How we build a pool, phase by phase.
It starts with a walk-through and ends with you in the water. We publish every phase in between because the order is the craft — and because a build you can follow is a build you enjoy watching come together. All durations are approximate working days.
The same backyard, start to finish.
Drag the handle across. On the left, layout day: chalk on bare ground before a shovel moves. On the right, the same ground the day we hand it over.
One trade on site at a time. Each phase is finished and checked before the next begins. It is the single biggest contributor to the finish quality you can see in the portfolio.
Crews work Monday through Friday. Every duration on this page is approximate working days. A ten-day phase starting Monday finishes two weeks later on Friday.
Every trade is booked two to three weeks ahead. Masonry, plumbing and excavation especially. Booking that far out is what keeps the sequence intact and the same trusted crews on your project.
Dig alert is called two weeks before excavation. On every project, without exception. It is a required lead-in, and we file it the day your permit issues so the clock starts straight away.
This is the drawing your permit is issued from.
Two pools off our approved sheets, drawn line for line from the files the city stamped: a 40-foot geometric pool with a spa set into the corner and an automatic cover, and a 41-foot freeform with an infinity edge and a spa that spills into it. Every dimension, depth and symbol is exactly as submitted. The houses and the owners’ details are the only things missing. Move over a note to find it on the plan.
A 40-foot geometric pool with a spa set into the corner and an automatic cover.
- 140' GEOMETRIC POOL (N)
- 28' X 8' SPA SET INTO THE CORNER
- 3ENTRY STEPS
- 4AUTOMATIC COVER
- 5LIGHTS, DRAINS AND SKIMMER
A 41-foot freeform pool with an infinity edge and a spa that spills into it.
- 141' X 29' FREEFORM POOL WITH INFINITY EDGE (N)
- 22' (W) X 46' (L) CATCH BASIN - 3' BELOW INFINITY EDGE (N)
- 311.5' X 8' FREEFORM SPA WITH SPILLOVER (N)
- -TANNING SHELF AND ENTRY STEPS
- 5FLOATING POOL ALARM (N) - DROWNING SAFETY PREVENTION FEATURE
- -ELEVATION MARKERS
Contract to first swim.
Our in-house plan review is built to move the approval along as quickly as the city or county allows.
Design and proposal
We walk the site, talk through how you actually want to use the backyard, and draw to the lot rather than to a template. You get a detailed walkthrough and a written proposal with the scope spelled out.
Engineering and permit submittal
Structural engineering, soils testing where the slope or the jurisdiction requires it, and a complete permit package submitted to your city or county.
Plan check
The jurisdiction reviews the plans. This is the single largest variable in any pool timeline, and it is entirely outside our control — which is why we name your jurisdiction's real number before you sign.
Pre-construction
Permit issues. Dig alert goes in two weeks ahead of excavation on every single job, no exceptions. The pre-site inspection is booked a week out and has to be held at least a week before we dig. Your excavation crew is locked two to three weeks ahead.
Excavation
The dig. Approximately two days on a typical pool, three on a large one. This is also the date every selection is confirmed by — tile, coping, finish, equipment. We walk you through each one well ahead of it, with samples in hand.
Steel
The rebar cage is tied to the engineered drawings — bar size, spacing and laps exactly as the engineer specified. This is the skeleton the shell is built on, and none of it can be corrected once the concrete is on.
Plumbing
Plumbing follows the steel immediately: suction and return lines, the spa, every water feature, and the runs back to the equipment pad. Underground gas and electrical usually go in at the same time. It is all pressure tested before anything is buried.
Shotcrete
The shell is shot in a single day. A crew and a pump truck arrive early, and by the afternoon your pool exists as a solid structure for the first time. Coping and waterline tile are already ordered by this point.
Cure
The shell is hydrated for a minimum of 14 days and cures for a full 28 days. The hydration window is a hard stop and it cannot be compressed — concrete gains its strength over time, and the shell you swim in for the next thirty years is made here. We use the window to absorb the lead time on coping and tile rather than adding it to the schedule.
Coping and decking
Coping first, then the bonding and equipotential inspection, which gates the decking. Flatwork alone runs about two weeks. With outdoor kitchens, fire features and walls, budget four weeks or more.
Tile
Waterline and feature tile go in three days after poured decking, or one to two days after veneer and pavers.
Pre-plaster, barrier and fencing inspection
The inspection worth knowing about as a homeowner. Before the pool can be plastered and filled, the jurisdiction looks at the shell and at the safety barrier together — the fencing, gates and latches that keep a child out of the pool area. The barrier has to be in place before the pool holds water, so if your permanent fence is not up yet, temporary fencing goes in. We book it and we meet the inspector.
Plaster and fill
The interior finish. PebbleTec is applied, acid-washed the following day, then filled. Traditional plaster is filled the same day. Fill takes about a day.
Startup and handover
Water chemistry is brought in over a minimum of fourteen days, the final inspection is called, and we walk you through the equipment. The finish keeps curing for about twenty-eight days after fill — normal, and worth knowing.
When would you be swimming?
Choose your city or county and whether decking is included. These are approximate windows drawn from our recent projects — a useful starting point rather than a commitment.
Not sure which one you're in? A street address doesn't settle it — the parcel number does. We check before quoting anything.
Flatwork may add about a month. Outdoor kitchens, fire features and seat walls vary by project.
Total from signed contract: . Plan check is the jurisdiction's clock, not ours — construction time barely moves between cities. These are the windows we typically see.
What homeowners ask us
How long does it take to build a pool?
Approximately four and a half to nine months from contract to water, depending almost entirely on where your property sits. A City of Ventura or Solvang project on a straightforward scope can be in the water in about four and a half months; a County of Santa Barbara project with decking runs closer to nine; Malibu is a year or more. Every city and county reviews on its own schedule, and every property brings its own conditions, so we give you the approximate window for your specific jurisdiction at the very first conversation.
What drives the timeline the most?
Plan review, by a wide margin. Once the permit is issued, construction runs approximately three months to water, or four with decking in the scope — that part is ours to manage and we manage it tightly. The review window ahead of it varies by jurisdiction, which is exactly why we built an in-house plan review to move it along as quickly as possible.
Can you start digging as soon as the permit issues?
There is a short, required lead-in. Dig alert is called two weeks ahead of excavation on every project, and the pre-site inspection is held at least a week before. So an excavation date sits approximately two weeks out from the moment it is set — we book it the day your permit issues so the clock starts immediately.
When do I have to finalize my selections?
By the day we excavate. Tile, coping, interior finish and equipment are all confirmed by then. We walk you through every selection well ahead of that date, with samples and recommendations, so the decisions are enjoyable rather than rushed.
Do you build with PebbleTec?
Yes, on most of our projects. PebbleTec is applied, acid-washed the following day, then filled. Traditional plaster and quartz finishes are available where the look calls for them.
Do you handle permits and engineering?
Yes, all of it. Structural engineering, soils testing where required, the permit package, submittal and any review responses are handled in-house — including our own pre-submittal plan review, which is how we keep corrections and downtime to a minimum. We carry the permit and book every inspection.
Do you offer financing?
Yes. We are an approved dealer with several pool lenders rather than a captive of one, so your project can be placed with the underwriter that fits it best. Financed projects draw in stages against construction milestones.
Do you work with our architect or landscape designer?
Frequently, and we enjoy it. On estate projects we are often one trade inside a larger program, and we are practiced at sequencing around other crews.
What happens if a crew does not show up?
We reschedule promptly and re-sequence everything behind it, and you hear from us the same day with the revised dates. We keep one trade on site at a time by design — it is how the finish quality stays where it should be — so we protect the sequence rather than compress it.
How do you keep the permit moving?
Before anything is submitted, the drawing set goes through our own in-house plan review — a proprietary check we developed against the correction patterns we see from each jurisdiction. Catching those items before submittal is what keeps corrections and downtime to a minimum and gets projects through as quickly as possible. Timelines remain approximate, because every city, county and property is different and there are always unknowns, but a complete and well-prepared package is the single biggest thing within our control.
Do you build in the winter?
Yes, year round. November through March we work with the weather rather than padding the schedule for it. If rain moves a concrete day we re-sequence and keep the project moving.
What the phases look like from above.
Our own jobs, photographed by us: the dig, the crew finishing the interior, and a fresh pebble finish being washed down before the fill.
Want the version with your address on it?
Tell us the property and we will tell you the jurisdiction, the real plan-check window, and what a first swim date honestly looks like.