Where is the best location for a pool in my garden?

If you're thinking about putting in a pool, this might be the most important article you will ever read.

Because it answers a critical question - can a pool be placed in the wrong location?

The answer to that is absolutely yes it can!

With over 30 years' experience designing and creating gardens that feature swimming pools, we can help you avoid what could potentially be the biggest disaster with your new pool.

This article will help you understand exactly what is the best location for your new pool and why.

The most common MISTAKE PEOPLE MAKE WHEN INSTALLING A POOL

Asking yourself - "where is the best location in my garden for my new pool ?"- is the most important question you will ask. And the answer will be the most important answer.

But before you can answer this question confidently, there are a few other questions that need to be answered first, such as:

• What size pool do you have in mind?
• What shape will the pool be?
• Will you be including a spa or not?
• What about a splash zone for the kids?
• Are you considering an inground pool cover?
• How much space do you want around the pool, for the kids to play or for lounge chairs, etc?

Now all of the questions relate to what you want inside the pool zone - that is inside the fenced off pool area.

But then there are a whole range of other questions you need to answer about what you want outside the pool zone as well.

This might seem annoying to have to ask, and answer, all these questions first, but trust us, if you don't then you will not be able to decide the best pool location. And that's the biggest mistake everyone makes.

Where should you start your pool design?

When we design a garden, we feel as if we have a number of pieces of a jigsaw that we have to fit together.  But we can't make them fit until we have all the pieces. One of the biggest pieces is often the pool.

Now while you might consider the pool to be the most important piece of the jigsaw (and it often his), we have to design your garden first to incorporate all the pieces, in accordance with your needs and wishes, before we can work out the best place for your pool.

So when designing your garden, we first have to formulate a list of all the things you want in it - a shed, basketball court, pool, dining area, lawn area for the kids, veggie garden, etc. Then we start to articulate the list. For example, if you want an outdoor dining space, we will ask you what size dining area based on how many people you think you may need to accommodate for meals and entertaining over the long term. We might also ask if you think you will need a covered pergola over this space to handle the rain.

As you can start to see, when you sit down with one of our landscape designers, they will ask you lots of questions. Your answers will then generate even more questions to help further define exactly what the ideal scene for your garden is. Then during the design process itself, the designer will tend to suggest ideas or concepts you may not have even considered, some of which you will like and some you may not. The key point here to understand is that designing a garden is an evolutionary process, that changes over time with your feedback and our input. 

Now we do understand that many people just want to focus on the pool. But you can't just drop a pool into a backyard without considering how all the surrounding elements of it work. If you do try to just focus on the pool and force everything else to work around it based on a narrow view of the whole garden, you can find yourself living with a pool, and a lot of regret and missed opportunities.

The worst thing you would ever want to hear yourself saying after you complete your new garden project is - hmmm I really think we should have put the pool more over there....!!! Pools are big things and can't be moved, so you want to get them right the first time.

Your pool requirements are unique to you

Stating that every pool should be located with easy access from the house may seem like an obvious answer. But is that true of every pool? Well, no!

We find parents of young children will often say to us, "I want to be able to see the kids in the pool from the kitchen so if I need to get to them fast, I can." But we also have older couples with more grown up children around or even retired couples who don't have this requirement and actually prefer the pool to be pushed back away from the house a bit more, so that the entertainment and dining areas are closer to the house.

Depending on the way the sun falls in your backgarden, you may want your sunbaking area with the sunlounges on the other side of the pool rather than close to the house. This can also affect the pool location.

Again, needs vary from person to person and house to house.

Here are a few examples to show you how different pool locations worked for different clients.

This project in Rosebud, was both a holiday home and anAirbnb. The pool location had to maximise the possibility that groups of people could use the space all year round. 

The clients wanted an undercover pergola with adjacent spill-over space for relaxing & entertaining, while the pool itself needed to accommodate a large number of people. Our seamless layout ensured the garden could be easily enjoyed fully.

For this Ivanhoe project, our clients specified that the pool would be used primarily only during the warmer months, making an expansive timber deck close to the house a more practical and desirable feature in their wishlist.

We positioned the pool further away in the corner as a dedicated 'destination', allowing the remainder of the garden to be enjoyed without obstruction. This met our client's needs.

Balancing aesthetic and pragmatic considerations

If you only consider the pragmatic aspects of where the pool will be located, you may well miss out on creating something you admire much more aesthetically. Of course, the reverse also applies. Being a slave to fashion while living with discomfort isn't the best approach either.

Trying to weigh up these seemingly conflicting considerations can be hard on your own.  That's why we recommend chatting to one of our designers.  When you exchange ideas with someone you can offer find a surprising solution appears. Many of our clients find that talking with a designer, allows the flow of ideas to be more effortless and productive.

Research is another tool for finding answers to the question of which garden design and therefore which pool location, might work best for your particular needs. We find tools like Pinterest to be a great way to gather and share such images. 

But even when you do all your homework, it can be surprising how one little thing can change an entire garden design with a pool.

The project shown below was for a client in Essendon. We had been working on their garden design for a couple of months and they were about to sign a landscaping contract with us a few days before Christmas. As it was so close to the break, she suggested we catch up and sign in the New Year.

When January came around, the client suprised us by saying  "I realised over the break while spending time with my daughter and grandchildren, that if I had a pool in my garden, I'd see my grandchildren more often." So we had to redesign the whole garden to 'add a pool'. 

What came out of this was a realisation by the client that fostering shared family experiences were key for them. We designed an undercover entertaining area close to the house that lead out of the pool and included a 'beach entry' to provide a safe, playful access point to the pool for her young grandchildren.

Achieving an ideal balance of aesthetics and functionality delivered precisely the outcome our clients wished for and were able to achieve.

Combining all the elements FIRST

If we haven't already made the point, the location of your pool, even though you might think is the first question you need to answer, can only be considered when you have all elements of the garden together.

In the design below, the spa, pergola (for shade), feature pond, and carefully placed paving steps to the garden, all had to be carefully considered before the exact location of the pool could be chosen. It takes a landscape designer or landscape architect to take all these things into account before designing an integrated, wholisitic vision for your garden, including your pool.

Below is another example of a pool project we created for a client in Ashburton. 

As the deck of the house was already quite high, we chose the pool location to feel like it flowed on from this, then added a feature wall opposite to provide privacy from next door.

So location, of course, can also include the height of the pool. If this means your pool area may be overlooked by your neighbours, solutions need to be found, including relocating it.

Easements & BUildings: the TRICKY 'angle of repose'

One factor the can affect the potential location of your pool is something most people have never heard of. It's a term called the 'Angle of Repose'. To understand it please take a look at the diagram below.

Every house, garages, easements and other structures all fall under the rules concerning Angle of Repose.

Crudely, if you draw a line at 45 degrees from the base of the footings, you generally can't build in that zone unless you obtain specific engineering to allow it.

So, answering the best location question, there are pragmatic considerations that restrict what will be allowed.

Your project will require specific research to ascertain what can be allowed.

Research is the key

I hope you found this article informative.

We are always happy to answer any questions you have, so please reach out to us.

Additional reading on pools, spas & landscaping in Melbourne & Mornington Peninsula...

Which is better for Melbourne - a fibreglass or concrete pool

All you need to know about installing a pool cover roller

What is the right style of pool coping for your pool?

The most common mistakes to avoid when engaging a designer or landscaper