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Sun City West board narrows RH Johnson pool-deck choices to AquaFlex and travertine, sets $500,000 placeholder
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Summary
The Sun City West governing board heard staff due diligence on RH Johnson pool-deck options and agreed to remove EPDM and acrylic coating from consideration, directing staff to study AquaFlex and travertine and to return with refined costs; a $500,000 placeholder was added to the capital plan pending firm estimates.
The Sun City West governing board on April 10 narrowed its options for replacing the RH Johnson pool deck, directing staff to further analyze two approaches — AquaFlex and travertine — and placing a $500,000 placeholder in the association’s capital plan.
President Christine Novello said the meeting was intended to narrow options rather than to make a decision: “We’re not making a decision today. Our goal is to narrow some of this down,” she told directors as staff presented material options and cost assumptions.
Operations staff member Herschel summarized four families of solutions, including an acrylic coating (vendor quote: $275,000 installation with $75,000 annual maintenance to preserve the warranty), a re-sealed EPDM rubber surface, AquaFlex (a plastic surfacing used at some area installations), and full replacement with natural-stone pavers such as travertine. “We had a company come in. They gave us an initial cost of $275,000 with a yearly maintenance cost of $75,000,” Herschel said when outlining the acrylic option. He advised directors to weigh life-cycle costs, heat resistance, safety (slip performance), and downtime for any chosen approach.
Directors debated trade-offs. Several urged including travertine in the analysis despite its requirement to remove existing concrete and the increased risk of pool-coping and plumbing exposure during demolition; others favored AquaFlex as a less-invasive solution with a 10–15 year expected life. Cliff Swan, CFO acting as general manager for the meeting, said staff inspected the underlying concrete and judged the structural deck to be sound: “Structurally, the deck is perfectly fine,” he said, while warning the board there were specific risks to ripping out and replacing the concrete.
Novello summarized the board’s direction: staff should stop analyzing EPDM and acrylic coating and instead return with deeper due-diligence on AquaFlex and travertine, including warranty terms, lifecycle cost modeling and operational impacts. The board added a $500,000 placeholder for the RH Johnson pool deck in the SIP (capital) list; directors acknowledged that the placeholder could change when vendors return with final bids — one vendor had suggested $600,000 during a vendor meeting, and several directors asked staff to confirm the final estimate before the April 23 meeting.
Residents at the podium raised practical questions about travertine (heat on bare feet, coping details), which staff answered by noting travertine’s cooler surface characteristics and the need to reseal and maintain stone over time. Novello said staff would return to the board with updated numbers and operational considerations at the next regular meeting.
No formal contract or motion to award work was made at the workshop; the board’s action was to narrow staff focus and set a funding placeholder while awaiting firm proposals.
