01Service
New Pool Construction
Complete design and turnkey construction of custom, modern swimming pools built to high standards.
—Background
How a new pool comes together
A new pool is designed around the plot before it is designed around the water. Where it can sit, how close it comes to the house and the boundary walls, what is buried under the garden and how an excavator and concrete will reach the spot all constrain its shape and size long before tile colours come into the conversation.
The build runs in a largely fixed order: design and any approvals the community requires, excavation, the reinforced shell, waterproofing, pipework to the plant, the interior finish, coping and deck, then filling and commissioning. Each stage has to be right before the next one covers it — a pipe joint or a waterproofing detail cannot be inspected once tiles are on it.
Equipment belongs in the design too. The pump, filter, any heat pump, lighting and automation all need room in a plant area, pipe routes and an electrical supply, and they are far easier to plan in at the start than to fit in afterwards.
01Covers
What the work includes
Complete design
Turnkey construction
Custom, modern swimming pools
02Enquiries
What to tell us
None of this is required. It is what turns a first reply into an answer rather than another question.
- Where the pool would go, and roughly how much space there is for it
- Whether the plot is still open, or already landscaped and planted
- What you want to use it for — lengths, family swimming, or mainly how it looks from the house
- Whether machinery can reach the location, or whether it is a walled garden with a single gate
- Whether your community requires approvals, and whether anything has been applied for yet
03Choices
What you will be choosing between
The options that exist for this kind of work. Which one suits a particular pool is a conversation, not a rule.
- Shape
Straight sides suit swimming lengths and make covers simpler; a freeform outline sits more easily in a landscaped garden; an L-shape can keep a shallow area apart from a swimming lane.
- Depth profile
A single depth is simple and suits standing play and laps alike. A graded floor or a separate shallow area suits households where young children and adults use the pool at the same time.
- Interior finish
Tile and mosaic give the widest choice of colour and pattern; plaster and pebble give a seamless surface with a different feel underfoot. The finish also changes how the water colour reads in strong sun.
- Water treatment
A salt system produces chlorine on site from salt dissolved in the water; traditional chlorine is added directly. The choice affects the equipment in the plant area and which metals and stones suit the surround.
- Temperature control
Heating stretches the swimming season into the cooler months. In Dubai an outdoor pool can also become too warm in summer, which is why cooling is part of the question here.
—Worth knowing
Before you ask about new pool construction
What tends to change how this kind of job is done. General points about pools and properties, not promises about the work.
- How the garden is reached
- A walled garden with a single gate can still take a pool, but the dig and the concrete may need smaller machinery or more manual work, which changes the programme and the protection the rest of the garden needs.
- What is under the ground
- Irrigation lines, drainage, cables and soakaways need locating before anyone digs, and groundwater can affect how the excavation is handled.
- Approvals before work starts
- Many communities and developers ask for drawings and a no-objection letter before a pool is built. Allowing for that at the start avoids a finished design waiting on paperwork.
- Room for the plant
- The pump, filter and any heat pump need a ventilated, drained and accessible space, not too far from the pool and not under a bedroom window.
—Questions
Questions people ask
- What needs deciding before a pool can be designed?
- How the pool will be used, roughly how much of the garden it can take, where the plant can go, and whether the community requires approvals. Those four answers shape every drawing that follows.
- Can a pool be added to a villa whose garden is already landscaped?
- Usually. The route for machinery and materials, protecting the planting that stays, and reinstating the garden afterwards then become part of the job rather than an afterthought.
- Why does a concrete pool need waterproofing?
- Concrete on its own is not reliably watertight. A waterproofing layer behind the finish keeps water in the pool and out of the structure, and it is very much harder to add once the pool is finished.
- When should the pump, filter and heating be chosen?
- At the design stage, so that the plant area, the pipe sizes and the electrical supply are planned around the equipment rather than squeezed in later.
—Guides
Guides on new pool construction
44 guides filed under new pool construction: the decisions, the stages of the work and what to tell us.
- Planning a villa pool
- The stages of building a pool
- How long building a pool takes
- What drives the cost of building a pool
- Getting approval for a new pool
- The site survey for a new pool
- Excavating for a pool
- Getting machinery and materials to the pool site
- Forming the concrete pool shell
- Waterproofing a new pool
- The plumbing between pool and plant
- Choosing where the pool plant goes
- Planning power for pool equipment
- Fitting a pool into a small garden
- Building a pool on a roof or terrace
- Building a plunge pool
- Ordering pool and landscaping work
- Protecting the garden during pool construction
- The first fill and start-up of a new pool
- Snagging a new pool
- Adding a pool to an existing villa
- What a pool construction quote should include
- Choosing the shape of a pool
- Choosing a pool depth profile
- Designing a lap pool
- Designing an infinity edge pool
- Designing pool steps and entry
- Adding a sun ledge to a pool
- Designing pool lighting
- Adding water features to a pool
- Choosing pool coping
- Choosing a pool deck material
- Choosing a pool interior finish
- How pool colour changes the water
- Designing a pool for young children
- Planning shade and sun around a pool
- Choosing a cover for a new pool
- Adding a spa to a pool
- Overflow or skimmer pool
- Concrete or fibreglass pool
- Plunge pool or full-size pool
- Deck-level or raised pool
- Building a pool in the Dubai summer
- Pool construction payment stages
—Also
Other services
The five overlap. A renovation often turns into pump work, and a leak is sometimes found during one.
—NEXT
Ask about new pool construction.
Send the property, the pool and what you need. We will come back to you.