There’s nothing quite like a Before and After photo, to show how far something or someone has improved. Today’s photo-blog is an idea book for swimming pool renovation and remodeling. These photos are courtesy of the proud pool builders who helped a homeowners dream come true.
Cipriano Landscape received a lot of attention for this pool and grounds re-do a few years ago. A very dramatic pool and backyard remodel.
Outdoor Living Pool & Patio added a Baja Shelf, for toddlers to play or for use as a tanning shelf (or a water polo goal). Also replaced the old school tile, coping and plaster.
Humble Sparkling Pool Service renovated this pool to include a separate hot tub, planter and water feature design. And also replaced the blue tile, brick coping and paver deck.
Freestyle Pools & Spas matched this vanilla pool to the tropical surroundings with stone decking, raised spa, dark plaster and tile, and lots of tropical plants. A real lagoon would not be rectangular, so the shape of the pool was modified.
Another Freestyle Pools & Spas renovation. After removing the safety fence, this facelift added a spillover spa, custom molded coping, glass tile and a travertine deck. Sweet!
Freestyle again with a customer tired of the sterile look on this once modern pool and spa. Darker plaster and tile, with natural stones and tropical plants really changes the pool look.
Desert Springs Renovations changed this pool and spa combo for a family that loved the pools at Disney resorts. Large rocks, waterfalls and muted colors make it happen.
Aqua 1 Pools replaces a textured concrete deck and brick coping with a travertine stone (very popular now), and straightens out the water quality issue.
In this complete backyard renovation, the pool shape is perfect for a mountain lake design, with overhanging stone decking, and boulders surrounded by evergreen bushes.
Shasta Pools brought this pool deck and edge up to date by removing the ‘Flintstones’ pool edge and the Kool Deck, replacing with a travertine stone and matching tile.
“The 80’s called, they want their red brick and blue tile back!” Splash Pools transforms this dated raised spa in a clean and modern design.
Another Splash Pools renovation adds pedestal planters and water features, replaces the cantilever deck with cast concrete and travertine, and gave the tile and plaster a facelift.
Another J. Designs Pool & Spa brought this pool up to date by with a colored, textured and scored concrete deck, and a more neutral color for perimeter pool tile.
Smaller Pool Renovation Ideas
Here’s ten smaller ways that you can improve your pool, with ten pool renovation ideas! Some of the ideas include:
New vinyl liner
Add a hot tub
Add a slide
New lights
1. New vinyl liner
If your pool came with a basic blue liner, or if your vinyl pool liner is showing its age, replacing with a fresh, updated look is one of the most basic inground pool kit renovation ideas. Installing an inground vinyl liner can be completed in a day. While the liner is out is a good time to inspect the walls closely for rust or damage.
2. New pool shape
This would be the most adventurous pool renovation idea, but it can be accomplished. Pools can be extended on one end, to create a longer swim lane, or you can add curves to one or more sides of a rectangle pool. Anything is possible, but some are more possible than others, before a renovation – becomes a replacement!
3. Add a spa
This is one of my favorite type of inground pool kit renovations. Adding a roto-molded spa right next to the pool, so that it spills over into the pool may be simpler than you think, and cost less than a portable spa. Because they sit above the pool deck by a few inches, they stay cleaner and are easier to keep covered.
4. Add a slide
Slides are more popular than ever. A pool slide is just a taste of what’s available for backyard pools. If you want water park style thrills, installing a pool slide can be a perfect weekend project. Take a look at the slide installation manual to determine the footprint of the slide. Some slides need quite a lot of deck space, and need to deliver the slider in a very specific water depth, usually around 42″.
5. Re-do the pool deck
Broom finished concrete is so last century. Pool builders are using more often using pavered designs at a cost similar to concrete. Other options include StampCrete, where designs are stamped into a new concrete deck, and outdoor floor tiles. Natural stone decks, such as flagstone, are also popular.
Replacing the pool deck also enables you to redo the pool coping. Vinyl pools can now use stone or brick coping just as easily as concrete pools. Or you could install a cantilevered deck, which “floats” over the pool wall, so that the deck and coping are one.
For existing concrete decks, pool deck coatings can give a beautiful, although temporary facelift, while spray on cement coatings, can add a colored Kool Deck type of textured finish to any standard pool deck.
6. New pump and filter
Chances are, if your pump and filter are 20 years old, they may be a bit tired, or undersized, or inefficient. Upgrading your pool equipment to dual speed or variable speed pool pumps saves energy, while cartridge pool filters save water. Heat Pumps don’t burn fossil fuels and have zero emissions.
A common item for replacement during a pool renovation are the valves. 3-way valves are standard nowadays. They simplify plumbing and are easier to use than 2-way ball valves.
7. New Sanitizer systems
Two-thirds of new pools built in the U.S. today are built with a salt chlorine generator. Add salt to the pool, and the little chlorine factory creates chlorine through hydrolysis. Amazing devices. Other devices worth mentioning would be Nature2 purifiers, which uses trace minerals to reduce your chlorine consumption by half, and Ozonators, which use the power of oxygen to sanitize the water, and also reduce chlorine consumption.
8. Water Features
Ranging from precise laminar deck jets that shoot a sharp stream of water, to sheet waterfalls, and cascades over boulders, adding the lush sound of falling water can really boost your ambiance level around the pool. Water features may be built into a small retaining wall on one side of the pool, or into a mound of boulders. Elegant and refined or wild and natural, well thought out water features blend into the overall surroundings.
9. LED Pool Lighting
Pool renovations usually include an upgrade to the underwater lighting. Pool lighting has long ago left incandescent lighting at the station. Halogen and Fiber Optic lighting were popular 10 years ago, but nowadays – LED lighting is the way to go. Very energy efficient, LED pool lights deliver a deep hue to the pool water. Adding a second LED lamp through your pool wall can create a dramatic effect. I recently wrote a blog post on LED pool lighting.
10. Fire Features
You’ve added stone, wood and maybe glass around your pool. Why not add the element of fire? Fire Pits, Tiki Torches and Fire Bowls warm the night air, and add an unmatched ambiance to your evening swims. Add some fire around your pool, and watch it draw people in, like moths to a light.
Why not dream big and make it into your dream pool? Remodeling and renovating a pool on the scale of these shown above is affordable and adds value to your home.
Interesting in aiding spa and water fall
Hi Michael, that is best done by adding a separate pump, dedicated to the waterfall, and then possibly another pump, for the spa circulation and jets. You could use the same filter for the spa, but it can be advantageous to have a separate filter for the spa, and no filter for the waterfall, just a pump that draws water from two sidewall foot well main drains, and pumps it to the waterfall or cascade.
I have a 10 year old fiberglass pool with a concrete deck. The installer failed to extend the concrete to cover the fiberglass edge/rim, so there’s about a 4 inch rim of fiberglass exposed adjacent to the concrete. This rim of fiberglass has been exposed to direct sunlight for 10 years, and the surface has developed hairline cracks. I want to have some type of coping tiles or stone pieces placed over this edge, but no one in my area seems to have any know-how as to how to accomplish this. The installer of my pool went out of business several years ago, so I can’t get help there. Do you have any suggestions for me? Thank you!
Stacia, have you tried to contact tile or stone contractors? Or it could be concrete, poured into Stegmeier forms, to create a thin, 4″ cantilever deck. Or a concrete sub-base poured on top of the ledge, and then capped with a 90 degree tile piece might look nice. As another option, I suppose you could affix a thin layer of something over top of the exposed fiberglass, maybe even just an adhesive decal, or a spongy, thin layer of closed cell foam, or marine grade vinyl?
Is it a relatively simple undertaking to convert an existing gunite/plaster pool from a traditional 2-level pool, to a sport-pool(meaning no deep-end)?
So basically filling in the deep end? A sport pool profile is usually a pool with steps on each end, with a slope to a 6′ depth in the very center. Perfect for volleyball, or basketball or polo games. If you just fill in your deep end, that’s not quite the same thing. No matter, but would it be simple? No, not at all. You have to tie in the new floor to the walls of the deep end, and be sure it won’t sink or slip in any direction, and it will always have potential to shift and begin a nightmare leaking problem.
We have a 1970’s vintage in ground pool. Problem is the steel used in forming the pool deck has rusted beyond repair and continually falls into the pool. How does one replace this? I thought of renting a concrete saw and cutting back enough to remove the angle steel and concrete but not sure what to put in it’s place
Hi Tim, I am familiar with your type of steel coping, used on vinyl and fiberglass pools. What will be hard is removing the steel band without damaging the wall. I guess the vinyl track, where the bead locks in, may be just beneath the band, it would be nice to separate the two just between the track and band, and then cut back 2-3″ behind the band, thru the deck. But usually the track will crack and be sacrificed when removing the coping, which is attached to the pool wall. For vinyl pools, the “coping” also includes the track and form for the concrete, and is secured to the top horizontal lip of the pool wall. Then you can pour new concrete strip into the C channel plastic coping, or other type. Lots of options. Check out this post https://blog.intheswim.com/how-to-build-a-pool-pool-coping/ – and also this one https://blog.intheswim.com/vinyl-pool-coping-replacement/
Hi Revette. We have a 1960s era pool that would be very difficult to get to with large equipment and there would be a lot of collateral damage if heavy equipment were brought in so a tear out if off the table.
Could we have a new, smaller pool built within the old one? Could a contractor put the new steel grid into the old pool – held away from the sides and bottom – so that new plumbing could use that void for the new supply & return pipes and then then have gunite sprayed over the steel grid in the usual manner?
Hi Jim, yes that’s done all the time! New pool inside of old, just as you describe.
How much does it cost on average to ad an in ground spa to an existing in ground pool?
Hi Jordan, well I will take a guess, and say $20K minimum…? varies by region, type and size of spa, distance to equipment pad, materials, etc, etc…
I have a 1970 9ft in ground pool what I want is to level deep end and put a hot tub on the above deck? Can you work on this?
Hi LaVette, we don’t actually perform pool renovations, we just talk about it 🙂 Let your fingers do the walkin’, as they used to say, to find a pool renovation specialist in your area. What you want to have done sounds feasible and not out of the ordinary! Sounds nice!
I have aluminum coping around a vinyl pool. We are wanting to tile over our existing concrete decking. However, I am not sure what to do with the coping or butting the tile next to it. Any suggestions?
HI Christy, assuming you have the “C” type of coping, where the concrete is poured right into the open side of the “C”, most people would use a concrete saw to cut the deck about 2 or 3″ from the coping, leaving a ribbon of concrete on the edge, and butting the tiles flush at that point. but since you are probably not removing your deck, just tiling over… that won’t work very well. Hmmm, not sure what to suggest, perhaps a tile quarter round, which will stick-up still about 1/2″, but be less of a hard edge. Maybe setting the quarter-round with an elastomeric caulk, rather than mortar or grout, to avoid cracking from movement and winter water.
Hi Revette,
I have a raised spa with a spill over into the pool. I just had the pool resurfaced but not the spa as I want to turn it into a planter. All plumbing is disconnected from the pump system and the spa drain is not connected to the pool drain. Is it possible to just punch holes in the spa bottom for rain drainage? Or, can the bottom of the spa be filled with concrete to bring it to level with the seats and then side drain installed for rainwater? I don’t know if it is wise to drain rainwater underneath the spa and decking, if this would weaken the integrity of the base dirt under the concrete deck. I don’t want to create a spill over of muck into the pool!
Thanks for any ideas on this
Hi Patti, good question. I don’t have any direct experience in what you are doing, but I understand. You are right that you don’t want a lot of water dumping under the pool, but I think the percolation would be minimal, just rain water and plant water. But it may be wise to do both, drain from the bottom and from the sides. Punch a small hole in the bottom drain, and 2 or 3 holes at seat level, draining out the sides? You can use fabrics to slow water draining downward, and encourage water to drain out the sides. You could also fill the spa with concrete, but not sure if that would make the spa so heavy that it sinks or subsides, causing cracking around the pool interface areas? Probably not, if just filling the foot basin area with concrete.
I need to have my pool renovated, I would like to have it resurfaced and the tile replaced.
Hi Revette, that is a common thing, like replacing a roof, every 20-30 years, new surface and tile, and coping and caulking is replaced. An average size pool may cost $4-6K each, for plaster, tile and coping, plus another $700 for caulking. But prices can be higher, for premium materials. We don’t provide this service however, you would contact local pool builders or service companies, in most cases. Some large landscape design companies or also handle these jobs, or you could ‘general’ the project yourself, and hire small stone masons and tile guys, but for the plaster, an experienced company is the best route, with a proper tools, skills, knowledge and equipment.