Pool Replastering in Northwest Austin, Texas
Leander Pool Resurfacing handles pool replastering in Northwest Austin, the district of the City of Austin along US 183 and RM 620, where most homes in the two oldest ZIP areas were built before 1990.
Northwest Austin is a district rather than a town: the Census Bureau draws no line around it, and the City of Austin annexed two of its utility districts, Anderson Mill in 2008 and River Place in 2017. Its neighborhoods include Anderson Mill, Jollyville on Rattan Creek, Avery Ranch in the city's northwest corner and River Place on Lake Austin, with Westwood High School, Balcones Pool on Amherst Drive and Lakeline Mall among the places people know it by.
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Replastering and home age, ZIP by ZIP
Census housing figures for the district come by ZIP area, and the Bureau's ZIP areas don't follow Austin's city limits. Its 2020–2024 survey gives the median year a home was built in each one:
In 78759, 15,342 of 23,444 homes were built before 1990, about 65.4%, and in 78750, 7,823 of 12,282, about 63.7%. Between them, the two ZIP areas hold 21,100 homes from the 1970s and 1980s. In a straight line, the Census center points of the five ZIP areas lie between about 8.7 and 13.3 miles from Leander's.
Anderson Mill
Anderson Mill's utility district was created in 1973, its history page says, which also records a 1974 Creation Agreement with the City of Austin, and the district counts nearly 3,500 homes. Austin considered annexing it in 1983, 1987, 1993 and 1997, when residents who valued the district's parks and pools didn't want to be annexed, and annexed it for full purposes on December 31, 2008, when it became the Anderson Mill Limited District. The Limited District still runs about 60 acres of parks and greenbelts and two pools open year-round. The Handbook of Texas records a much older Anderson Mill community on Cypress Creek, named for Thomas Anderson, who built a gunpowder mill there in the early 1860s.
Jollyville
Jollyville, founded in 1866 and named for John Grey Jolly, sits on Rattan Creek and US Highway 183. It reported 150 residents from 1949 into the 1960s, then 15,206 by 1990, by which time it had spread into Travis County.
Avery Ranch and River Place
Avery Ranch's owners' association describes an 1,800-acre master-planned community in Austin's northwest corner, with numerous pools, a competitive swim team and almost 4,000 homes at completion. River Place, on Lake Austin, began as a utility district in 1985 and has over 1,000 homes.
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(737) 212-9378Austin Water and a new coat of plaster
What comes out of the tap
Austin Water draws from the Lower Colorado River as it flows through Lake Travis and Lake Austin, treats it at the Handcox, Davis and Ullrich plants, and tests pH, alkalinity and water softening levels along the way. Its 2025 report gives total hardness of 70 to 126 ppm, averaging 93 ppm. Its summary for April through June 2026 shows the tap water at 76 to 77 mg/L total hardness and 12 to 15 mg/L calcium, with pH from 9.65 to 9.74, against 157 to 161 mg/L hardness in the untreated lake water.
Why soft fill water matters
The National Plasterers Council recommends filling new plaster with water above 200 ppm calcium hardness, or above 150 ppm for some high-performance finishes. Even the 2025 report's highest total hardness, 126 ppm, sits below that. The Council explains that plaster dust is calcium hydroxide released as the cement cures, that losing the excess is normal, and that soft water can pull out more than the excess and weaken the surface.
Ways to work with it
For soft water, the Council lists bypassing a softener or reverse-osmosis unit, using hydrant or trucked water, dosing calcium chloride during the fill, or sealing the new surface with a polymeric densifier and balancing the water as soon as the pool is full. Its start-up card then raises calcium hardness in dissolved doses several hours apart, and it keeps the saturation index between 0.0 and +0.3, since a negative reading leads to leaching and etching. We'll talk through which route suits your pool before plaster day.
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(737) 212-9378Austin's pool code, drought stages and the refill
The code and the inspection checklist
Austin adopted the 2024 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code with local amendments, in effect since July 10, 2025. The City's residential inspection checklist, dated 2022, calls for a barrier at least 48 inches tall or a compliant safety cover, no opening that passes a 4-inch sphere, self-closing and self-latching gates with the release at least 54 inches up, alarms on doors and low windows that open to the pool, backflow protection on any autofill, and bonding of concrete deck within 3 feet of the water. Austin's own amendment sets chain-link pool fences at 60 inches or taller, with openings no wider than 1¾ inches.
Drought stages and a full refill
Austin has been under Conservation Stage restrictions since September 2, 2025, and the current list doesn't mention pools. Under Drought Response Stage Four, the City may not approve new pool or spa permits at single-family homes, and Emergency Stage Five bans using water to fill, clean, rinse or top up a pool, so the stage in force is checked before a pool is drained for replastering.
Coping and impervious cover
On the City's pool permit form, the pool itself is left out of impervious cover, but pool coping is listed as other impervious cover, and uncovered wood decks with drainage gaps over pervious ground count at 50%.
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(737) 212-9378Deed restrictions and neighborhood committees
A City permit doesn't settle everything here. Austin's pool permit form says the City's review won't check private deed restrictions, and that a permit doesn't change whether they can be enforced. In Anderson Mill, the Limited District's Architectural Control Committee approves or denies construction and remodeling plans under each village's deed restrictions, with requests going to the district office on El Salido Parkway. Avery Ranch's covenants require prior written approval from its Architectural Design Review Committee for any exterior change, back yard included, and River Place's homeowners association has a mandatory Architectural Control Committee.
The published rules read for this page don't mention pool interiors, so the committee is asked before work starts, especially when the plaster color is changing.
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(737) 212-9378Quartz, pebble and other pool work in Northwest Austin
Besides white and colored replastering, we apply quartz and pebble finishes, repair hollow or etched plaster, drain and acid wash stained pools, and repair waterline tile and coping.
Close by, Leander Pool Resurfacing also handles pool remodeling in Cedar Park and pebble pool finishes in Brushy Creek.
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(737) 212-9378How a replaster runs under Austin's rules
General practice from the City of Austin's rules, the National Plasterers Council and SGM's installation manual. Your estimate covers the details of your own pool.
Check the address and the committee
The lot's place inside or outside Austin's city limits is confirmed first, since the district's ZIP areas cross them, and the neighborhood committee is asked where deed restrictions apply.
Test, then drain
Austin lets pool water reach a storm drain only when it is free of chlorine, between pH 6.0 and 10.5, and holds no salt, algae, stagnant water, paint chips or maintenance debris. Filter backwash may never go to a storm drain, street curb or waterway; it can soak into a vegetated area on the property, or go to the sanitary sewer with Austin Water's prior approval.
Cut out or bond over
Hollow and delaminated plaster is cut out and patched, and the shell is either chipped out or given a bond coat over sound old plaster; SGM's Bond Kote cures for at least 6 hours before plastering.
Plaster day
The finish goes on in a single application, starting with a scratch coat on the deep-end bowl, and the National Plasterers Council puts its average thickness between 3/8 and 3/4 inch.
Fill with a plan
The fill runs without a break to the middle of the skimmer, with the calcium plan for soft fill water settled beforehand.
Start-up
The filter runs continuously for at least 72 hours and up to seven days, no chlorine goes in for the first 48 hours, and the pool is brushed at least twice a day to clear the plaster dust.
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(737) 212-9378Northwest Austin replastering questions
Does Austin require a permit to replaster a pool?
The City hasn't said either way. Its list of work exempt from building permits names only prefabricated pools less than 24 inches deep, the words resurfacing, replastering and plaster don't appear on it, and exempt work must still meet the codes. What is clear is that a pool with an autofill or heating system triggers a plumbing permit. Ask Austin Development Services before the drain-down.
Is every Northwest Austin address inside the City of Austin?
Not necessarily. The ZIP areas used to describe the district, 78759, 78750, 78729, 78726 and 78717, are the Census Bureau's approximations and don't follow city limits, so parts of some may lie outside the city, and a lot's status is checked before anyone relies on City of Austin rules. Austin annexed Anderson Mill on December 31, 2008 and River Place on December 15, 2017. Travis County WCID No. 17, the Steiner Ranch water district, serves only 78732, 78734 and 78738, none of the five.
What rules apply to a neighborhood or district pool?
More than a backyard pool faces. Austin Public Health requires a permit to operate a public or semi-public pool, good for one year, and approves plans before construction; private pools and spas need no such permit. Under Austin's 2025 code, nobody may build or structurally alter a public swimming pool unless the plans are approved by the Development Services director and the health authority. For pools under Travis County jurisdiction, outside the city, a newly built or remodeled aquatic facility needs a pre-opening inspection.
Free pool replastering estimates in Northwest Austin
Leander Pool Resurfacing answers calls and estimate requests 24/7 for replastering in Anderson Mill, Jollyville, Avery Ranch, River Place and the rest of Northwest Austin. Tell us roughly how big the pool is and how its plaster looks now.