Your dream backyard pool is within your reach! You’ve hired a landscape architect to design the pool and pool landscaping. You’ve answered the essential backyard swimming pool design questions. Your permits have been approved. Now it’s time to bring a pool builder onto the project to begin pool construction.
Just be patient. Swimming pool design and installation is a complicated process. It requires a significant investment of time, money, and expertise. For quality results, you have to consider everything from the pool location to how it will look, function in the landscape, and all of its surrounding features and landscaping.
In particular, there are four logistical elements of pool construction that you’ll need to consider and discuss with your landscape architect:
- Location of the pool
- Pool shape and style
- Operational equipment
- Overall pool environment
1 The Perfect Pool Location
What’s the best location for your backyard pool? You have an entire yard to work with, and even if you want your pool to be the focal point, you must determine its optimal placement in relation to the house. Before pool construction begins, it is critical to set the location because its location in the landscape affects every aspect of your outdoor living space.
The pool’s relationship to the house will determine ease of access as well as what you see from your windows. In the summer, that could mean gorgeous and inviting crystal clear waters, but in the winter that could mean an ugly and deserted leaf-strewn tarp!
The placement of your pool is also significant when considering all the other features of your backyard environment. You’ll want the swimming pool to sit in harmony with other landscaping elements, such as an outdoor kitchen, dining area, or outdoor fireplace patio.
Your landscape architect will position your pool so that it fits into the whole.
Build Your Dream Inground Swimming Pool: The Ultimate Guide to Success
Before you take the plunge… read our ebook!
The most successful backyard swimming pools are holistic landscape compositions where shade structures, hardscape, and planting beds work together harmoniously. Be sure you know how to plan and who to hire!
2 Functional and Beautiful: Swimming Pool Shape and Style
Just as essential as the location is the shape and style of your pool. There are pros and cons to every look—some are immensely functional whereas others focus more on creativity and fun. It’s up to you to decide how practical you want to be, but you need to know what you’re giving up and gaining with your choice of pool shape.
For example, if you want a motorized pool cover that keeps out debris in the winter and helps you retain heat between swims, a free-form naturalistic style won’t work for you. Instead, you’ll have to stick with a more functional, rectangular pool shape that easily adapts to safety and security features. At the same time, a more creative and stylistic design might be more complementary to the final environment you’re trying to create.
In either case, your landscape architect will help you to make a decision about the pool shape and style early in the design process. This will ultimately affect your entire backyard experience, so think carefully about the balance of practicality and aesthetics that’s important to you. Also, this rigorous planning positions you to have the best collaboration between landscape architect and pool builder once construction begins.
3 Where to Place Pool Equipment
Another aspect of pool construction that can sometimes be overlooked by a pool builder is placement of the pool operating equipment. Pool equipment can be noisy and isn’t particularly attractive to look at. It is essential to maintaining your pool, and its placement is crucial to your enjoyment of the pool environment.
It needs to be hidden from view and hearing while still being easily accessible. You don’t want the equipment placed too close to the house, pool, or patio—or you’ll have to suffer the intermittent noise of pumping equipment cycling on and off, interrupting your poolside conversations.
Your landscape architect will locate the pool equipment discretely so it doesn’t interfere with your enjoyment of the poolside environment. Also, the equipment placement will factor any future plans for your backyard. For example, placement of the pool equipment would not become an obstacle to the addition of a fireplace or sitting area.
4 Not Just a Swimming Pool
Adding a swimming pool to your backyard might seem like the ultimate enhancement, but a swimming pool construction project frequently includes supporting landscape design elements that make it even more appealing to spend time outdoors. For that reason, the initial idea of building a swimming pool opens the door to other amenities such an outdoor kitchen, a dining area, a shade structure such as a pergola or pool house, that all together complete the pool environment.
Whether you plan to do it all at once or in phases, a landscape architect will be thinking of the big picture in a way that a pool builder generally will not. They will maximize the usability of space in your yard for future additions to the landscape.
So dream big, even if your budget can’t include every element you want right now. The key is to have an in-depth conversation about the future of your backyard at the beginning of your pool construction project, so you can be certain that no matter how far down the road it happens, there will be room enough to install everything you want.
Pool Construction: Building Your Dream Pool Environment
Backyard pool construction is a significant investment in your quality of life. When you hire a landscape architect to create the design, you will gain a pleasurable and comfortable addition to your outdoor living space that encourages you to stay outside longer and enjoy your home life more. Just make sure you plan well in advance. And work with a landscape design company that’s capable of collaborating with a pool builder through the entire project from beginning to end.
If you’d like to explore ideas for adding a swimming pool that is artfully woven into the fabric of your landscape, download our ebook “Build Your Dream Inground Pool: The Ultimate Guide to Success”
Or, schedule a consultation with one of our landscape architects to discuss your backyard pool and landscape design project.
About Surrounds Landscape Architecture & Construction
Surrounds is a combined landscape architecture, construction, and landscape maintenance firm. We build what we design and provide ongoing garden care for landscapes we’ve built. Our landscape architects
know construction. Our construction and landscape maintenance experts
understand design. We believe our all-in-one approach best serves Northern Virginia homeowners because it supports clear communication, creative collaboration, and procedural efficiencies that significantly benefit you, our client.