5 site-planning decisions that can make or break a future pool.
think about it early.
9/30/20265 min read
5 Site-Planning Decisions That Can Make or Break a Future Pool
When you're building a custom home, the pool sometimes gets treated like a problem for Future You.
Build the house. Pour the driveway. Set the HVAC. Finish the patio. Get the landscaping going.
Then, somewhere down the road: “Alright, where should we put the pool?”
Well... About that…
By the time the house is finished, some of the biggest decisions affecting the future pool have already been made. And unfortunately, concrete doesn't care that we came up with a better idea later.
If a homeowner knows there's even a decent chance they'll eventually want a pool, planning for it during the home's design and site-planning phase can save money, headaches, and a lot of creative problem-solving later. Here are five things worth thinking about before the house goes in.
1. Where You Put the House on the Lot
Let's start with the big one.
The placement of the house determines what we're left with for the backyard. Obviously, the pool isn't the only consideration when positioning a home. You've got setbacks, driveway access, drainage, utilities, orientation and about 47 other things happening. But if the homeowners want a pool, it deserves a seat at the table. I've seen plans where moving something a few feet during the planning phase could have created a much better pool environment.
After the house is built? That ship has sailed. And it's a very expensive ship to turn around.
When I'm looking at a future pool, I'm not just asking whether we have enough square footage. I'm thinking about usable space.
Where will the pool sit? Where will people walk? Where will the deck go? Do we want a spa? Outdoor kitchen? Fire pit? Grass? Do we want people to actually be able to walk around the pool without turning sideways?
The goal isn't simply to leave a rectangle of grass behind the house. It's to leave room for an outdoor living space.
2. Patio Size, Shape and Elevation
Covered patios are great. Covered patios designed without any consideration for the future pool can be...less great.
The patio often becomes the connection between the house and pool, so its size, shape and elevation can have a huge influence on the final design.
One question I like to think about is: Where does the backyard naturally want you to go when you walk out of the house? Ideally, the pool works with that movement. Doors, steps, columns and rooflines all affect how the backyard flows. Elevation matters too.
If the finished floor, patio and backyard grades aren't considered together, we may end up needing extra steps, retaining walls or other solutions that could have been handled much more cleanly during planning.
None of those things necessarily kill a project. They just tend to come with everyone's favorite phrase: “That's going to cost a little extra.”
3. Utility and Equipment Locations
Here's a fun one.
Imagine we've found the perfect location for the future pool equipment. It's tucked away from the entertaining area. Plumbing runs are reasonable. It's accessible for maintenance. Nobody has to stare at it from the patio. Beautiful. Except that's where the HVAC units are. And the gas meter. And maybe the generator joined the party too.
Mechanical equipment tends to get placed wherever it makes sense for the house—which is completely understandable.
But when a pool is planned for the future, it's worth thinking about where all of the equipment will eventually live. Pool pumps, filters, heaters and automation equipment need space (typically 3’ wide x 6-14’ long depending on the equipment wanted).
We also have to consider electrical service, gas availability, plumbing routes and how everything will be accessed. The pool equipment doesn't need the best seat in the backyard. Actually, I'd prefer it didn't have one. But we do need somewhere sensible to put it.
4. Construction Access
This might be one of the least exciting things to discuss during a custom-home design. It's also one of the things that can become painfully important later. How are we going to get construction equipment into the backyard?
A pool requires excavation. That means dirt has to come out and equipment has to get in. If both sides of the house eventually contain HVAC units, retaining walls, fencing, landscaping, utility equipment and whatever else we've managed to collect, access can become difficult very quickly. And difficult access usually means slower work, smaller equipment and additional cost.
Sometimes access is naturally limited by the lot. That's fine. We work with what we've got. What hurts is when there was good access...and then we built something directly in front of it.
If the pool is coming later, keeping a reasonable access route in mind during construction can make Future You considerably happier.
5. Think About the View From Inside the House
This one is less about construction and more about design. And personally, I think it's one of the most important. A pool isn't something you only experience while you're swimming. You're going to look at it every day. From the kitchen. From the living room. From the primary bedroom. From the patio.
So, when we're planning the house, I want to know where those important sightlines are. If you've got a beautiful wall of windows overlooking the backyard, what's going to be centered in that view? The side of the pool? The equipment pad? Your neighbor's fence? Hopefully not.
Sometimes shifting the pool, changing its orientation, or aligning a feature with an important window can completely change how the backyard feels. That's the difference between: “We put a pool in the backyard” and “The house and pool were designed together.”
You can usually tell which one happened.
The Best Time to Design a Pool Is Earlier Than You Think
You don't necessarily need to have every tile, water feature and lounge chair picked out before the house is built. But you should have a plan.
Even a conceptual pool design can answer some pretty important questions early: Where does the pool go? How big should it be? How does it relate to the house? Where will the equipment live? How much deck space do we need? What access should we preserve? Are there elevation issues we should handle now?
Those answers can influence decisions while they're still relatively easy to change. Because once the house, patio, utilities and landscaping are finished, I'm no longer designing with a blank canvas. I'm designing around decisions that have already been made. And sometimes those decisions are standing exactly where I wanted to put the spa.
Building a Custom Home With a Future Pool?
This is where involving a pool designer early can make a big difference.
I work with homeowners and building professionals to develop pool concepts during the planning stages of a project—before we're trying to force a pool into whatever space happens to be left. The pool doesn't necessarily have to be built at the same time as the house.
It just needs to be thought about at the same time as the house.
If you're a builder with a client planning a future pool, or you're designing your own custom home and know a pool is eventually part of the plan, let's look at it early.
A little planning on paper is considerably cheaper than moving concrete later.