In-Ground Pool Installation and Pool Decks in Columbia, MO
We design and install custom in-ground pools and the concrete decks around them, turning Columbia backyards into genuine outdoor retreats. Because we self-perform the excavation, the concrete and the hardscaping, one crew handles the job from the first cut to the finished deck — which matters more on a pool than almost any other project, since the pool, the deck, the drainage and any retaining walls all have to work as a single system.
What Goes Into a Pool Project
- Design and site assessment. We look at your yard's grade, soil, access for equipment, setbacks and where the sun actually falls. Pool placement is as much about how the yard drains and where you will want to sit as it is about the water.
- Permits and utilities. Pool work requires permitting and utility locates. We handle it.
- Excavation. The dig, spoil removal and shaping. On sloped Boone County lots this frequently means a retaining wall to hold the cut and create a level pool area.
- Shell, plumbing and equipment. Structure, returns, skimmers, main drain and the equipment pad.
- Pool deck. The concrete surround — broom finish, exposed aggregate or a stamped and stained finish, always graded to drain away from the pool rather than back into it.
- Hardscaping and finish. Steps, seat walls, fire pit, coping and the transitions back to the house and yard.
The Pool Deck Is Not an Afterthought
Plenty of pools get installed by one company and then decked by whoever is available, and it shows. A pool deck has a real job: it has to shed water away from the shell, stay comfortable underfoot through a Missouri July, provide grip when wet, and handle freeze-thaw without spalling at the edges where it matters most.
We pour pool decks on a properly compacted base with the slope worked out before anything is formed. For finish, lighter-colored stamped or stained concrete stays noticeably cooler than dark surfaces in full sun, and we add a non-slip additive to the sealer as standard around water. If you want the look of stone coping and a plank-pattern surround, we can do that in concrete for considerably less than the natural material.
Sloped Lots, Retaining Walls and Pools
Columbia's rolling terrain means a great many backyards are not flat enough for a pool as they stand. That is not a dealbreaker — it just means the project includes earthwork. Typically we cut into the slope, hold the cut with an engineered retaining wall, and build the pool and deck on the level pad that creates. Done well, the wall becomes part of the design: a terraced backdrop, built-in seating, or the base for steps up to the rest of the yard.
Done badly, it is the thing that fails. A wall holding a cut next to a pool carries real load and has to have drainage behind it, because water that cannot escape will push. This is exactly the kind of job where having the wall builder and the pool builder be the same crew pays off.
Who We Build For
- Homeowners adding an in-ground pool to an existing backyard
- New construction where the pool is part of the original outdoor plan
- Properties on sloped lots that need earthwork and walls before a pool is possible
- Owners replacing or extending a failing, cracked or dated pool deck
- Anyone wanting a pool, patio, deck and hardscaping designed as one outdoor space
Serving Columbia and Mid-Missouri
We install pools and pool decks across Columbia and Boone County — including Lake of the Woods, Old Hawthorne, Thornbrook and Rock Bridge — plus Ashland, Jefferson City, Fulton, Holts Summit and the surrounding communities.