Custom design
A pool drawn for one yard only
Custom does not mean a longer list of options. It means the pool is shaped by your yard, your access, your slope, and the way you actually plan to use the water.
Most pools are picked before the yard is understood. A shape gets chosen, it gets scaled to fit, and the parts that do not work get discovered during the build. Designing the other way around is slower at the start and cheaper everywhere after.
The yard decides more than you would think
Where the sun lands in the afternoon changes where you want the shallow end. How the ground falls decides whether a raised bond beam is a cost or a feature. Where the gate is and how wide it opens sets what machinery can reach the dig, and that shows up in the price before any finish is chosen. None of this is visible from a catalogue.
A slope is an asset
A flat rectangle of lawn gives you a flat rectangle of options. A yard that falls away gives you a raised spa spilling into the pool, a retaining wall that doubles as seating, and a sightline over the water instead of into a fence. The fall of the ground is worth designing with rather than levelling out.
Small yards want a different pool, not a smaller one
Shrinking a standard shape until it fits is how you end up with a pool you walk around rather than sit beside. A compact plunge pool, or a spa paired with a wide lounger shelf, leaves real deck. That is usually the better backyard even though it is the smaller pool.
How the design phase runs
- 01
Site walk
Sun, slope, access, utilities, drainage, and the view you actually look at from inside the house.
- 02
First layout
A footprint staked or chalked in the real yard so you can stand in it before it is drawn properly.
- 03
Revisions
Changed as many times as it takes. Every change here is free; the same change after excavation is not.
- 04
Materials
Tile, coping, finish, and decking seen as physical samples in daylight, next to each other.
- 05
Final plan
Dimensions, depths, equipment, and electrical fixed and signed off, then submitted for permit.
- 06
Handover to build
The crew builds the plan you approved. Changes after this point get quoted, not absorbed.
Included
What you decide
- Shape and footprint, drawn against the real boundaries of your yard
- Depth profile, including where the floor breaks and how steep it falls
- Steps, benches, and tanning shelf placement and width
- Waterline tile and coping, seen as samples in daylight
- Interior finish colour and texture
- Spa position, height, and whether it spills into the pool
- Lighting, in the pool and through the surrounding hardscape
- Equipment location, so the pad is not the first thing you see
Questions
Frequently asked
How much of the design can I change?
All of it, up until the layout is staked and approved. Shape, depth, the bench and step placement, waterline tile, coping, interior finish, lighting, and where the spa sits are all yours to decide.
Can you build on a slope?
Yes, and a slope is often where the better design comes from. A raised bond beam, a retaining wall doubling as seating, or a spa set above the pool all use the fall of the yard rather than fighting it.
What if my yard is small?
A small yard usually wants a different pool, not a shrunken version of a big one. A compact plunge pool or a spa-plus-lounger shelf leaves real deck to live on, which a squeezed rectangle does not.
Free estimate
Tell us what you want in the backyard
Send the shape of the project and we will come look at the space. Free estimate, no obligation.
Prefer to talk it through? Call or message and Jose Alvarado will walk the site with you.