Perhaps you have just moved into a new home with a pool, but realize it’s not exactly the pool for you and your family. Or maybe you have just grown tired of your existing pool. What are your options? Well, of course, you could demolish it and start over, but wouldn't it be better (and less costly) to remodel it instead?

Yes, remodel. People are always remodeling their homes, so why not their pools? Steve Shea of Steve Shea Landscape and Design based in Los Angeles, has been doing just that in Southern California for the past 16 years.

“While you can’t move a pool or radically change its shape, there is a lot you can do to make it your own,” says Steve.

There are a multitude of changes you can make, including integrating a spa into the flow of the pool, and adding or subtracting steps or swim outs. Aesthetically, you can add new decking, new tiles, new lighting–LED is all the rage–or upgrade with some new technology such as an auto-leveler to keep the pool water at a consistent depth.

Steve says one of the most popular remodeling trends today is to make a pool shallower. This works best with rectangular shapes. It is more difficult to raise and lower the depths of kidney-shaped pools, but it can be done.

“Mid-century pools were all eight-and-a-half feet deep at one end and three-and-a-half feet in the shallow end,” he explains. “Most people want their pools to be five feet deep at most.” Gunite is used to raise the level of the pool bottom. Most requests are to create a pool that is three-and-a-half feet deep on either end and five feet in the middle.

Baja Steps -- where the shallow end is raised to a depth of about 18 inches, allowing for folks to sit in lounge chairs while being cooled by the water -- have become trendy for adults who want to relax in the pool sipping a cold drink. Steve says he can even install an umbrella hole in the pool bottom for shade.

As far as changing a pool’s shape, this can best be accomplished with a rectangle pool by softening the edges.

His most extreme remodel? “The client had a small kidney shaped pool, but they wanted a soaking spa. So, I designed a giant bowl and set it inside the pool.”

See one of Steve's pool and landscape projects in Stone Advisory Magazine on page 30.

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