One common question we get asked is “how long will it take to build my new pool?” The answer to that question depends on a number of different factors which include (but are not limited to):

• The planning process
• The type of pool (concrete or fibreglass for example)
• The time of the year
• Your local consent authority
• Other contractors

Let’s take a look at how these factors can influence your pool construction.

The planning process

Planning your new pool can be a lengthy process as there are many decisions to be made:

• What type of pool is best for you?
• What shape?
• What size?
• What colour?
• Where will you place the pool?
• If you’re building a new house, should the pool be installed before or after?
• What landscaping should happen before or after your pool is installed?
• What kind of pool fencing will work best for you?

It stands to reason that one of the biggest influencing factors of how long it will take before you are swimming in your new pool, is the time spent making decisions on your preferences. For some people pool planning can be a relatively quick process, but for others it can take months of discussion and design work, especially when a more complex concrete pool is involved.

The reality with swimming pools is that once they are in the ground, they are there forever, so it pays to give yourself a comfortable timeframe to ensure the right decisions are made.

The type of pool you choose

The length of time it takes to build your new pool is heavily influenced by the type of pool you choose. The difference in construction time between a fibreglass and concrete pool can be significant. One of the benefits of installing a pre-moulded fibreglass swimming pool is that the pool shell arrives pre-built. Instead of having a number of different contractors on site for several weeks or more (standard procedure with concrete pools), your fibreglass pool can usually have water in it within a couple of days and the installation completed with a couple of weeks.

While one benefit of concrete pools is that you are not limited by shape or size, it pays to remember that concrete pools, especially if you opt for detailed and complex shapes, may take several months or more to complete.

Of course, the installation of the pool is only one aspect of the pool project. While it may only take a couple of weeks to install a Compass fibreglass ceramic pool, it takes most households between 3 and 6 months on average to feel satisfied that they have completed their pool landscaping. That means that your pool can be up and running while you add the finishing touches at your own pace.

The time of the year

As you can imagine, when weather gets warmer more people start to think about swimming pools. In summer time, most pool builders are inundated with enquires from people who want to be swimming in their new pools as soon as possible. If you want to enjoy a lengthy first summer in your newly-built pool it’s a good idea to be talking with your pool builder at the June/July point or even earlier. During February/March for instance, many pool retailers are prepared to offer extra incentives to fill their books for winter.

Naturally, summer weather lends itself to construction. Many people choose to renovate, build and undertake other major projects when the weather is more stable. Because of this, the demand for mid-summer pool builds does increase dramatically and spaces fill up quickly.

That’s not to say that if you enquire in November (or even December) you will miss out on swimming that season, however it does pay to get in early!

Often in January or February people make the mistake of thinking “we’ve missed out on this summer so there’s no rush”. The reality of the situation is that if you plan your pool, install it early and then complete the landscaping in spring, you will have a pool area that is finished and ready for the entire next summer. No mess and no disappointment at a time when you want to be enjoying your pool.

Local consent authority

Every new pool that is built needs to be passed by the local authorities. Once you have completed your planning process, a development application (or complying development certificate, or permit submission) will need to be lodged. In most cases this is something that your pool builder will do for you (although separate fees may apply). This application needs to show the details of the construction process and outline how safety standards will be met.

The processing time for a permit varies from town to town and can also change depending on demand (4-6 weeks is not unusual). As mentioned above, summer is a busy time for the pool industry so processing times during peak season are often at the higher end of the guidelines you are given.

The construction of your pool cannot start until approval has been given from your local authority. The earlier your application is submitted the more likely your project will be finished on time.

Other contractors

Most pool projects require several different contractors from electricians to concreters, fencers and pavers. The availability of your contractors can also have an effect on how long it takes before you are swimming in your new pool. In most cases your pool builder will have a list of preferred contractors whom they trust and work closely with.

From time to time there are elements of a pool installation that will rely on another contractor completing their part of the project first (for example your pumps cannot be switched on unless an electrician has established a power supply). Because of this, we suggest having a firm plan before the project commences. If each contractor knows when to show up and is aware of the scheduled timeline of events, you lessen the risk of having your project delayed.

Generally speaking, fibreglass pools can be ready to swim in sooner than you might expect, and our authorised Compass pool dealers typically plan to complete a standard installation in around 10 working days. However, outside influences can delay this process so the earlier you can speak to your pool builder the better, to ensure that your pool is ready to swim in when you are.

Swimming pool building time: from planning to installation, how long it will take

Video transcription: A lot of people who come into my display centre to have an early-stage think about getting a pool always want to know what is involved in getting a pool. Among a hundred different things that are important when you’re planning a pool, how long it takes comes up pretty often.

You need to, I think, nut it down into four areas. They are planning the pool, getting the approval to build the pool and having the pool built, so that is effectively the installation of the pool. That is before all the nice cosmetic, easier things like the fencing and the paving all come to fruition.

To plan your pool, you can take as long as your want. At the end of the day, you’ve got to make the decision. Planning your pool involves going and having a look at what pool suits you, working thorough the options and the recommendations, and then saying, yes, this is right for me. I like this pool, this size, this colour, with this operating system. I can see myself using it like this, this and this, ticking all the boxes. I’m happy to be doing business with you. You’re a builder, I like the people who are going to be putting it in, I’m happy to go ahead.

When that happens, a contract is drawn up. A contract is the agreement, as the pool builder I’m going to do x, y and z; as the customer, you’re going to do x, y and z and we’re going to go ahead with it.

Your approval, depending on whether you’re going through a council body or a private certifier, it doesn’t matter too much which, that roughly, depending on councils, is a four to six week process. During that time, I always tell my customers, we’ve got this time when no one can really do anything. This is good opportunity to go and have a bit of a look around at pavers and different finishers and things like that.

Once you get your approvals back, they come to us as the builder and we say, yes, absolutely, they can have a pool, we’re all good to go. Then your pool gets custom-made for you. We like to allow, depending on the time of the year really, three to five weeks in the manufacturing process of the pool. It’s made, it’s ready for you and then you move into a construction schedule.

A construction schedule is one of those things that can move around a fair bit. So you’ll always give a tentative install date but we’re not weather gods. We never know what is going to happen with the weather. You may be jumped forward a week or you might be pushed out for two weeks. But that whole process in its entirety from you making the decision and we’re good to go, is often between a five to ten week process, realistically.

There are things that come up. You could all of a sudden, it has happened to me, people have said, school holidays. We’re going away. You had me booked for this stage, can we be two weeks later? Most pool builders can easily work with that. The time really is on you and when you can make a decision, the weather, what it’s doing and of course your councils. You definitely don’t want to be planning a pool in November thinking Christmas day is going to be at your place. That is not going to happen. Give one of the team a call today on 1300 667 445.

What is the process, turnaround & pool construction timeframes?

Video transcription: Once a customer brings their council approved paperwork into the office, usually the timeframe from receiving approvals and the pool going in the ground is between six to eight weeks. That’s a rough timeframe. Weather is something that is beyond anyone’s control but it is usually between six to eight weeks.

Filtration equipment is obviously a really important part of your pool. What we need is usually around two metres, two and a half metres but that depends on the amount of space you’ve got available in your yard. So we can customise the installation of your equipment to best suit your yard.

The day that we excavate your pool is day one of your pool. What we do is, machinery arrives about seven, seven thirty in the morning. We mark out your pool on the ground, decide if you’re happy with where the lights are going in your pool and make some minor changes to the layout of your filtration system. Any little changes you want, that’s the time we do it.

Machinery starts digging and it usually takes the day to get that out, unless we hit rock and things like that which is something that we don’t know we’re going to encounter and usually the customer doesn’t know either. We usually have the hole excavated in that day.

The following day we lift the pool into the ground. The pool is back filled, filled with water and the filtration equipment is installed. So it is roughly two days, two and half days for the self-cleaning pool to be installed.

Once the pool is installed, then we have the filtration started up and we put all of the chemicals into the pool and clean the pool up so it is in swimmable condition. That usually takes twenty-four hours for your dirty pool to become a swimmable pool. Everyone loves to swim in their pool as soon as it’s full of water. Even though the pool is dirty when we’ve filled it up, it’s still in its construction stages, but the day that the pool is full of water, the kids are dying to get in the pool and have a dip. So day two, you can be swimming in your pool.

Once your pool is started up and chemically treated, then your pool needs to settle for a period of two to three weeks. That is to allow for ground movement for the pool to find its natural levels. Then we place a concrete beam around the pool and that is part of the structural integrity of the pool shell.

After we’ve poured that concrete, then we organize the handover of your pool. A handover of the pool is teaching you to drive your new pool. We show you how your system works, getting your fully automated system up and running so it is literally maintenance free. We give you the keys, that’s what a handover is. Give one of the team a call today on 1300 667 445.

What to think about with regards to pool installation access

Video transcription: I talk to a lot of people have anxiety about access to their house. The first thing to let you know is just about everything is possible. Ideally, we’d turn up at a block, it would be flat, we would have no house in that spot and we could drive straight in with all the equipment. Realistically when a pool is built, we literally want to turn up with the biggest digging machine and excavator and as many tipper trucks, usually three, as we can, to keep running that fill out of that property.

Most properties that we consider have great access are properties that you can pretty much drive a car to where you want to put the pool. That is pretty much as good as it gets in most cities today. Outside of the city, on rural properties and so forth, that is an added bonus because it is often very easy to get to the site you want to put the swimming pool.

If you do have constrained access, don’t be overly concerned about it. Just know that the more equipment and the more time it takes for us to get in and get the fill out of that site and then actually bring sand in, which is also used as part of the installation process, the costs associated with that are generally greater, but completely justifiable.

As you could imagine, when we’re taking a one piece shell, a swimming pool, and lifting it to the site, most often we’re using cranes. The general crane lift is not overly complicated. That’s probably not fair to the crane guys. They’re really good at what they do and it is a real discipline for them to lift the pool. But generally in most cases lifting a pool into the site is non problematic.

Sometimes, on very rare occasions, we might use exceptionally large cranes because we just can’t get anywhere near the block. In that case, the cranes can get fairly expensive. But there is a way to install just about every pool. On the odd occasion we’ve even used helicopters to lift pools into place. That is quite a sight, seeing helicopters buzzing over your roof with a swimming pool hanging off it. It’s pretty exciting actually.

It’s really difficult for us also, and obviously it’s difficult for you, to tell what’s under the ground. A lot of people know through experience if they’ve built on their site or they’re lived in the area for a while, they’ll know whether or not we’ll have to contend with rock. If we can get a decent sized machine into the site and access is reasonable, rock is not a great issue. The smaller the machinery, the longer it takes to excavate, the greater the cost associated with excavation. These are just pretty standard things.

In other cases, certainly around the area where we work a lot, we have high water tables. That may mean we actually employ an ancillary company to come in and insert spear points around the pool area. That is a like a big pump and vacuum system which sucks the area dry for a day or two before we excavate the pool.

We dig every day, it’s our job. As much as we want to put the swimming pool in, part of that process is coming out and excavating. I don’t think there is much we haven’t seen under the ground and there is always a way for us to deal with it. Give one of the team a call today on 1300 667 445.

How long is the pool construction process?

Video transcription: We’re often asked how long is it going to take to build my swimming pool?

There are a couple of different elements that come together for that. Obviously we’ve worked through the time for contracting the swimming pool, designing it, doing all the bits necessary for now to be well on our way to having a pool in the backyard.

The next step for us is we need to manufacture it. Every Compass pool is built to order. We don’t build your swimming pool until we get an order for it. So it’s always your very own swimming pool, issued with its very own birth certificate. This is an important element of Compass Pools.

The other part of the process is that we need to have this pool approved. So it will be submitted to council, go through the approval process and depending on where you are, what council area, what state, there are going to be different times in relation to the approval process. The next part is then the installation process. We’re literally coming up with a day when we’re going to determine, after the council approval, to install your pool.

The process from there is generally fairly fast. It’s also dependent upon weather. If we have a bad run of weather, we’re going to need to move that installation date to a different time. When we come in and install your pool, generally it takes a couple of days for us to excavate and install the pool and fill it full of water. We then allow that pool to sit for a couple of weeks before installing an engineered concrete beam around it and finish the surrounds. Give one of the team a call today on 1300 667 445.