Commercial Pool Resurfacing in Kemah, Texas
League City Pool Resurfacing handles commercial pool resurfacing in Kemah, Texas, putting a new plaster, quartz or pebble finish on the hotel, apartment and other shared pools of a bay town that the Handbook of Texas places "in a half-moon pocket on Galveston Bay", where State Highway 146 meets Farm Road 518.
The Kemah Boardwalk, which the City names as both the town's largest employer and its biggest draw, has the Lighthouse District's restaurants, bars and shops beside it, and the City counts more than 60 acres of parkland, from Cien Park and the 57-acre Park and Nature Area to the Lighthouse Pocket Park on the bay. Phone or use the form for a free estimate, and we'll go through the pool's size, the weeks it can close, and what the City and the Health District will want to see.
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Commercial pool resurfacing for a growing bay town
Kemah is small, and it has grown quickly. The Census Bureau counted 1,807 residents in April 2020 and estimates 3,097 on July 1, 2025, with most of the rise arriving in 2023, 2024 and 2025; its file doesn't give a reason. The City's parks plan, adopted in April 2024, does: as of 2023 a community of about 500 single-family homes was under construction, and up to three apartment complexes were being built or moving through approval, which it said "could bring as many as 1,000 new housing units to town".
Apartment pools
Apartment buildings already hold a share of its homes. The Census Bureau's survey for 2020 to 2024 counts about 131 of Kemah's 1,019 housing units in mid-size buildings of 5 to 19 homes and about 145 more in buildings of 20 or more, and about 424 of its 916 occupied homes (46.3%) were rented. As one of the Galveston County Health District's member cities, Kemah falls under the district's yearly permits and inspections for public and semi-public pools, hotel and apartment pools among them; its order leaves single-family backyard pools out.
Hotel pools by the Boardwalk
A tourism listing for the Boardwalk Inn, set on Galveston Bay beside the Boardwalk, tells guests they have use of an outdoor pool. A guest pool like that comes under the same Health District permits as an apartment pool, and its resurface has to be planned around the weeks the hotel can do without it.
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(281) 694-4352Pool resurfacing where storm surge reaches
When Kemah floods, the City says, it is usually storm surge from Galveston Bay or heavy rain overwhelming the storm sewers, as in Hurricane Ike in September 2008 and Hurricane Harvey in August 2017. Its flood insurance rate maps are dated August 15, 2019. All development in the city needs a permit under Chapter 46 of the City code, and new and substantially improved structures must be built at least 18 inches above base flood elevation, along with equipment that serves them, such as air-conditioning units.
The ground holds water too. The USDA's soil map puts a rarely to occasionally flooded Mocarey and Leton soil complex at the town's Census centre point, and it rates both of those soils very limited for houses, flooding and a shallow saturated zone among its reasons. River Pools, a pool maker, tells owners not to drain a pool themselves and, if draining is truly needed, to have an authorized professional do it.
After surge water gets into a pool
Even dried out, flooded pool equipment can stay a fire and shock hazard. The water-quality committee of the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance tells owners to expect breakers, circuit boards, wiring, valve motors, pump and blower motors and controls to be replaced, by a professional with a state or local licence. Once the pool is empty, its cleanup order is debris, organic matter and silt out first, a power wash if needed, then the stains, treated with muriatic acid diluted one part to ten parts water or with liquid bleach. Where both are used, the acid goes first and is rinsed away before the chlorine; the two are never combined.
Any deck, coping, ladder or railing the floodwater reached gets a hot-water-and-detergent scrub and then a 500 ppm bleach rinse to sanitize it, mixed fresh daily and kept away from ammonia. League City Pool Resurfacing resurfaces pools once that cleanup is done and the shell has been checked.
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(281) 694-4352Permits and codes for commercial pool resurfacing
Since Ordinance No. 1203 of August 2022, Kemah has built to the 2021 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, adopted with the 2021 editions of the residential, building, existing building and property maintenance codes and with the 2020 electrical code. That ordinance also struck out the City's own swimming pool article, a 1981 set of local rules.
The City's permit guidance says "most construction, remodeling, or repair projects require a permit", electrical, plumbing, mechanical and structural work included, and asks owners to check with the Building Department before any work starts. It doesn't name pool resurfacing, so put the question to the Kemah Building Department before a job is booked.
Registration through MyGov
Every permit, inspection and contractor registration in Kemah goes through the City's MyGov portal, and a contractor has to register there before it can submit a permit. Building permits are valid for one year from the day they are issued.
The Health District's permit
Separately from the City, the Health District applies the Texas Department of State Health Services pool standards in its member cities. Each permitted pool needs its own permit, which calls for a named certified operator and a passed inspection.
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(281) 694-4352From Shell Siding to "facing the winds"
Kemah began about 1898 on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad as Evergreen, also known as Shell Siding while the railroad hauled shell from the area. It took the name Kemah when its post office opened in 1907; the City calls it a Karankawa word meaning "facing the winds", for the town's position on the bay. By 1914, the Handbook of Texas records, about 200 people lived there among hay producers, fishing camps and the summer homes of Galveston and Houston residents, and the town reached a high of 2,000 residents and 43 businesses in 1970. Once a shrimping town, Kemah still holds a Blessing of the Fleet every August.
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(281) 694-4352Commercial pool finishes, tile and deck work
A commercial resurface is rarely the finish alone. Waterline tile, coping, depth markers and safety tile, deck resurfacing and cool deck repairs often go into the same closure, and backyard pools in Kemah have the same plaster, quartz and pebble choices. A 2025 national guide written for property managers averages plaster resurfacing at $5,000 for every 1,000 square feet and puts Diamond Brite quartz nearer $6 to $7 a square foot and Pebble Tec or PebbleSheen nearer $10; it says the bill climbs with pool size, in coastal areas and bigger cities, and when structural repair is needed. Those are published figures, not prices from League City Pool Resurfacing.
Along the bay, we also handle pebble pool finishes in Clear Lake Shores and pool resurfacing and plaster repair in Bacliff.
Call or request a free estimate any time, 24/7.
(281) 694-4352How a commercial pool resurfacing runs
General practice, set against Kemah's rules and the makers' instructions; your own pool's details are settled at the estimate.
Walk-through and closure window
We'll talk through the pool's size and finish, its tile and coping, and the weeks the property can be without it.
The permit question
The Kemah Building Department confirms whether the job needs a permit, and any permit and the contractor registration go through MyGov.
Draining with the groundwater in mind
Nobody empties the pool until the groundwater risk has been looked at, and the water leaves only by routes the City's stormwater rules allow.
Shell preparation
Loose finish comes off. On a bare shell, SGM, a plaster maker, requires algae, mold and mildew to be removed by chlorine washing, and oil and grease with trisodium phosphate, before plaster goes on; otherwise the finish discolors and can delaminate.
Tile, fittings and the new finish
Waterline tile, markers and fittings are reset where needed before the new interior. LATICRETE notes that iron and copper from the source water drop out of solution at normal pool pH and can stain tile, grout and fittings.
Fill and start-up
The pool is filled and started up to the finish maker's schedule, and the operator keeps its Health District permit current.
Call or request a free estimate any time, 24/7.
(281) 694-4352Kemah commercial pool questions
Can drained pool water go into Kemah's storm drains?
Only once it's dechlorinated. Kemah's stormwater ordinance lets swimming pool water into the storm system "if dechlorinated—typically less than one parts per million (PPM) chlorine", and it bans "any filter backwash from a swimming pool, fountain, or spa" from the system outright. At state level, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality lists dechlorinated pool discharges among the flows its permit for smaller municipal storm sewer systems allows, unless the local system's operator bans them.
How hard is the water in Kemah for a new pool finish?
No published figure covers Kemah's taps. Galveston County WCID No. 12, which serves most of the city, sells Brazos River water bought through the Gulf Coast Water Authority, with the Gulf Coast Aquifer kept for emergencies, and its newest posted water quality report, for 2020, prints no hardness figure. So before a new finish starts up, a sample of the fill water gets checked for pH, total alkalinity, calcium hardness and metals.
Free commercial pool resurfacing estimates in Kemah
Tell League City Pool Resurfacing what kind of property the pool serves, roughly how big it is and when it could close. Calls and estimate requests are answered 24/7.