Pool Renovation and Remodeling in Hillcrest Village, Texas
League City Pool Resurfacing takes on pool renovation and remodeling in Hillcrest Village, Texas, from a new interior finish and waterline tile to a rebuilt deck or fence, in a village of 287 homes on Mustang Bayou, south of State Highway 6 and about two miles southeast of Alvin.
The village has no businesses by its own choice. Its first streets were Hillcrest, Crestmont and Ridgemont drives, its city park sits next to the municipal building at Main Street and West Timberlane, where City Hall moved in April 2025 after nearly 30 years of a City office in Alvin, and on Christmas Eve residents light the luminaries that line the streets. Call or fill in the form for a free estimate, and we'll go over the renovation along with the drawings, permits and Council review the City requires.
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Pool renovation for homes built in the 1960s
Hillcrest Village went up in a short span. The City's history puts the first house at the corner of Main and Hillcrest Drive in the late spring of 1961, at a cost of $24,000; Hillcrest, Crestmont and Ridgemont drives were mostly built out by 1965, R. E. Strickland built more streets east of Hillcrest Drive, and the west side of Main Street followed in the mid-1970s. The Census Bureau's 2020–2024 survey, drawn from a small sample, puts about 81.6% of the village's homes before 1980 and about 47.7% in the 1960s alone, with a median year built of 1968. About 96.8% are single-family detached houses, and owners live in about 92.7% of the occupied ones.
Renovating an older pool to a newer code
The model pool code draws the line between old work and new. In its 2021 edition, section 102.4 says additions, alterations, renovations and repairs to a pool must meet the requirements for a new system without forcing the rest of the existing system up to the code, and must not leave the existing system unsafe, unsanitary or overloaded. Hillcrest Village now builds to the 2024 edition, so ask the City how that edition treats the renovation you have in mind.
New concrete on an old shell
Where a renovation adds a bench, steps or a sun shelf to the shell, the American Shotcrete Association says new shotcrete bonds well to old concrete when the old surface is roughened, to about 1/16 inch or more, cleaned and brought to a saturated surface-dry state, so that the joint acts as one piece rather than as a cold joint. It advises against any bonding agent between the two, which it says can act as a bond breaker.
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(281) 694-4352Pool remodeling permits and Council review
Hillcrest Village's Ordinance No. 5-2025, passed on August 18 and adopted on September 2, 2025, brings in the 2024 International Residential Code and the 2024 pool and spa code, the latter for the "design, construction or installation, repair or alteration, maintenance and use" of pools on public or private property in the city. Its permit list names "Swimming Pools of all types" and concrete patios and driveways, and the City's permit form says any construction that changes, improves or otherwise modifies the exterior of an existing building, or modifies plumbing, electrical or HVAC, needs a building permit, posted where it can be seen from the street. None of that names resurfacing or replastering on its own, so check with the City of Hillcrest Village permit office before a renovation is booked.
Drawings, licences and the Council
For pool work, the City's swimming pool permit process starts with detailed, engineered design drawings, which the Council and/or the City inspector must approve before the permit process. The contractor then files a pool permit application with proof of liability insurance, a plumbing permit under a master plumber's licence and an electrical permit under a master electrician's licence, and fences and pool covers take separate permits where they apply. They apply to any contractor the City permits. Where a remodel would change the architectural looks of a home or structure, detailed plans go to the City Council for approval before any permit is issued, remodeling must use materials similar to the original construction, and permitted work must be finished within six months of the permit's date.
Eleven inspections and the plumbing permit fees
The City lists eleven pool inspections: the site before digging, belly, rough plumbing, rough electrical, bonding, deck, a gas test where there is gas, final plumbing, final electrical, the final pool inspection, and a backflow prevention test by MDS, the City's utility operator. Its plumbing permit form carries a $50.00 permit fee, a $40.00 residential swimming pool line, $80.00 for the pool's backflow prevention inspection, $60.00 an inspection, $150.00 for the backflow prevention test and a $15.00 administrative fee, with re-inspections at double the inspection fee. Work started before a permit doubles the fees, with a possible fine of $200.00 a day.
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(281) 694-4352Fences and gates around a remodeled pool
Hillcrest Village caps residential fences at eight feet and approves wood, ornamental iron, masonry and decorative PVC, with chain link allowed only on the sides and rear, out of public view; no fence may be built on a City easement. For a fence around a pool, the fence section points to the swimming pool section, which adopts the pool code without a local barrier height of its own, and the City's pool permit process requires every gate to be self-latching. A new fence needs a permit of its own.
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(281) 694-4352Draining a pool for renovation on Bernard clay
The village stands on high ground: the City says it has very few low spots and measures 43 feet above sea level, against Alvin's 39. The USDA maps the soil at its Census centre point as Bernard clay loam, somewhat poorly drained and in hydrologic group D, the slowest-draining group, and its database puts the shallowest yearly water table in that map unit at 31 centimetres, about 12 inches down. It rates Bernard very limited for houses on shallow foundations because of the saturated zone, and very limited for shallow digging, where the soil is too clayey and the excavation walls unstable. That is one point on the map.
The City's ordinance has a flood-plain section too, under which it reviews building permit applications for new construction, substantial improvements or major repairs in the special flood hazard area. Its sewer rule bars putting anything but household sewage into the City sewage system, with a fine of up to $200.00 for each event, so ask the City where drained pool water may go before the pump goes in.
Plastering in Brazoria County heat
NOAA's Alvin weather station, about 2 miles south-southwest of the village's centre, averages 77.8 days a year at 90°F or above and 3.0 at 100°F or above in its 1991–2020 normals, with a normal summer high of 90.3°F and 55.07 inches of rain a year. SGM, a plaster maker, wants materials and work areas kept above 50°F and below 100°F for 24 hours before and 72 hours after its finish is placed. The National Plasterers Council's hot-weather precautions include pre-soaking the shell without leaving standing water, starting earlier in the morning and tenting the pool.
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(281) 694-4352A Monsanto subdivision on the crest of a hill
The City's history traces Hillcrest Village to the late 1950s, when Monsanto asked the Alvin Chamber of Commerce about a subdivision to house employees and executives for its growing business near Chocolate Bayou, and Pat Patterson bought the first acreage from E. A. Richards. The name, the City says, grew out of a joke that there must be a crest of a hill here, given how far one could see in 1961. The Handbook of Texas dates the incorporation to 1962; the City dates it to 1963 and says the new city decided to have no businesses within the village. It had 358 residents in 1970 and 771 in 1980; the 2020 Census counted 705, and the Census Bureau's estimate for July 1, 2025 is 684. Village traditions include a National Night Out in the fall and a Spring Fling in April.
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(281) 694-4352Finishes, tile, coping and decks in a pool renovation
Most renovations center on a new interior, in white or colored plaster, quartz or pebble, with waterline tile, coping and the deck redone in the same drain-down, and sometimes a tanning ledge, an added spa or a water feature as well. Typical Houston-area figures for 2026 put coping replacement at $3,000 to $10,000, depending on whether it is travertine, limestone or precast concrete, and pool tile replacement at $3,000 to $8,000, by tile material and pool size. The ranges are a plasterer's own, not League City Pool Resurfacing's; for your pool, ask for a free estimate.
A little farther out, we also handle swimming pool replastering in Alvin and pool resurfacing in Santa Fe.
Call or request a free estimate any time, 24/7.
(281) 694-4352How a pool renovation moves through the City's permits
A typical sequence laid against the City's pool permit process; the estimate fills in what your pool needs.
Scope and drawings
We'll talk through what the renovation changes, and engineered design drawings go to the Council and/or the City inspector for approval.
Permits, posted
The pool, plumbing and electrical permits are issued, with fence or cover permits where they apply, and the permit goes up where it can be seen from the street.
Drain-down
Once the groundwater question is settled and the City has said where the water may go, the pool is emptied; nothing but household sewage goes into the City sewer.
Shell, plumbing and electrical work
Any new concrete goes onto a roughened, saturated surface-dry shell, and the rough plumbing, rough electrical and bonding inspections follow.
Deck, tile and the new finish
The deck is inspected, tile and coping are set, and the interior goes on within the plaster maker's temperature limits.
Final inspections and fill
Final plumbing, electrical and pool inspections and the backflow prevention test close the job, all inside the six months a permit allows.
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(281) 694-4352Hillcrest Village pool renovation questions
Where does Hillcrest Village get its water?
From its own system. The City's operator, MDS, reports monthly on the city water plants and the wastewater plant, and in 2025 the City won a federal grant toward a replacement generator for water well #3. No water quality report for the village turned up online, so there is no hardness figure to give, and the fill water for a new finish gets its own test at the pool.
Free pool renovation estimates in Hillcrest Village
Describe the pool and deck as they are and the renovation you have in mind, and League City Pool Resurfacing will set up the estimate. We answer calls and the form 24/7.