Planning the space around a pool before the pool goes in

The pool is one trade. Everything around it — deck, coping, drainage, fence, equipment, lighting — is another, and most of those decisions are cheap on paper and expensive once the shell is in the ground.

Decide the deck width before the shell goes in

People consistently underestimate how much space they need around a pool. A metre of coping and nothing else means nowhere to put chairs, no room to pass somebody sunbathing, and no space for a table. Think about where loungers, a dining table and the barbecue actually sit, and then check the deck is wide enough there — not uniformly everywhere, which wastes money.

Water has to leave the deck

Pool decks get constantly wet. The grade has to move water away from the pool and away from the house, and on a flat lot that often means deck drains connected somewhere sensible. Getting this wrong gives you standing water at the edge, algae on the stone and, in winter, a sheet of ice.

Surface choice is a bare-feet decision

Some beautiful stone is slippery when wet and some gets painfully hot in August. This is a decision to make with samples in your hand, outdoors, not from a photograph.

The fence is not optional

Pool enclosure requirements are municipal and they are enforced — height, gaps, self-closing and self-latching gates, and how the house wall counts as part of the enclosure. Plan the fence line with the deck, because retrofitting a compliant fence around a finished deck is how people end up cutting into new stone.

Where the equipment lives

Pumps and heaters are loud and ugly. Decide early where they sit, how they are screened, and that the screen still gives the service technician room to work. The pad, the power and the screening are all cheaper to plan than to move.

Talk to whoever is building the deck before the pool contractor breaks ground. An afternoon of planning saves five-figure decisions.

Pool decking and surrounds