what is left, what it costs, the dates — agreed before anything starts.
The pool comes out of use
Anything below the waterline means an empty shell, equipment possibly off with it, and the garden a work site.
Old material off, new on
Tile and coping come off in the same window as surface preparation, so the new surface meets new edges.
Filled straight away, then started up
New plaster is not left standing dry: the pool is refilled and goes onto the 28-day start-up.
The pad, separately
Equipment work can run before, after, or without any of the above.
No timetable is published here: a schedule for a pool nobody has seen is a guess. Dates come with the written scope.
What it costs, and what we will not pretend to know
There is no remodel price list here, because there is no honest way to write one: the same phrase covers a band of tile and an entire shell, deck and pad. What moves your number is which parts are in scope, the areas, the finish, access, and how much shares one drain window.
What we do publish in full is everything with a fixed rate — weekly service, green-to-clean, acid wash, plaster start-up, and repair labour at $175 an hour, one-hour minimum. The cost page. Weekly members take 20% off one-time services.
If what you want is a brand new pool dug, ask. This page is about a pool that already exists. New construction is a different conversation, and we will say plainly whether we take it.
Why the licence number matters more here than anywhere else on this site
Cleaning a pool badly costs you a week. Rebuilding one badly costs you the pool. So the first thing to check on any swimming pool remodeling contractor in Los Angeles is the licence, on the state register rather than the contractor’s website.
Ours: Luxury Estates Builders, Inc., California contractor licence #1117110, classifications B (General Building) and C-53 (Swimming Pool), current to 29 February 2028, with a $25,000 bond through Jet Insurance. Type it into cslb.ca.gov and the classifications, bond and status come back without you taking our word for it.
The other half is what happens after the crew leaves. The people who quote the work run the weekly route afterwards, across 35 communities.
Questions people ask about remodelling a pool
How much does it cost to remodel a pool in California?
There is no useful average and we do not publish one: the phrase covers a band of replacement tile and a full shell, deck and pad in the same breath. Your figure depends on which parts are in scope, the areas, the finish, access and the pad — so we quote in writing, after looking. What we do publish.
Is it cheaper to remodel a pool or build a new one?
Remodelling, in almost every case — the expensive half of a pool is the half you keep. Excavation, shell, main plumbing and electrical supply all stay; a remodel replaces the surfaces, edges and machinery on them. Two exceptions: a shell with real structural failure, and a pool in the wrong place or shape for the garden you want.
Can you redesign an existing pool?
A great deal changes without touching the shell: surface and colour, waterline tile, coping, deck and finish, lighting, the whole equipment pad. What is not refinishing is anything altering the structure — new steps or benches, a changed depth, a different outline, an added spa. Tell us the idea and we will say which side it falls on.
What time of year is best to resurface a pool?
Los Angeles removes the reason the rest of the country has a season for this: there is no freeze to work around. Two constraints remain — the pool is unusable through the wet stage and the start-up after it, and the work wants dry weather. The shoulder months either side of summer, then; a comfort, not a rule.
How much does it cost to replaster a 40,000 gallon pool?
Replastering is priced by the surface area of the shell and the finish chosen, not by gallons — two pools holding the same water can have different amounts of wall and floor. A 40,000-gallon pool is a large shell, so it sits at the top of any range. How resurfacing works.
Can you replace just the pool tile, or just the coping?
Yes. Scaled or loose waterline tile is a tile job; cracked or lifted coping is a coping job. Neither obliges you to resurface a sound shell. Both need the water below the tile line, so if the surface is also near its end, all three inside one drain saves paying twice.
Mon–Fri 6am–9pm, Sat–Sun 8am–6pm. Luxury Estates Builders, Inc. · California contractor licence #1117110 (B, C-53) · bonded.