Pebble Pool Finishes in Garden Ridge, Texas

Garden Ridge: custom homes on the ridge

Garden Ridge began as a custom home subdivision in the 1960s, the city's Master Land Use Plan says. It takes its name from ridges overlooking wildflower fields, on the up-slope of the Hill Country, on ranch and farmland worked by German immigrants and their children. When it incorporated on April 4, 1972, it became the first new town in Comal County in 127 years.

Seven square miles lie inside the city limits, from 800 to just over 1,000 feet above sea level, draining to Cibolo Creek and Dry Comal Creek. The actively mined Hanson Materials Quarry takes up 1,718 acres on the north side, 36 percent of the city. Paul Davis Park, with its ball fields and pavilion, sits on Grass Creek Road, and Natural Bridge Caverns, west of the city, draws visitors through town.

Large lots and high-value homes

The Census Bureau's 2020–2024 survey counts every home in Garden Ridge as a single detached house: 100.0 percent. It finds 95.6 percent of occupied homes lived in by their owners, and a median home value of $688,200. In the Residential Estate district, lots are three-quarter acre or larger and meant to keep a rural character. The city calls itself 78 percent built out.

The survey's median build year is 2001, with 34.5 percent of homes from 2000–2009, 19.3 percent from the 1990s and 11.3 percent from the 1970s. A pool may be younger or older than its house, so the pool is judged on its own condition.

Garden Ridge's own pool construction standard

The city's building code, Ordinance 19-022026, covers construction, alteration, repair and additions to every building and structure, and it names swimming pools, spas, decks and patios outright. It adopts the 2021 International Residential Code and other 2021 codes, plus the city's own minimum requirements. The city's Building Inspector reviews the plans, and every contractor working in Garden Ridge must hold a State of Texas license.

Those city minimums, in an older attachment to the ordinance, describe the pool shell itself:

• 8 in. of gunite, floors and walls
• 3000 psi concrete
• Grade 60 steel
• ½-in. bars, 9 in. apart each way

Each new pool gets a setback inspection, then a structural one once the steel is in and the piping has been tested for leaks. The final comes with the pool filled, backflow protection on the fill line and the barrier in place. A pebble refinish goes onto the shell that's already there, so these figures mostly matter if the shell itself needs repair.

Permit fees on the city's schedule

A pool or spa in Garden Ridge needs both a building permit and an electrical permit. The fee schedule in Ordinance 11-042026 lists $500.00 for an in-ground pool and $300.00 for flatwork or a deck. Working without permits costs double per trade, with a $500.00 minimum, and contractors pay $200.00 a year to register. The same ordinance's text also ties pool fees to the volume of water, so confirm the current fee with the city. City pages are silent on permits for a new interior finish by itself, so ask Building Inspections first.

City wells and Garden Ridge's drought stages

Garden Ridge runs its own water company, owned by the city. It pumps from 7 wells in the Edwards and Trinity aquifers and can store 2.8 million gallons. Its drought plan, Ordinance 61-112025 from November 2025, sets five stages tied to the J-17 index well's 10-day average: 660, 650, 640, 630 and 625 feet. The Mayor declares each stage.

What the stages mean for a pool

• With no stage in force, the plan puts no water limits on permitting, building or filling a home pool.
• From Stage 3, filling a new pool with city water is barred, unless its building permit was issued with no drought declared or during Stages 1–2.
• Stage 3 also adds a 100 percent surcharge on use over 40,000 gallons a month, rising to 200 percent in Stages 4 and 5.

The city's home page, read on October 6, 2026, says it has been in Stage 2 since August 5, 2022. Stage 2 limits sprinklers to one day a week and bans washing hard surfaces without a special variance. The plan text doesn't say how refilling an existing pool is treated, so confirm with the city before a pebble job's drain.

Timing matters because the refill can't wait. For PebbleSheen, Pebble Technology's spec has the surface cleaned the day after it goes on and the pool filled straight away, without interruption.