The sun is out, the weather is scorching and your pool deck is HOT! - What can you do?  A hot pool deck can be a real pain.  If you walk on a pool deck with your bare feet and it is not the right material or color it can cause some serious pain.

Many pool deck companies promote "cool pool decks" or "heat reflective pool coatings" but what exactly does that mean?

We all know that darkers colors attract heat and lighter colors reflect it better, but the word "cool" is really relative.   Compared to a dark wood, dark stained concrete or dark natural stone a relatively light colored pool deck coating is quite cool.  This does not mean is will be cold or be a lower temperature that the environment this is simply not the case.

Concrete pool deck coatings often found installed over top grey concrete finishes are designed to keep the pool deck cooler relative to many other finishes possible around a pool.  A Cool Pool deck coating providing a textured finish that disperses the heat on your feet and should be combined with a light color to achieve maximum effectiveness.

After comparing a variety of pool deck finish temperatures on a hot day (in the attached photo) you can see it is the concrete coating that is the "coolest."   Not to say it's cold but relatively speaking it is the coolest deck of all these other deck options.