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Design and construction

From the first visit to the first swim.

How it works, what to plan for, and in what order. Six stages: each one produces something, each one asks something of you, and each one decides the next.

Excavation of a large rectangular basin ringed with timber formwork, mesh reinforcement and a partly poured bottom slab, under a clear sky.
Concrete pool site: formwork, reinforcement and bottom slab being poured.

The sequence

The six stages, in order.

None is skipped, even on a small pool. What is decided early costs a line on a drawing, what is decided late costs a piece of work.

  1. Feasibility

    A visit to the site. We look at the ground, the slope, the access, what is already built, the orientation and the views. We listen to how you want to use the pool: swimming, entertaining, bathing with young children, or all of it at once.

    What you plan forThe plans of your plot if you have them, and an idea of where you picture the pool.

  2. Preliminary design

    We develop the initial design: setting out, pool type, levels, dimensions, hydraulic principle, position of the plant room. This is where a skimmer pool and an overflow pool are compared on your own site, rather than in the abstract.

    What you plan forYour decisions. A preliminary design is there to be discussed and revised.

  3. The planning application

    Depending on the pool surface, there is no formality (under 10 m²), a prior declaration (10 to 100 m²) or a building permit (above 100 m², or if an enclosure is taller than 1.80 m). Your municipality’s local urban plan adds its own rules. We put the file together: plans, sections, location plan, distances to boundaries, connections.

    What you plan forYour property documents. The processing time depends neither on you nor on us.

  4. Detailed design

    The construction drawings are produced: reinforcement, cast-in openings, wall penetrations, pipework layout, coping and overflow channel details. Materials and equipment are finalised, finish included.

    What you plan forThe choice of finish, from physical samples, viewed in the light of the site.

  5. The works

    Excavation, reinforcement, pouring or gunite, waterproofing, finish, plant room, backfilling, surroundings. The trades follow one another in an order that is not negotiable: what lies underneath comes before what shows.

    What you plan forAccess for the plant, a storage area, water and power. Reinstating the garden is part of the job.

  6. Commissioning

    Filling, water balance, setting of the filtration and the treatment, testing of the equipment, then a handover session with you. We show you the plant room, the valves, what can be adjusted and what must not be touched.

    What you plan forTime for the handover, and questions. This is the moment to ask them, in front of the installation.

Construction

The space needed for construction.

Four points are identified together at the first visit. They determine the method far more than the size of the pool does.

  • Access for the plant

    An excavator has to come in, spoil has to go out, concrete has to arrive. The width of the access, the bearing capacity of the ground and the headroom determine the plant used, and therefore the method.

  • Storage and spoil

    There has to be room for the materials and room for the excavated earth before it is taken away. On a tight plot, this is often the most restrictive point of the job.

  • The service trench

    Between the pool and the plant room run the pipework, the electrical supply and the controls. Its route is decided at the design stage: it crosses the garden once, and once only.

  • Reinstatement

    The surroundings are rebuilt after the pool: deck, terrace, planting, fencing. What was damaged during the works is put right, and what has to be replanted is replanted in season.

On site

What is decided on site.

These four points need a site visit and a proper study. They cannot be answered by a general promise on a website.

  • The duration of the works

    It depends on the permit, the ground, the season and the other trades. It is set out in the project programme once those four things are known.

  • The price

    A pool has no catalogue rate, it has a quotation. What makes it vary is set out item by item on the private pools page.

  • The permit lead time

    It belongs to your municipality’s planning department. We prepare the file and follow it up, and it is the review that sets the timetable.

  • The season

    Concrete is not poured in any weather, and a membrane is not laid on a damp substrate. Works pushed back a few days are better than a structure redone the following year.

The room nobody ever shows

The plant room decides water quality, consumption and noise. It is designed at the same time as the pool, and you see it at commissioning.

White corridor of a plant room, grey PVC pipe network along the wall, two pumps and a stainless tank, polished concrete floor.
Plant room in perspective: manifolds, pumps and a stainless tank, with a clear walkway.

Next

Start with a visit.

It commits you to nothing and it already says a great deal: what your site allows, what it dictates, and what decisions your project will call for.

Your next pool or wellness space

Everything begins with a meeting.

A place, a wish, a project to imagine together.

Let’s talk about your project05 36 49 27 18