The three options
White plaster. Cement and marble aggregate. The traditional finish and the least expensive. Smooth underfoot, bright water colour, and commonly lasts around seven to ten years.
Quartz. Plaster with quartz aggregate added. Harder than plain plaster, more colour range, and it sits between the other two on both cost and service life.
Pebble. Small stones in a cement matrix. The most expensive and typically the longest lived, often fifteen years or more. Noticeably rougher underfoot, which some people like and some do not.
The factor nobody sells you
Water chemistry outlives the product choice. A pebble finish in neglected water will fail before plaster in balanced water. If you are choosing a finish partly to avoid maintenance, that logic does not hold.
Get the chemistry right and any of the three performs to the top of its range. Get it wrong and you are resurfacing early regardless of what you paid.
Choosing between them
- Selling within five years? Plaster. You will not see the benefit of the others.
- Keeping the pool ten years or more? Pebble usually costs less per year despite the higher price.
- Barefoot children, or you swim daily? Plaster or quartz. Texture matters more than you expect.
- Want a specific water colour? Colour comes mostly from the finish. Bring samples and look at them wet, outdoors, not under shop lighting.
One thing worth checking first
If your existing finish is failing early, find out why before choosing the next one. A shell problem underneath will take the new finish with it, and that is a repair question rather than a finish question.