By Jeremy Ruben, Founder of LANDOVA Design & Planning · October 20, 2026
Before You Call a Pool Builder · Part 5 of 7
Jeremy brings firsthand experience as a high-performing pool salesperson and designer. During his time on a pool sales team, he closed deals at nearly three times the rate of the rest of the team.
“How much is the pool?” is a reasonable question. It is just too small to carry the entire financial decision.
The number that matters to your household is what it takes to create the outdoor space you expect to use, complete the associated work and live with the result. A pool proposal may account for much of that. It may also leave substantial categories to other trades or later decisions.
A clear budget makes those boundaries visible before you commit most of your investment to one feature.
Keep three different totals in view
The pool contract: the construction work and selections included in that company’s agreement.
The completed backyard: the pool plus the surrounding improvements, professional services and other work needed for your intended first phase.
Ownership: the ongoing resources required to operate, maintain and eventually repair or replace the things you build.
These totals answer different questions. Confusing them makes an attractive initial price feel more complete than it is.
Build the scope before filling in prices
List the work your concept requires, then ask who provides it. Depending on the property and plan, categories may include design, technical documentation, site preparation, access, the pool, patio, utility work, drainage, barriers, planting, irrigation changes, lighting, furniture and restoration.
Not every project needs every category. Not every category needs a separate contractor. The point is to establish whether an item is included somewhere, deliberately deferred or still unresolved.
For each line, record a source and status: current written proposal, preliminary trade estimate, allowance or unpriced item. An empty line should remain visibly unpriced. Filling it with zero creates false certainty.
Watch the seams between proposals
Imagine a hypothetical project with one proposal for the pool and another for the patio. Both are clear about their own work. Neither describes restoring the irrigation disrupted by construction.
The irrigation work does not disappear because the two totals add up neatly. It needs an assigned scope, a responsible party and a price or explicitly identified allowance.
The same issue can occur with disposal, access restoration, utility extensions or final grading. Ask questions at the boundaries between trades as carefully as you review the work inside each proposal.
Plan phases around dependencies
Phasing can make a project more manageable. It works best when the later phase has a place in the initial design.
If you want an outdoor kitchen later, reserve its footprint and review access and potential utility routes now. If a pavilion is deferred, consider how its eventual installation relates to the patio. Have the appropriate professionals identify what enabling work makes sense before finished surfaces are installed.
There is no automatic rule that everything should be built at once. There is also no automatic savings from postponing a feature. Separate the amount deferred from any cost of returning to do the work later.
A contingency is not a place to hide missing scope
Projects can involve uncertainties even after careful planning. Keep a reserve appropriate to the conditions and the advice of your project professionals.
But do not use that reserve to avoid pricing known work. If you know the yard needs restoration, give restoration a line. If a finish has not been selected, identify the allowance. If a site condition needs investigation, record the question and how it will be resolved.
This gives you a more honest picture of what is uncertain and why.
Make value decisions while they are still design decisions
When the whole plan and investment are visible, you can choose deliberately. You might prefer a smaller pool with a more useful patio. You might defer a decorative feature to preserve shade or privacy. You might simplify finishes while keeping the layout you love.
Those are homeowner decisions. A useful planning process explains the trade-offs and helps you make them before they become rushed responses to a price you did not expect.
LANDOVA brings the design and estimating conversations together so you can evaluate the complete project. We do not promise that planning eliminates every surprise. We work to make the known decisions, scope and open questions easier to see.
Let’s build a plan around your whole backyard investment.
Read the complete series
- Buying a Pool? Why a Pool Builder Shouldn’t Be Your First Call
- You Want a Backyard. The Proposal May Only Include a Pool.
- A Pool Salesperson Is Selling a Pool. Who Is Helping You Plan?
- Three Pool Quotes Can Mean Three Completely Different Projects
- The Pool Price Isn’t the Backyard Budget — You are here
- Five Stars for the Sales Pitch. But Has Anyone Built the Pool Yet?
- The Better Way to Buy a Pool: Plan With LANDOVA, Then Choose Your Builder
