Ontario Concrete Pro pours pool decks 4 inches thick in a light mix, faced so wet feet grip it, with a half-inch joint keeping the deck off the shell. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
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How we build
A deck around water is asked to do three things a garden slab never is. It has to grip a wet foot, it has to be crossed barefoot in the afternoon, and it takes splash-out carrying chlorine and salt into the top of the concrete every day it is used. A light, textured, sealed slab does all three for 30 years. A dark troweled one fails at all three inside 10.
Ontario Concrete Pro was founded in 2020 by Victor Salgado, who spent 14 years on Inland Empire flatwork crews before it, and he sets the fall on every deck himself. The pools going in around Ontario Ranch sit on engineered fill placed over ground that was dairy pasture a decade ago, and the fill under a shell is compacted to a soil report while the strip beside it, where the deck goes, often is not.
Decks go down to the California Residential Code under a CSLB C-8 concrete license, with liability insurance on every job behind the crew. A deck replaced inside its own footprint is flatwork, but the pool barrier and the drainage around it are regulated, so anything that moves a fence line or a gate is checked with the Ontario Building Department before a date is set. You are handed a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.
Warning signs
A line you can get a fingernail into where deck meets coping means one of the two has dropped. On fill that was placed but never properly compacted, the deck is always the one that moves, and caulking the gap each spring treats the symptom while the void underneath keeps growing.
Hose the deck down and watch where it goes. Water heading for the coping instead of the yard means the fall has reversed, which puts leaf litter, sunscreen and decomposed granite straight into the skimmer. Grinding a slab back to grade is not possible across a whole surround.
Run a wet hand across the deck. If it feels like a countertop, the sand that gripped bare feet has been worn out of the top layer by 20 summers of traffic and sealer. That is a safety fault standing next to 5 feet of water, and no amount of resealing puts the texture back.
Ontario sits in the mid-90s for weeks at a time, and a dark, smooth deck in full sun sits about 40 degrees above the air on those afternoons. If the family is hopping from towel to towel by 2 o clock, the color and the face of that slab were chosen for a photograph, not for a pool.
What's included
These are standard on every deck rather than options added back in later, and each one answers something the heat, the fill or the water here does to a slab.
The old deck comes out in sections working away from the coping, so nothing is levered against the shell, and it is hauled that day.
Ground beside the shell is probed for soft or organic material, which the USDA Web Soil Survey maps by field, and anything loose is dug out.
Class 2 base laid in lifts and plate compacted to 4 inches, giving the deck a drained layer to sit on instead of wetted fill.
A 3,500 psi mix from a San Bernardino County batch plant, in a pale integral color chosen against the coping rather than the house.
A half-inch expansion joint the full depth of the slab between deck and coping, sealed flexible, so neither one can crack the other.
A quarter inch of drop per foot away from the water to a deck drain, set at the forms, so the surround sheds instead of feeding the pool.
The pool is covered before any breakout starts, the equipment pad boxed in, and the skimmer cleared and the filter checked before we leave.
Two coats of penetrating sealer once the slab has cured, and then a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built.
Your options
Four faces on the same 4-inch slab and the same compacted base, judged on how long each lasts, the yard it suits, how it behaves on a 95 degree afternoon and how long we are in the garden.
| Option | Lifespan | Suits | Underfoot past 95 | Days in the yard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broom-finish deck | 30 years or more | Most Ontario Ranch surrounds, in a pale color | Warm, crossable in a pale mix | 3 days, then 7 to cure |
| Salt-finish deck | 25 years or more | Older shells and their cast coping | The coolest of the four | 3 days, then 7 to cure |
| Exposed aggregate | 30 years or more | Busy decks with a diving end or a slide | Cool, and grips a wet foot | 3 to 4 days, then 7 to cure |
| Bonded overlay | 10 to 15 years | A flat old deck, or an alley-only backyard | Depends on the color chosen | 2 days, no tear-out |
Broom is the least to lay, aggregate grips best when wet, and the overlay is the only one that keeps a sound old deck. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
Local knowledge
Ontario gives a deck two different problems depending on which end of the city it is in, and neither of them is the concrete itself. One is the ground under it. The other is getting to it.
South of Riverside Drive the pools are new and the yards are engineered fill placed over old dairy ground. The shell is bedded to a soil report and the strip around it frequently is not, so an under-compacted deck settles a fraction of an inch, pulls away from a shell that has not moved, and the coping joint opens. That is why the fill beside the shell is probed and replaced before base goes down, and why the joint is a formed half inch rather than a saw cut.
Up around the older lots off Euclid Avenue the problem is reversed. The house is from the 1920s, the pool was dropped into the back garden 40 years later, and the only way in is the rear alley, so the concrete is wheeled the last 60 feet or placed with a line pump. It is the same job either way, but the day is planned around the barrow run instead of the truck. Both ends of town share the heat, which is what decides the color and the face, not the patio the deck runs into.
Our process
Five stages, one crew through all of them, and one written figure covering the lot. The deck is walked with you and rinsed before anybody asks you to sign it off.
Victor Salgado measures the surround, reads the fall with a level, checks the coping and the equipment pad, then leaves the figure in writing.
You choose the texture and the color, we settle whether it is a barrow run or a pump, and anything touching the barrier goes to the city first.
Day one the old deck comes out in sections, the plumbing runs and bond beam are looked at, and the ground beside the shell is probed.
Compacted base, number 3 rebar on an 18-inch grid, forms set to a quarter inch of fall per foot, and a summer pour placed before the heat.
The face is worked, joints cut within 12 hours, the deck rinsed and sealed, then walked with you with the guarantee in your hand.
What moves the estimate
Square footage moves the figure furthest, then how the concrete reaches the yard. A walk-round surround runs about 300 square feet and a deck with a furniture end passes 700. Every estimate is measured and written on site.
A 3 to 4 foot walk-round is roughly 300 square feet. A raised bond beam, a spa or a step down to lawn adds forming to the same area.
Where soft or organic material is found beside the shell it comes out and is replaced compacted, and that spoil has to leave the site by truck.
A gate under 3 feet wide means every yard of concrete is barrowed, and an alley-only backyard off Euclid is usually a line pump instead.
Aggregate and stamped faces take more hands than a broom, and a barrier or gate that has to move is priced from the city drawing.
The number comes off the visit, in writing and free, and a call back within 1 business day books the date around it. (909) 404-9502 or send us a message.
Call or send the form and you get a call back within 1 business day to fix the visit. The estimate is free, it is measured at the poolside and written before we leave, and nothing follows it.
Reviews
Three reviews left by Ontario homeowners after a pool deck, not after other work. Each one is about the surround of their own pool and nothing else.
“The joint between our deck and the coping had opened up to about a finger width. They dug out the soft ground beside the shell, showed me what came out, and formed a proper joint back in. Two summers on and the line is still tight.”
“Our house is off Euclid and the only way to the pool is the alley, which two other firms took one look at and passed on. These lads pumped it over the garage roofline in a morning. The deck is pale and the kids can cross it in August without shoes.”
“We wanted the fence moved out to take in more deck and had no idea it was a barrier question. They checked it with the city before quoting rather than after, so the gate that went back in was the one that passes. No surprises on the paperwork.”
FAQ
The things people ask at the poolside during the measure, in the order they usually come up, answered the way they were answered there.
Area first, access second, face third. A walk-round surround of about 300 square feet is a different job from a 700 square foot deck with a furniture end, and a yard reached only by barrow takes longer than one a truck can get near. Every estimate is measured and written on site, so the figure is measured at your own coping rather than guessed from a photo.
Three to four days at the house. One for careful break-out around the shell, one for base and steel, a morning for the pour and the face, with the joints cut within 12 hours of it going down. Then leave it 24 hours before walking on it and 7 days before the furniture goes back. Rain is the only thing that moves a date.
Removal, the fill beside the shell probed and replaced where it is soft, 4 inches of compacted Class 2 base, a 4-inch 3,500 psi slab on number 3 rebar at 18 inches, the textured face, a quarter inch of fall per foot to a drain and 2 coats of sealer. The half-inch coping joint is the item most people expect to be extra.
Usually not for the concrete. Replacing a deck inside its existing footprint is flatwork on your own lot. The pool barrier and the drainage around the pool are a different matter, and any deck that shifts a fence line, a gate or where the water leaves the yard is checked with the Ontario Building Department before we book it. That call is ours to make, not yours.
Not if the color and the face are chosen for it. Ontario sits in the mid-90s for weeks at a stretch and a slab in full sun runs about 40 degrees above the air, so a dark, smooth deck becomes unusable in the middle of the day. A pale integral color with a salt or aggregate face is the difference between crossing it barefoot and not.
You get a written workmanship guarantee against defects in how it was built, on paper, at the walk-through. It stands behind the compaction, the steel, the coping joint, the fall and the finish, which are the five things we control. It does not cover a deck lifted by a leaking pool line or a broken return, and that is exactly why the plumbing is looked at while the old slab is out.
Yes, and on the older lots off Euclid Avenue it is often the only way in. Where a gate is under 3 feet the concrete is barrowed the last stretch, and where the run is long or the level is wrong a line pump places it over the house. It adds to the day rather than changing the build, and it is settled at the estimate so nobody is surprised on the morning.
A 3,500 psi mix from a San Bernardino County batch plant, in a pale integral color. Standard faces are broom and salt, both of which hold a wet foot, and exposed aggregate is the option where a deck takes a diving end or heavy traffic. Each of them is sealed twice before hand-over, which is what keeps chlorine and salt out of the top of the slab.
Service area
The towns this crew pours pool decks in, nearest first, out of the yard on East Holt Boulevard and across four counties. Each name opens the page for that town.
Four jobs that get measured on the same poolside visit. Where the pours can share a truck they are placed on the same morning, which saves a second mobilisation.
The shaded slab the deck runs into, poured to the same 4 inches.
A pressed face on the surround, sealed twice for feet that are wet.
The steps down from the house, so the fall to the drain still works.
A wall holding a slope above the deck, so the yard stops washing in.
A free estimate, measured at the poolside and written before we leave, and a call back within 1 business day. Keep the figure, compare it with anyone else, and call when you are ready.