Glendale Pool Builders designs and constructs custom gunite pools across Glendale and the Verdugo foothills. On a sloped lot the build is a structural project before it is a shaping one, so we engineer the shell, the retaining, and the deck to the actual grade of your property, then carry one crew through excavation, steel, gunite, finishes, and the deck. We put the design and the price in writing, and we build the hidden hillside work to last.
- Custom gunite shells shaped to your design
- Engineered for sloped and foothill lots
- Soils report and structural engineering coordinated
- Retaining and grade beams integrated with the shell
- Hillside drainage planned into the build
How a hillside pool comes together
A new pool on a Glendale slope is built from the structure outward, and the sequence is dictated by the grade. We begin with a survey of the lot and a design that reads the fall of the land, where the pool can sit, how it ties into the slope above and below, and what retaining the grade will demand. Once you approve the plan and the 3D renderings, we coordinate the soils report and structural engineering that foothill lots require, then pull the Glendale permits.
Excavation on a slope is its own discipline. We cut the bench the pool will sit on, set any caissons or grade beams the engineering calls for, and shape the dig to the design. Then the steel cage goes in, tied to the engineer's spec, the plumbing is run, and the gunite shell is shot over the cage so the pool and its bracing form one continuous structure against the hillside.
Only once that structure is sound do we move to the parts you live with: the waterline tile, the coping, the interior finish, and the deck and hardscape that frame the pool and step with the grade. We finish with the equipment startup, a water balance, the final inspection, and a walk-through, and we keep you posted at every stage so a hillside build never feels like a gamble.
Designed for the way your slope falls
There is no stock pool for a hillside lot, because no two slopes fall the same way. A backyard that drops toward a downhill view wants a pool that opens to it, perhaps with a raised wall or a vanishing edge, while a yard cut into an uphill bank needs the pool braced against the load coming down. We design to the specific direction and degree of your grade, not to a template that ignores it.
We also design around how you will actually use the pool within the constraints the slope sets. A stepped yard might call for the pool on one tier and a spa or lounging deck on another, with the levels tied together by the hardscape. We shape the depth, the steps, the shelves, and the features to fit both your family and the land they sit on.
Because we engineer and build what we draw, the plan we hand you is one we know holds up on your lot. The shell, the retaining, the drainage, and the deck are designed as one buildable system, which is how a hillside pool ends up feeling like it was always meant to be there.
The hidden hillside work that makes it last
On a sloped lot, the work that determines the pool's lifespan is almost entirely the work you cannot see. The caisson or grade-beam foundation, the engineered shell, the integration with retaining, and the drainage cut above and below the pool are what keep it level and crack-free as the hillside lives and breathes through wet and dry seasons. We put our deepest care here, because the slope will test all of it.
Drainage in particular is where hillside pools quietly succeed or fail. Water moving down a foothill lot has to be managed around the pool and the deck so it never undermines the structure or pools where it should not. We design the grading and the drains into the plan, not as an afterthought once the concrete is poured.
We build to local pool code and the relevant ANSI/APSP and ICC-5 standards, with the soils review, engineering, and inspections a foothill lot calls for. If you are planning a pool on a Glendale slope, call 562-620-3516 for a free site visit and an honest, written plan.
Your whole pool construction, one accountable crew
A pool is a design-build project, so pool construction rarely stands alone, it connects to renovating an older pool, a pool redesign, refinishing the surface, building the deck, heater and salt systems, and our crew handles all of it as one accountable team. We bring the same service to Pool Construction in La Canada Flintridge, Pool Construction in Montrose, Eagle Rock pool construction, Pool Construction in Burbank and everywhere else across the Glendale area.
If you searched for a pool crew near Glendale, you have reached a local pool builder, call 562-620-3516 any time. For background, read Retaining Walls and Pool Integration on a Sloped Lot on our blog, or head back to our Glendale home page to see everything we do.