Most pool builders will tell you a start date. We give you the whole calendar: what happens each week, which inspections gate which steps, and exactly what could move the dates. Here is the honest version.
An hour in your yard or our studio. We look at access, grades, utilities, and what you actually want the space to do: laps, cannonballs, quiet, dinner for twelve. You leave with a realistic budget range for your lot, not a teaser number.
We survey the lot, model the design in 3D, and price it line by line. The design fee is $1,500 and is credited in full against your contract if you build with us. If you take the drawings elsewhere, they are yours; that has happened twice in sixteen years.
Structural engineering, the city permit, and HOA review where you have one. In Scottsdale and Paradise Valley this takes four to eight weeks. We do not control that queue and will not pretend we do; we submit within three days of your signature and chase it weekly.
Paint on the ground Monday, the dig checked against grade stakes by Wednesday, spoil hauled the same week. If we hit caliche or rock, the jackhammer rate is already in your contract, disclosed per hour, and we call you before we run it.
Rebar tied on tight centers, plumbing pressure-tested and left under gauge for the city inspector, then shotcrete placed in a single day. The shell cures for two to three weeks afterward, wetted down every morning.
Waterline tile set by hand, coping sawn and eased, deck poured or paved, equipment set and wired. This is the longest stretch and the one most worth not rushing. Our tile setter has been the same man since 2011.
The pebble interior goes on in one continuous pour, and the fill starts the same day. Filling runs about 36 hours and cannot pause without staining the finish, so we schedule it like a launch window and watch the weather.
Twenty-eight days of startup chemistry while the finish cures underwater; we make every visit. Then we come back at dusk to aim the lights and walk you through every valve and setting until it feels boring. Workmanship is warranted for three years on top of the manufacturer terms.
Monsoon storms can push a shotcrete or deck pour by a few days; concrete does not negotiate with rain. City inspection queues stretch in spring. Imported tile can backorder, which is why we ask you to pick finishes before the dig, not during week six.
And our change-order rule, which clients quote back at us: any change is priced in writing before the work happens, or we absorb it. That rule has cost us money exactly as often as it has saved a friendship.
An hour in your yard or our Old Town studio. No obligation, no deposit, and you keep the honest budget range we give you.