Diving Pool Conversion in Serenada, Texas

Diving pools behind 1970s and 1980s homes

Serenada had 2,098 residents in the 2020 Census and 951 housing units, 901 of them occupied. Of the 552 housing units in the Census Bureau's smaller 2020–2024 survey, 225 date from the 1970s and 265 from the 1980s, about 88.8%, and none were estimated before 1970. The median home was built in 1982, about 44 years ago, and the first homes went up around 1974. That is the highest share of pre-1990 homes of any Census place on our town list, though Lost Creek's median home, from 1977, is older. The survey's margins are wide (the total alone is ±114), so the shares are rough. Nearly every home is a single-family house lived in by its owner, and the median owner-occupied home is valued at $480,100.

By our count on the City of Georgetown's subdivision map, Serenada Country Estates covers about 28% of Serenada's Census area, Logan Ranch about 22% and Serenada West about 20%. The recorded restrictions for Serenada Country Estates Unit One and Serenada West allow no resubdivision into tracts under one acre and only one single-family home per tract. No source counts pools or diving boards in Serenada; the age of the homes is the only link to this service.

What the code means by a diving pool

The 2021 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code calls a non-diving home pool Type O and ranks home pools suitable for diving equipment as Types I to V, and it bars diving equipment from a Type O pool. Its smallest diving pools, Types I and II, need water at least 6 feet deep at Point A and 7 feet 6 inches at Point B, rising to 8 feet 6 inches and 9 feet for Type V, with no negative construction tolerance on those figures. A board has to sit in the deep area where it gets that envelope, its maker must state the water dimensions each board needs, and each board carries a permanent label with the maker's name and address, its date of manufacture, its minimum diving envelope and its weight limit. S.R. Smith, a diving board maker, warns that using a board on an improperly sized pool may result in death or serious injury.

Filling a deep end with new shotcrete

No maker, trade body or agency found publishes a step-by-step method for filling in a deep end, so the structure of a conversion is a job for an engineer who knows pools. The American Shotcrete Association says as much of any structural remodel: it won't advise on one and suggests a local engineer familiar with pools and spas. Adding thickness to a pool wall changes the engineer's design as well, and the Association notes it would need more reinforcing steel. For the board itself, the only maker detail found is S.R. Smith's: the mounting jig for its residential board sits in concrete at least 6 inches thick.

Bonding new concrete to the old shell

What the Association does publish is how new shotcrete bonds to old concrete. The old surface is roughened and cleaned, to a roughness of about 1/16 inch or more, with a water blaster of 5,000 psi or more or by abrasive blasting, then brought to saturated surface-dry, damp to the touch with no water coming off on a hand. No bonding agent goes between them, because it can act as a bond breaker, and the shotcrete goes on at high velocity so the joint acts as one piece rather than a cold joint. The Association recommends dry-mix gunite of at least 4,000 psi at 28 days, an ACI-certified nozzleman, and at least 7 days of curing, since hot, dry or windy weather without curing raises the risk of shrinkage cracks.

Septic tanks, sewer mains and the pool

Most Serenada homes were built for septic tanks. The recorded plat of Serenada Country Estates Unit One, filed August 9, 1973, says every dwelling on its lots must be served by a septic tank meeting the requirements of the County and State Health Departments, and the Serenada West plat of March 28, 1977 says the same. On the City of Georgetown's utility map, 622 of the 664 single-family address points lie more than 200 feet from any mapped City gravity sewer main, by our count. No official list of the homes connected to sewer today was found.

In unincorporated Williamson County and in city ETJs other than Austin's, septic systems come under the Williamson County Engineer's Office, which the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has authorized to run the program. The County's septic guide keeps a pool at least 5 feet from the tank and field and from a watertight sewer pipe, and 25 feet from a surface spray application area. Its care brochure tells owners not to build driveways, buildings or structures within 5 feet of the tank or drain field, not to drive heavy equipment over the system and not to let water sit over it. Whether the County reviews pool work on a septic lot wasn't found, so the tank and field are located, and that question goes to the Engineer's Office, before the pool is drained or equipment comes onto the lot.

Draining and refilling on Georgetown water

A conversion empties the pool. Williamson County's storm water program says water containing chlorine should not go into roadside ditches, storm sewers, creeks or rivers, and pool water isn't on its list of exempt discharges; its tips say not to pump pool water into the storm drain and, where possible, to drain it into the sanitary sewer. The County's permit rules apply only in the urbanized parts of the unincorporated county. About three-quarters of Serenada's area (74.77%) falls inside the urbanized area on the County's stormwater map, by our count, but the map uses the 2020 Census urban area while the County's page cites the 2010 map, so which lots are covered isn't settled. Georgetown reviews stormwater in its ETJ, but whether its own drain-down rules apply there wasn't confirmed.

By our count on the City of Georgetown's water service map, all of Serenada falls within City of Georgetown water service areas, and the Texas Water Development Board's map agrees. Georgetown's report names Lake Georgetown and Lake Stillhouse, under a Brazos River Authority contract, as its main surface sources. For a home on Georgetown water, the refill comes under Georgetown's drought plan. Every Georgetown water customer was in Stage 1 on October 4, 2026, and Stage 1 sets no pool rule. Stages 2 and 3 allow water into a pool only to keep its purification system running or protect its structure, and Emergency Stage 4 allows none for filling or maintaining any pool or spa, so the stage is checked before the old water goes.

Georgetown's 2025 report prints no hardness figure. TCEQ samples from 2025 and 2026 put the total hardness of its treated water at 174 to 320 mg/L as calcium carbonate, depending on the plant, from the South Lake surface-water plant at the low end to the San Gabriel plant at the high end. Which plant's water reaches a Serenada home isn't known, so the fill water itself is tested.

Replastering and other work on older pools

A conversion is often the moment for other work on an older pool: a new plaster, pebble or quartz finish over the new floor, new waterline tile, a tanning ledge or new steps, or a broader remodel. We handle each of these, and the estimate is free.

Nearby, Leander Pool Resurfacing also handles commercial and HOA pool resurfacing in Georgetown and fiberglass pool resurfacing in Weir.

Serenada pool questions