Plan the pool, the deck and the landscaping as one project

A backyard is one space, but it usually gets built by several trades, and that is where the trouble starts. One outfit digs the pool, another frames the deck, a third pours the concrete and a fourth drops in the plants. Each does decent work, and none of them is responsible for how the pieces meet. A lot of backyard regret lives in those seams.

Why the order matters

Pool work is the heaviest and muddiest part of the job. There is an excavator, a dump truck and sometimes a crane. Anything that already exists in the path of that equipment is at risk, which means the lawn, the new irrigation, the shrubs and the fresh concrete all belong after the pool is in the ground, not before. Decks and flatwork come next because they have to line up with the pool coping, the steps down from the house and the finished grade. Planting goes last. Anyone who has watched a crane track across a freshly seeded lawn understands why.

Grade and water decide more than style

Before anyone talks about stone or railing, somebody has to answer one plain question: where does the water go? Winter rain needs a route away from the pool, the house and the deck footings. Splash and backwash need somewhere to land. Irrigation heads should water plants, not deck boards and not the pool surround.

Those answers have to be the same answer across every trade. When one crew sets the grade and a different crew builds the patio on top of it, the first heavy rain finds out who didn't talk to whom.

Sun, shade and what you see from the kitchen

Stand at the kitchen window, then stand where you would actually sit. Notice where the afternoon sun lands in July. A pool with no shade within reach goes unused at four in the afternoon in Redding, however nice it looks in the evening photos. A pergola, a gazebo or a couple of well-placed trees fix that, but only if they go into the layout early, so the footings, the roots and the shadows are part of the plan.

Think about the view from inside the house too. The equipment pad, a fence line, the spa and the fire pit all show up in that window. The yards that look right on the ground were usually laid out on paper before anything was dug.

Where one crew earns its keep

Palo Cedro Pool & Spa is set up so the same crew does all of the work: the pool or spa, the decks, fencing and gazebos, the decorative concrete and the landscaping. That is not the only way to build a backyard, and plenty of good yards come from several contractors who coordinate well. What one crew does is take a whole category of problems off your plate. There is one plan and one schedule, and there is one person to call.

Greg is on site daily, so a question about where the deck meets the pool edge gets answered by the person who can see both. One customer wrote that Greg was on the job directing the work from beginning to end nearly all the time, and called that unheard of in contracting. We take it as a fair description of how it is supposed to work.

If you need to phase it

Not everyone wants to do the whole yard at once, and that is a reasonable call. Design the entire yard first, then build it in stages. Put in the parts that are hard to reach later: plumbing runs, electrical conduit, footings for a future gazebo, and sleeves under the walkway for irrigation lines. Leave the fire pit or the outdoor kitchen for another season, with power and gas stubbed to the spot where they will go. Cutting into finished concrete to add a line is a headache nobody needs, and a plan made up front avoids it.

What to bring to the first conversation

A rough sketch with the house, the fences and the big trees is plenty, along with a plain description of how your family uses the yard now. Then say what you would like to be able to do: cook out, swim laps, soak in January, keep the dog off the pool deck. That list shapes the plan more than any catalog does.

If you are thinking about a pool and nothing else yet, that is still the right time to talk about the rest of the yard. The decisions about access, grade and drainage get made on day one whether anyone discusses them or not. Call (530) 547-4051 and we will start with a free consultation.