Pool Deck Resurfacing in Lake Dunlap, Texas
New Braunfels Quality Pool Resurfacing offers pool deck resurfacing in Lake Dunlap, Texas, for the concrete around a pool at a lake house or a year-round home. Lake Dunlap is the unincorporated community on the lake of the same name, on the Guadalupe River nine miles northwest of Seguin in Guadalupe County. It counted 1,981 people in the 2020 Census.
Phone us or use the form for an estimate, which costs nothing. We'll talk through the coating, the cracks and joints in the slab, and the county and river authority rules near the water. Resurfacing the deck alone leaves the water in the pool.
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Lake Dunlap's dam, the 2019 drawdown and the lake's return
The lake was completed in 1928, and in 1967 it covered 406 acres. It is one of three small lakes on the Guadalupe River between New Braunfels and Seguin, with Lake McQueeney and Lake Placid. The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority bought them in 1963 and runs them for hydroelectric power.
On the morning of May 14, 2019, a spillgate failed at the 91-year-old dam, and the lake drained. Residents then formed the Lake Dunlap Water Control and Improvement District, created in February 2020, to raise tax money for modern spillgates and future repairs. The river authority finished the new gates in October 2023, restored the lake and started generating power again.
Lake houses and seasonal homes
The lake brought building with it, as its recreation drew lake houses and summer residences to the shore. The 2020 Census counted 832 homes in Lake Dunlap, 722 of them occupied. Of the 110 vacant ones, 43 stood empty for seasonal, recreational or occasional use.
For a weekend house, the schedule matters. One acrylic deck coating takes about 2 to 8 clear, dry days to put on, its maker says, depending on the deck's size, its condition and the weather. Kool Deck's maker keeps heavy patio furniture off its topping for 28 days. Both windows can be planned around visits.
A source of water for the region
The lake also feeds other towns' taps. The Canyon Regional Water Authority's Lake Dunlap treatment plant supplies surface water "from Canyon Lake via Lake Dunlap." Its customers include Green Valley Special Utility District and the Cities of Marion and Cibolo. The river authority also pumps Canyon Reservoir water from Lake Dunlap through a 24-mile pipeline to the San Marcos treatment plant.
No public record found names the water supplier for homes in Lake Dunlap itself, so this page quotes no drought rule. Guadalupe County's Environmental Health page lists a map of which utility serves which area.
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(830) 302-4112What lies under a pool deck by the lake
A coating is only as steady as the slab under it, and the slab rests on whatever ground the lot has. Federal soil maps split the ground inside Lake Dunlap's Census boundary into five main kinds:
- Queeny gravelly loam, about 21.3 percent of the mapped ground;
- Sunev loam on 1 to 3 percent slopes, 16.5 percent;
- Houston Black clay, 12.1 percent;
- open water, 9.0 percent;
- Sunev loam on 0 to 1 percent slopes, 8.4 percent.
In Guadalupe County's 1977 soil survey, Queeny is a very shallow to shallow gravelly loam on old stream terraces. Under its top layer lies strongly cemented, platy caliche (a hard, lime-rich layer) about 8 inches thick. The survey says the soil is used mainly as gravel for road building. Sunev is a deep loam on the same kind of terrace, and the survey rates the shrink-swell of its soil group low to moderate. Shrink-swell means the soil swelling when it's wet and shrinking as it dries.
Houston Black clay is the exception, scoring 12 for shrink-swell in federal soil data, where a higher number means more swelling.
Why the ground shows up in the coating
A new surface can't hold a moving slab together. Cracks can't be fully kept from coming back up through a thin cement resurfacer, its maker warns, especially where a slab has settled or has too few joints. A spray-texture maker says even treated cracks can return, usually as a fine line mostly lost in the texture.
Sometimes part of a deck has to be torn out and poured again. For the new slab, the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association wants the ground compacted, with topsoil and soft spots removed. It also wants the slab sloped so water runs off. The coatings themselves, from spray texture to cool deck and pavers, are compared side by side on the pool deck resurfacing page.
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(830) 302-4112County permits and river authority rules near the water
Lake Dunlap has no city government. It is a Census-designated place, the Census Bureau's term for a named community with no city hall of its own, so Guadalupe County's rules apply.
The county Fire Marshal's Office requires a building permit, a plan review and a certificate of compliance for construction or remodeling in unincorporated areas. The office is at 101 E. Court Street in Seguin, and the county enforces the 2018 International Fire Code. Its permit pages list no county permit for a home pool.
Floodplain permits and the river authority's approval
Two more rules can apply near the water. The county's floodplain administrator issues Floodplain Development Permits for any man-made change inside the regulatory floodplain (the mapped flood zone). Grading, paving and excavation are all on that list.
Owners next to a river authority lake also need the authority's approval before they build or change a dock or other waterfront structure. From September 1, 2026, that means a Dock Construction Permit application for Lake Dunlap, with a $600 payment. Neither rule names pool decks or deck coatings, and no county rule on resurfacing an existing deck was found. If the deck is in the flood zone or close to the bank, ask the county and the river authority before work starts.
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(830) 302-4112Beyond the pool deck: coping, tile and the next lake
The deck meets the pool at the coping, the cap along the pool's edge. The International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, a model code that applies where a city or the state adopts it, calls for a watertight joint there. That joint keeps the deck's movement off the coping and its mortar bed. Without a flexible joint, a pool engineering firm notes, an expanding deck can push coping and tile loose and crack the waterline tile.
So a deck job is a good time to look at the edge of the pool as well. New Braunfels Quality Pool Resurfacing also replaces coping and waterline tile, repairs shell cracks and refinishes pools. Downriver, Lake McQueeney got new spillgates of its own in March 2026, and in McQueeney it also handles pool tile replacement in McQueeney.
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(830) 302-4112How a deck resurfacing job runs
Coating makers publish the instructions behind these steps, and the county's rules add the second one. The details for your own deck are settled at the estimate.
Look at the slab and the ground
Cracks, sunken sections and puddles are noted first. One spray-texture maker's spec asks for sound concrete that drains at least 1/4 inch per foot.
Ask the county and the river authority
If the deck sits in the mapped flood zone or close to the bank, the county's floodplain office and the river authority are asked before any work.
Repair cracks and joints
In that maker's method, most cracks are filled with urethane and worn expansion joints are replaced. The existing control joints stay, so the slab can still move.
Clean and prepare the concrete
The deck gets a high-pressure wash. For a cool deck topping, its maker also acid-etches the concrete and applies a bonding agent.
Coat in dry, mild weather
Neither maker coats in wet weather or with rain on the way. The cool deck maker gets its best results at 50 degrees and rising, up to 90. In Guadalupe County, the average July high is 96°.
Cure the coating before use
The spray-texture maker keeps foot traffic off for 24 hours and cars off for 72. Kool Deck's maker allows light walking after 3 days.
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(830) 302-4112Price a new surface for your Lake Dunlap pool deck
New Braunfels Quality Pool Resurfacing picks up the phone day and night for deck coatings and repairs at Lake Dunlap and around New Braunfels. Tell us the size of the deck and what covers it now.