Journal

A pool job has several trades on it, and the pool is only one of them. Knowing who does what before you start is how it runs as one team.

The finish is the part you choose. Whether a driveway stays flat, dry and uncracked is decided before the concrete truck arrives.

A render isn't just a picture of a nice yard. It's where the layout, the heights and the order of the build get worked out, before anything is dug.

The boards are the part everyone sees, and the easiest part to choose. Four decks, three timbers, and the reasons each one got the timber it did.

Every deck looks good on the day it's finished. Whether it still sits flat years later is decided underneath, where nobody looks.

Exposed aggregate looks simple and is decided by timing. How two Auckland jobs were poured, washed and cut, and the choices that change the look.

A new surface over an old drainage problem floods the same way. How three jobs fixed the water first and built the surface around it.

Most fences are palings on a frame. The ones people stop to look at are decided by a few details. Here's what goes into ours.

Some lawns are never going to work. At Morningside we stopped trying and built a courtyard that drains itself.

A raised bed that leans or a sleeper edge that drifts gives the whole garden away. How we build ours so they stay where they're put.

A rotting deck doesn't always mean a rotten frame. At Titirangi we kept the structure and laid porcelain on top with the Silca System.

Delivery day is the shortest part of a pool job and the one everyone remembers. How it runs, from the 7:30 start to the first water in the pool.