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Keep the pool, rebuild the surround: a Meadowbank pool without the demolition
When a pool looks tired, the first quote is often for a new one. Sometimes that's the right answer. At Meadowbank it wasn't: the shell was sound, and everything around it was the problem.
A concrete pool shell lasts well over 50 years. So stripping it back to bare concrete by removing the old plaster and retiling it brings the pool back to life without demolishing it. The money goes into the part that had actually failed: the surround.
At a glance
The pool and tiling: an existing Roman-style concrete pool, kept, stripped and retiled by Artisan Stone and Tiles, who also laid the patio.
The surround: new foundations including the patio slab, a curved Vitex deck, two flights of stairs and Macrocarpa garden beds, all by us.
The barrier: new panels under the barrier consent that already existed.
On site: about 10 weeks.
What was there
The house was well maintained and renovated in parts. The yard didn't match it. The pool was a Roman-style concrete pool with terracotta copings. There were two decks, one at each end, both sitting lower than the pool, and an old, slightly uneven paver patio. The layout split the surround into separate spaces, so reaching the far side meant stepping up and back down again. The deck was very old and failing, and the whole area was run down.
The clients weren't sure what was possible. The brief was to refresh the space and bring it up to the standard of the house.
Two trades, one job
Artisan Stone and Tiles brought us in on this job: Mario introduced us to the clients, and the two teams worked alongside each other from start to finish.
The pool: Artisan Stone and Tiles. Everything touching the pool was theirs: removing the old plaster, a new interior plaster finish, new porcelain coping tiles, a new waterline mosaic, the two large steps in the semicircle fully tiled in the same mosaic, and new lights, pump and filtration. They also laid the porcelain patio.
The surround: Franc Landscapes. Everything else was ours: all the foundations, including the slab for the tiled area, and all the timber work.
The surround
Foundations. New throughout, for the decks, the stairs, the sleeper garden edges and the tiled patio: 125 × 125 H5 piles in concrete, and a 25 MPa slab with 665 mesh and D12 borders, broom finished.
The deck. 140 × 19 smooth Vitex on 190 joists over double 190 bearers, with a cantilevered edge and J Vice stainless fixings from Glass Vice on every structural connection. The curve is cut board by board, some boards carrying up to three angles, and the skimmer sits under a flush Vitex lid. More on how that edge was built in our article on decking around a pool.
The levels. Two flights of Vitex stairs, each about 1.2 m, with wrapped details. A fair amount of excavation and a retaining wall you can't see pushed the upper landing back, so there's now a connection all the way around the pool.
The beds. 200 × 100 premium-grade Macrocarpa sleepers, fixed upright on 125 × 125 H5 piles with stainless coach screws, holding the beds between the house and the patio.
The patio and the water. Italian Travertine porcelain in 1200 × 600, laid by Artisan Stone and Tiles over the slab we poured. The patio couldn't be fallen away from the pool, so a hidden drain channel runs along the coping, under the tiling, with a 12 mm gap to catch the water. You can't see it, and it's why the patio stays dry.
Pool barrier. All the fencing and balustrade is new: Aurora panels from Profit NZ. They went in under the barrier consent that already existed from before the rebuild, and the job needed no new consent. Which applies to your site is settled before we quote.
About 10 weeks on site
Central Landscape Supplies wrote about this job too: The Key to a Successful Pool Renovation.
What the clients said
From their Google review: "They had a great vision for how the project could progress and have transformed our outdoor area with a beautifully constructed new deck and swimming pool surround. The precision and attention to detail was amazing."
What actually decides it
Is the shell sound? That's the pool specialist's call, not ours. At Meadowbank, everything touching the pool was Artisan Stone and Tiles' work.
Does the layout work? Two decks lower than the pool and a split patio made the space awkward to use. Fixing that meant new levels, not new boards on the old ones.
Where does the water go? A new surface over an old drainage problem fails the same way. At Meadowbank the fall couldn't change, so the drain had to.
Does the barrier still work? New levels, gates or anything climbable near the pool change the barrier question. We work that out before quoting, not at inspection.
Where we fit
We don't renovate pool shells; we work alongside the specialists who do. We build the foundations, decks, stairs, retaining and garden beds around the pool, and we bring in and coordinate the trades each part needs. If your pool is fine and everything around it isn't, a site visit is where we work out what's worth keeping.