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What makes a plunge pool project cost more, or less, in Auckland
Everyone asks what a plunge pool costs, and we understand why. We don't publish prices, because the same pool can land very differently once it's on a real section. What we can show you is what moves the number, using three jobs we've built around: Mission Bay, One Tree Hill and Herne Bay.
One thing first. The pool itself isn't in our quote. On all three jobs the shell came from The Pool Distributor, who deal with you directly and handle delivery and plumbing. Our quote covers the ground and everything around the pool: the slab or the excavation, the deck, retaining, paving, timber fencing and the equipment box. That's what this article is about.
What moves the number
Access: how the pool and materials get in, and how the spoil gets out.
Ground: what's under the topsoil, and what has to come out first.
Levels: how the pool, the deck and the house thresholds meet.
The barrier: what it's made of, and who builds and certifies it.
The surround: the timber, the fixings, and how much of it is cut to a curve.
Time on site follows from all five: three weeks at Mission Bay, five to six at One Tree Hill, ten at Herne Bay.
Access
Mission Bay had a long driveway and relatively open access. The pool arrived on a flatbed and the crew carried it in by hand, with no crane and no Hiab. At One Tree Hill, powerlines over a busy street ruled out a large crane, so a small Hiab lifted a stainless shell that weighs under 200 kg empty.
Herne Bay was the other end of the scale. The only way in was a gap of less than 850 mm between the garage and the front door, under a 2.2 m ceiling and around outdoor columns. Pronto Hire recommended a 1.2-tonne Takeuchi built for tight width and height. Every load of spoil went out by barrow, 14 bins of it, and the fibreglass shell was lifted over the house by a large Hiab truck with a winch.
Access decides the machine, the size of the crew and how long every load takes. Kevin's summary of Herne Bay: you need an experienced team to run the excavation and the build while protecting the house and everything else on site.
Ground
Volcanic rock sat about a metre under the One Tree Hill topsoil. That's where the excavation stopped, and it's why that pool sits partly in the ground. Some pile holes went in cleanly and others had to be broken out of the rock.
At Herne Bay the pool went where a solid reinforced-concrete fireplace and chimney had stood on its own footings. We took it out with the 1.2-tonne digger and Hilti demolition jackhammers before any digging for the pool could start. At Mission Bay, part of an old broken concrete slab was broken out and removed to make room for the new deck foundations.
What's under the surface is the part nobody sees in the finished photos, and the part a first site visit spends the most time on.
Levels
Everything has to meet: the pool, the deck, the door thresholds and whatever is already there. At Mission Bay we formed a round slab about 400 mm high to match the deck and house levels, which leaves the pool standing 1,210 mm above the finished deck. The new deck also connects to the existing entry deck, so every door from the house now leads to the pool.
At Herne Bay a new timber retaining wall, 25 m long and 1.4 m high, runs along the back of the house. It holds the levels that make room for the pool and a lounge area, and it replaced a failing wall with more space between the house and the wall, for much better access.
Kevin put the Mission Bay cost down to exactly this: assessing the site, connecting the existing deck to the new one, matching the house access levels, and making sure the pool height above the deck was right for compliance.
The barrier
Pool barrier. Each of the three jobs ended up somewhere different. At Mission Bay the pool wall is the barrier: it stands 1,210 mm above the deck with no permanent access to the rim, and nothing separate was consented. At One Tree Hill it's frameless glass finished into the boundary with two custom black aluminium panels, installed and certified by Profit NZ and consented separately. At Herne Bay it's aluminium Delta panels, installed by Profit NZ and consented separately. Which applies to your site is settled before we quote.
A timber barrier is something we build ourselves. Glass and aluminium go to specialist contractors, who install and certify their own work. The material, the length of the run and the consent that comes with it all show up in the total.
The surround
Hardwood costs more than pine, and curves cost more than straight lines. One Tree Hill and Mission Bay both have half-moon Kwila decks, built in opposite orders. At One Tree Hill we built the frame first, leaving room to drop the pool in. The boards went down after the pool was placed, each one scribed to the shell and cut individually with a jigsaw. At Mission Bay the whole deck was finished before the pool arrived, with the curve set out from a board bolted to the slab at the pool's exact centre.
Under both decks sit H5 piles, H3.2 framing and stainless fixings. They cost the same under any board, and they're what decides how the deck lasts.
Kevin's list for One Tree Hill: craftsmanship, premium material, the experience to make it work with the existing space, and communication with the client.
Design
Mission Bay started with drawings and design visuals of the deck and the pool placement. That's what let the family see the finished yard before anything was built, and moving a pool on paper costs nothing.
What you can take on yourself
Some of the cost comes down to what you keep for yourself. At One Tree Hill the family did their own planting and some paving afterwards, and used their own electrician for the pool equipment and the deck lights. At Mission Bay the family is doing the softscaping themselves. Anything that needs a licensed trade or a consent stays with the people qualified to do it.
Where we fit
We're not a pool supplier. We build the ground and everything around the pool, and we're on site on delivery day, because the pool has to fit what we've built. The useful first step is a site visit: we'll walk the access, look at the ground and the levels, and quote against what we find on your section.