Building a pool near pond on significant sloping yard

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platon20

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Bronze Supporter
Oct 13, 2016
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DFW/Texas
We are looking to install a pool in our backyard. As you can see from the picture below, there are 2 obstacles:

1. Severely sloped ground from house to pond
2. Abundance of trees

I'd really like to keep the trees if possible, I know it will be a headache cleaning leaves out of the pool but I'm willing to sacrifice that. I'd also like to get the biggest pool into that space as I can. I will try to measure dimensions to give you guys a better feel of how much space there is from the house to the treeline.

I'm thinking this project will require a retaining wall due to the slope. How much extra % cost are we talking about for that?

house10.jpghouse11.jpg
 
Hi! What an interesting house and area!

Are you wanting to also keep the existing deck?

Yeah those trees will equal MAJOR leaves and work. We have things you can add to try to help with it.

The pricing is really going to depend on your area and what they are willing to do it for. Each area so very different. The thing to do will be get quotes from at least 3 if not 5 different builders.

Kim:kim:
 
Ahhh.... one of my fondest memories when growing up in Dallas was a large peach tree hanging over the pool. You could reach up and pull a big, fat warm peach off and float around while eating it. Sooooo sweet and juicy!

I also had a pool put in my yard on a slope. The retaining wall (cement) added 4K to the pool cost.

I think you could keep most of those trees except that large leaning tree front and center.

Keep us posted during the entire build process (and we LOVE pics!).

Yip :flower:
 
What they did in our pool build was use what they dug out for the pool and dirt, berm up the back side of the pool which just slopes down. Nice also in case the pond ever floods (we have a creek) which will give your house a barrier.
 
Welcome to TFP!

Nice place! Pools can be built with raised bond beams. Our pool is raised about 2' on the backside of the pool. So, you might be able to build a small wall on the house side and then let the pool be raised on the lake side. We have lots of trees. Trees and shade are great! Totally worth it to us to deal with leaves. Although, I do complain about it some. :) We have a variable speed pump and in spring and fall we run it 24x7 at 1100 rpm so that most of the debris is skimmed off the surface before it can sink to the bottom. Our pump uses 150 watts at 1100 rpm and it costs about 12 bucks a month to run it 24x7. There are times when we have to empty the skimmer baskets several times per day and still have to use a leaf rake. We also have a great pool robot that does a great job of picking up leaves. There are pics of all of that in my pool thread, link in sig.
 
Re: Howdy

The drip edge of the trees not the tree trunk line will determine if the trees can stay or not. Roots travel out to the canopy limits. You also don't want equipment running over this area or added fill. You'd gain some space ripping out that deck and putting the retaining wall about four feet off the house, with steps down to the pool deck. You should also shoot grades so you can add some contour lines to your plat. Your engineer and the city's engineer will find this useful for design and approval.
 
I have a pretty large slope as well. I thought about a retaining wall but the landscaper had the idea to grade it. I'm glad he did. The wall would have been distracting from the view of the pool. Since your wall would be on the closer side of the pool it may be better putting a wall in (you'd look over and past it rather than right at it). I put pictures to show how big of a drop it was prior to grading. The highest point was 3 feet.
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See all those tree roots sticking out of the embankment cut. That is what you DON'T want to see. That tree might make it, might not, depending on whether they properly root pruned and fertilized. Even then, you took a significant amount of the tree's root system so no guarantees either way.

Nectarologist said:
I have a pretty large slope as well. I thought about a retaining wall but the landscaper had the idea to grade it. I'm glad he did. The wall would have been distracting from the view of the pool. Since your wall would be on the closer side of the pool it may be better putting a wall in (you'd look over and past it rather than right at it). I put pictures to show how big of a drop it was prior to grading. The highest point was 3 feet.
26585088455_619519d001_z.jpg


26903159756_ff9faf6812_z.jpg
Click to expand...
 
I think it will make it, unfortunately. It's been two years and no dead spots yet. It drops a TON of leaves and acorns and provides no shade whatsoever. It's nice to look at the greenery but if I had the money I'd cut it down. One of the roots was large and when I saw it I though no way the tree makes it. For people who want to be sure a tree survives, an experienced arborist is worth the consult.
 
platon20 said:
What's the relative cost and pros/cons of grading the land vs a retaining wall?
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I'm not sure as I didn't get a quote for the wall itself. Plus I had it graded and the plantings done. It's got to be less expensive only grading vs. the wall but I don't think it's that much cheaper (it wouldn't be 75% less). There was a lot of labor involved in grading it and the equipment they needed has a cost to it, etc. That being said they graded it in less than a day and a wall would have taken at least two days. I have no issues with water runoff or anything like that and even the mulch stays in place (I was a bit nervous about that).
 
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