Questions, answered.

The site, more than the pool. The five factors are access, soil, rock and groundwater, size and depth, finishes, and approvals and engineering. Tight access alone can add $6,000 to $25,000, and rock or water $5,000 to $40,000. A metre or two of extra length usually matters less than people expect.

Yes. After design and engineering you receive one fixed price for a finished pool, with every allowance written into the contract. It only changes if you change the design, or if we find something no one could see: rock below the test holes, an unmapped service or groundwater. The rock allowance carries a rate per cubic metre, so even that is known in advance.

Queensland law caps the deposit on a domestic building contract of $20,000 or more at 5 per cent, and we ask for the same 5 per cent in New South Wales. The balance is paid in four stages as work is completed: excavation and steel 25 per cent, the shotcrete shell 30 per cent, coping, tile and interior 25 per cent, and practical completion 15 per cent.

We do not lend money, but we can introduce you to finance partners who understand staged construction payments. Many clients fund the pool through their home loan, or include it in the construction loan for a new house. Talk to your lender early: most will want to see the fixed price and contract before they approve.

For a 9 metre pool in South East Queensland, allow $750 to $1,350 a year for pump power, chemicals and water top-up. Heating with a heat pump from May to September adds $900 to $1,800, and a professional service $600 to $1,200 if you want one. A pool blanket is the cheapest saving we know of, and can halve the cost of heating.

About four weeks, from week 2 to week 6 of the programme. After the site survey, James Whitcombe draws the pool in plan and 3D, we refine it with you over two or three reviews, and the design is fixed before engineering starts. Sloping blocks that need an engineer’s site report can add a week or two.

Yes. Every design is modelled in 3D on your site survey, so you can see the pool from the rooms you use most, test step and bench positions and check the view lines. We set the levels from your house, not from a template, and check them again on site after excavation.

Start with how you will use it. Swimming laps most mornings needs at least 15 metres of straight water. If the pool is for cooling off, sitting and entertaining, a deeper plunge pool uses less of the garden and costs less to heat.

Yes, and most of our pools do. A spa can spill into a lap pool, a plunge pool can take an infinity edge, and any type can sit inside a wider outdoor living plan. Each combination is engineered as one shell, so it is built once rather than joined later.

Dense, low-porosity stone that stays comfortable underfoot. Travertine, French limestone, bluestone and granite all weather well once sealed. Within a few streets of the beach we avoid soft sandstones and use 316 marine-grade stainless steel for every fixing. We bring samples to your site, because stone reads differently in your own light.

Yes. We prepare the drawings, engage the structural engineer and private certifier, lodge any approvals and book the pool safety inspection before handover. You sign the forms; we do the rest.

Yes. Every pool in Queensland and New South Wales needs approval and a compliant barrier, whatever its type. Usually that is building approval through a private certifier, which we arrange, rather than a council application. Council becomes involved if a coastal, flood or heritage overlay applies, or if the pool sits near a sewer main.

Allow about four weeks, weeks 6 to 10 on our programme, for engineering, certification and any overlay approvals. A pool near a sewer main also needs a build-over approval from the water authority, and coastal or flood overlays can add time. We lodge everything and give you the expected timing at the design stage.

A barrier at least 1.2 metres high that meets AS 1926.1 and the state pool safety rules, inspected and certified before the pool is filled. We register every Queensland pool on the state pool safety register. On a slope we often set the fence below the edge so it stays out of the view, and use frameless glass where it cannot be hidden.

Yes. Every fixed price includes a frameless glass pool fence allowance, the certifier’s inspection and the pool safety certificate. Upgrades such as taller panels, custom gates or a fence that doubles as a balustrade are priced as options.

Allow around five months from first visit to first swim: six weeks of design, four of approvals and engineering, then ten to twelve weeks on site. Sloping blocks, rock and wet weather add time, and we plan for them in the schedule.

Most of our pools are on difficult sites: cliff-edge lots, 450 square metre courtyards and blocks with crane-only access. Retaining, piering and craning are drawn and priced at the design stage, not discovered later.

We dig test holes and locate services before the contract, so most surprises are found early. If there is rock below the test holes, it is removed at the rate per cubic metre written into the contract. Where the water table is high we pump during the dig and fit a hydrostatic valve so the empty shell cannot lift.

Every week. We take on twelve pools a year so that a director is on site every week of every build. Luke Brennan, our site manager, runs the programme and the trades day to day, and you get a short written update each Friday with photos and the plan for the week ahead.

Yes, almost every client does. The loud days are the dig, usually three to five days, and the shotcrete pour, which takes one. We fence the work zone, board over paths and lawns, work Monday to Friday from 7:00 to 17:00 and leave the street clean each afternoon.

A lifetime structural warranty on the shell, seven years on workmanship and the manufacturers’ warranties on equipment. Queensland builds are also covered by QBCC Home Warranty Insurance.

Statutory insurance for residential building work in Queensland over $3,300. It protects you if a builder cannot finish the work or fix defects, for example because the business closes. The premium is included in our fixed price, and the policy certificate is sent to you before work starts. Northern Rivers builds carry the New South Wales equivalent, Home Building Compensation Fund cover.

In week 20 we fill and balance the water, then walk you through the equipment, the controls and the cleaning routine. You receive the certifier’s paperwork, the warranties and a care manual for your pool. Twelve months later we come back to check the water, the stone and the equipment with you.

About an hour a week in summer: skim the surface, empty the baskets, test the water and let a robotic cleaner do the floor. Every few months, brush the waterline and check the salt cell. Many clients hand this to a pool service, and we can recommend one near you.

Eventually. A pebble interior lasts fifteen to twenty years before it needs renewing, and a fully tiled interior longer. Because the shell is structural concrete, a resurface is a renovation, not a rebuild. Plan to replace the pump and sanitiser at around ten years too.

Across the Gold Coast, Brisbane and the Northern Rivers, within ninety minutes of our studio at Burleigh Heads. That range is what lets a director visit every site every week. Our location pages list the suburbs we build in most, from Ascot and Hamilton to Byron Bay and Kingscliff.

Twelve. We have completed 180 pools since 2009 and keep the number low on purpose, so a director can be on every site every week. It does mean the calendar fills: most clients sign four to six months before they want work to start.

Gladly. About half our pools are designed alongside an architect or landscape designer. We can work from their drawings, or join early and draw the pool with them so levels, drainage and services line up with the house.

No. The first call and the site visit are free and carry no obligation. If you go ahead to concept design, we quote the design fee up front and credit it against the build when you proceed with us.