Pool construction and building in Los Angeles

Both words describe concrete sprayed against a steel cage, and the difference is where the water is added. Gunite arrives dry and is wetted at the nozzle, which lets the crew adjust as they go and is why most Los Angeles pools are built that way. Shotcrete arrives already mixed and is more consistent but less forgiving of a long day. Either builds a shell that outlasts everything else on the property; the finish inside it is the part that gets replaced.

Pool Care LA operates as a trade name of R R Pools, California contractor licence #970493, classifications B (general building) and C-53 (swimming pool). C-53 is the classification the state requires for pool work, and it is public on cslb.ca.gov.

Building from nothing in California is a permit job before it is a digging job: plans, structural engineering, a soils report where the lot needs one, the building permit, and on a hillside a grading permit as well. Depending on the jurisdiction that runs six weeks to six months.

Yes, and owners of vinyl-lined pools ask about it often. Converting to concrete ends the liner replacement cycle for good.

Often, yes. An extra step, a bench, a shallow shelf where there was none, or a dividing wall taken out to make one body of water out of two. It is structural work, so it is engineered rather than improvised.

There is no average worth quoting, and the reason is local. Two identical pools on two Los Angeles lots are different jobs before a shovel moves: hillside grading, whether the lot needs a soils report, access for the gunite rig and the spoil trucks, how far the equipment pad sits from the pool, and what the jurisdiction wants in plans and structural engineering. All of that is priced before the pool is. We quote in writing after seeing the lot, and looking costs nothing.

The question to ask is what a number that size includes, and to ask for it in writing. A new pool is excavation and spoil removal, steel, gunite, plumbing, the equipment pad and the electrical run to it, the interior finish, coping, decking, fencing to code, plans, engineering and permits — and a low headline figure usually means part of that list sits outside it. We do not publish a starting price for new construction, because the lot decides too much of it. If the budget is firm, remodelling the pool you have goes further than building a new one: the expensive half is already in the ground.

Less than a big one, but not in proportion to the footprint. Permits, plans, engineering, the equipment pad, the plumbing and electrical runs and getting a crew and a gunite rig onto the property cost close to the same whatever the size; what actually scales is excavation, steel, concrete and the interior finish. So a small pool rarely lands at half the price of one twice its area. On a pool that size we usually argue against a separate spa as well — one body of water means more swimming, one surface and one thing to heat.