Microcement for Pool Builders and Outdoor Spaces

Outdoors is where seamless earns its keep. No grout to weed, no pavers to lift, no joints for water to sit in, and a deck that runs into the surround and the outdoor kitchen as one continuous surface.

Where it goes outside

• Pool decks and surrounds. The main one. A continuous deck with no joint pattern reads enormous and stays that way.
• Patios and terraces. Straight over a sound existing slab, no lifting.
• Outdoor kitchens. Counters, fronts, splashbacks and the floor in one finish.
• Steps, coping edges and planters. Where a tile or paver detail is fiddly and a seamless finish is not.
• Garden and retaining walls. Vertical work that ties the hard landscaping together.

Everything outdoors is Reinforced

Outside, a slab moves. Thermal cycling, ground movement, freeze and thaw where you build in it, and the daily expansion of a deck that sits in full sun. The mesh and build coat are what keep that movement from arriving at the surface as a crack. There is no outdoor job where Core is the right call.

What you have to respect

Movement joints carry through. A structural joint in the slab is a structural joint in the finish. You do not bridge it and hope. Plan where they land before you start, because on a seamless deck they are the only lines anyone will see.

Drainage and falls are set before you arrive. At roughly 2 mm of buildup you are not correcting a fall with this material. Whatever the slab does with water, the finished deck will do with water.

Slip resistance is a specification, not an accident. A pool deck is the highest consequence surface you will ever finish. Sealer and finish choice drive this. Talk to us about the deck you are building rather than ordering the same thing you would use on an interior floor.

The substrate still shows. Every low spot, every patch, every ghost of the old surface. A slab that was fine under pavers may need work before it is fine under a seamless finish.

Why clients say yes

Because they have all lived with the alternative. Pavers move and grow weeds. Tile grout in a splash zone goes green. Stamped concrete looks like stamped concrete. A continuous, matte, stone-coloured deck that runs into the coping and up the outdoor kitchen is a different category of finish, and it photographs, which matters more in your business than in most.

It also goes over what is already there. A tired existing patio becomes a resurfacing job rather than a demolition job.

Buying it

Materials are about $14 a square foot for Reinforced, and outdoor areas are usually large enough that you land near that number rather than well above it. Small areas are disproportionately expensive because you cannot buy half a pail, so bundle the deck, the surround and the kitchen onto one order. Run it through the material calculator before you quote.

No certification and no trade account. If you would rather have your crew formally trained first, our sister company Microcement USA runs hands-on certification training.

Common questions

See the full product list and what each coat does.