Swimming Pool Landscape Design

For a Houston landscape, a swimming pool landscape design is often the pièce de résistance. Our climate invites the presence of a pool and people are naturally drawn to it. The creativity applied to the attendant landscaping only heightens the impact. Not merely the glue that holds everything together, a pool and its landscaping are the jewels atop the crown.

Exterior Worlds offers luxury designs that take the basic elements of swimming pools and give them sophisticated élan, creating a special atmosphere for all your festive occasions. Our swimming pool landscape designs allow you to move seamlessly from the interior to the exterior with the pool area functioning as a continuation of your living space. Because it serves as this linkage, it is imperative that the swimming pool design properly complement the architecture of your house. Our professional landscape designers will help you achieve all the prerequisite demands.

There’s even good news for homeowners of older residences with pools designed and built in, say, the 70s and 80s. If you’ve been looking with desire at the latest shelter magazines with their exquisite spreads of swimming pool landscape designs, a swimming pool restoration or swimming pool remodeling project from Exterior Worlds could be your solution.

A restoration project is the least involved of the two projects. Perhaps the pool’s shell could use re-surfacing to achieve a particular aesthetic that is available with today’s product offerings. Or it could mean updating the pool decking with more current material choices.

With a remodeling job, however, a complete re-do is required. It is a project that involves reconsidering your pool area and tailoring it to your specific site, including terrain, tree elements, drainage and all structural architecture, and complying with your specific needs and desires. Since no two remodeling jobs are ever alike, an Exterior World’s professional design team is best suited for this extensive venture. Bottom line, though, both re-do options are viable alternatives to consider.

Items to consider in your swimming pool landscape design:

• In conjunction with your swimming pool designer, you will first need to ascertain the best location of the pool, a choice driven by the space available and the spatial relationship of the house and yard. You want it to be eye-catching and inviting. At the same time, you want it to fit the space without overpowering it.
• Another major element is the patio, the wonderful and much-used outdoor space is often the “living room” of your backyard. Common construction types include flagstone patio, wood patios and patio pavers.
• One feature of the pool to pay close attention to is the pool coping. Coping is the masonry product that sits on the edge of the pool’s shell, often rising above the patio and is the hard surface on which you sit when you dangle your feet in the water. Coping material choices are driven by two functions: compatibility (it should be coordinated with other material choices made for your home and landscape) and safety (it needs to be a non-slippery surface like brick or stone).

For more than 20 years, Houston has turned to Exterior Worlds for high-end landscape design and services, including custom swimming pools. 713-827-2255.

Houston Pool Remodeling

When is pool remodeling required?
If your pool clashes with your home’s appearance, or it is too large our small for your yard, you need pool remodeling. Remodeling should also be done when the pool is beyond the scope of basic service and repair work.

If I wanted a complete pool remodeling, what am I looking at in terms of the basics?
We have to change the shape, depth, and style of the pool to match your home and surrounding landscape master plan. New patio design will be required too, consisting of custom tile, stone, brick, or masonry. Amenities like diving boards, diving rocks, or kid slides may also be built into the new structure. We also resurface and lay new tile.

What are some options for pool remodeling Houston homeowners should consider?
We strongly recommend that you consider adding additional water features. A spa is one of the most popular and useful features. It adds dimension and luxury to the swimming pool, and it can be heated and constructed with water jets that offer therapeutic conditioning for muscles and injuries.

Spa jets, heating, and lights can be manipulated with digital controls that provide the homeowner with the ultimate in convenience.

Another water feature you may want to add to your pool when remodeling it is a waterfall. Waterfalls create unique areas of interest. They can be designed to pour down steps to lend a sense of drama and formal effect, or they can be created to pour over rocks to look like natural elements that soften the stark geometries of human architecture.

A rock wall rising up at one end of the pool can also host a waterfall, creating both an endpoint and a focal point that frames activities in and out of the water around a central gateway of illuminated fluidity—almost like a monolith rising up out of the Houston landscape.

What unique structural changes can you incorporate into pool remodeling?
To create a sense of perspective, have our team build you a pool with a negative edge. A negative edge makes it look like the water is mysteriously disappearing over the side with no apparent boundary around the pool.

Rock formations are an excellent way to lend a sense of nature to certain pool designs. For those who prefer something more resort-like, tanning shelves, swim-up bars, spas, and benches are ideal.

Another thing we do in pool remodeling is custom mosaic work. Many different patterns and scenes can be created with expert tile workers creating the mosaic by hand.

Is lighting a part of pool remodeling?
Yes. People cannot enjoy their pool at night without illumination, nor is it safe to use without lighting. Lighting creates decoration and interest. Many different types of lights can be installed in a remodeled pool, including colored underwater lights and fiber optic lighting that can punctuate the details of waterfalls and spas.

Landscape Pool Design

The first thing to consider in landscape pool design is the size and shape of the pool. It must be constructed in the complex of a larger and more comprehensive landscape master plan. Home architecture must be respected above all things. Next, softscape elements and outdoor buildings must appear appropriately complimented by the pool’s appearance.

What is my first consideration in landscape pool design?
You want to decide on the size and shape of the pool. It is always better to talk to a professional landscape designer about this than the pool contractor. This is because the pool itself is going to fit into the context of a larger landscape master plan. The geometry of the pool must respect the architecture of the home and proportionally compliment the hardscapes and softscape elements of your yard.

How large should my pool be?
Think about your lifestyle and your plans for future events. If you have children, or if you plan to host parties around the pool, you will need a larger swimming pool than you will if you only plan to use it as a couple or entertain a handful of close friends.

Where should I have the pool built?
Landscape pool design is all about relationships to other points of interest. You not only want the pool to look good when you look at it from the home, the arbor, the outdoor kitchen, or the morning garden, but you also want these same features to appear unique and clearly visible when you look out into your yard from the vantage point of your swimming pool patio.

Should special safety features be included in my landscape pool design?
If you have children, yes. If you plan to invite elderly guests or people with disabilities to your home, handrails and special steps that lead down into a shallow part of the pool need to be built into its design.

What recreational features can be incorporated into landscape pool design?
One of the most popular features that we often build into our pools is a spa. Spas are normally heated and lit so people can feel a blend of comfort and luxury when reclining within them. Spas can also be designed with special jets that will help those with arthritis or other physical challenges get safe and healthy water exercise.

If you have such a physical challenge, get your doctor to describe in detail what you need in terms of water exercise and share it with our design staff. We have all sorts of custom designs we can adapt to your needs.

Do you recommend special water features?
That is a matter of personal preference, but the decision to incorporate special water features needs to be made at the onset of landscape pool design. Waterfalls add excitement and vertical impact to pools, and when lit with underwater lights, a sense of magic. Water jets can also add drama and impact to both daytime and nighttime pool activities, as well as giving children something to play in.

What type of patio should I have built around my swimming pool?
You can have anything from decorative concrete to something as elaborate as cut stone that is hand-laid and made to imitate something in the natural world. The shape of your patio should aesthetically compliment both the pool and the surrounding landscape. The size of your patio should reflect your anticipated number of guests for planned outdoor events.

Outdoor Kitchen and Pool

A family named Pesek decided that their swimming pool had too much of a “1970s look.” They wanted an entirely new swimming pool designed for them, and they wanted an outdoor room built that would allow them to enjoy a view of the surrounding Houston landscape.

After carefully surveying their yard, we recommended a design based on classical geometry and proportional right angles. This would add a touch of elegance that would uphold the conservative design of the home and distinguish the property as a unique keynote in Houston landscaping design.

The house itself spoke of a simpler, more absolutist time in history. The fixed constants of the 1950s were clearly evidence in its architectural motifs, which provided us with a template of linearity and deliberate movement true to Classical design principles.

We began by rebuilding the swimming pool near the rear entrance of the house.
We completely abandoned the original lagoon-pool design. Not only did had it clashed from the beginning with the architecture of the home, but it looked cliché, to say the least, in relation to the greater Houston landscape in general.

The new swimming pool was built as a perfect rectangle distinguished with an innovative type of coping that raised perpendicular to the stone patio surface. We used the natural surface of the Houston landscape to create another perpendicular right angle at the end of the pool, where we installed a waterfall that spilled into a heated spa.

The spa was built with something of an optical illusion in mind. Though the water came from within the spa itself, it appeared to be coming from within the pool. This generated a new sense of visual “ebb and flow” that causes the earth to appears to rise up first into an illuminated pool, then onward into the steps of the home.

We built an outdoor room at the end of the pool opposite the home. We followed the same principles of simple conservatism and right angles that distinguished the home and the pool. This is not to say that we abandoned modernity by any means. Within the conservative linearity of its framework we created a fully functional outdoor kitchen complete with a smoker, a refrigerator, an ice maker, and a water heater

There was even special seating with a flat-screen plasma TV that provided state of the art fun for adults and children alike. When we were finished, there was never any need for the Peseks to return to the house once the party begins. Every amenity is available in a simple, yet also very sophisticated outdoor building. Pure luxury and a serene view of the Houston landscape are just a few steps away in a luxury pool and spa.

Landscaping Ponds

Where should I have my pond built?
A landscaping pond should be built in full sunlight so that aquatic plants will get enough light to flower. It is also best to have it built in an area of the yard that, from any vantage point, appears equidistant from major points of interest. By this we mean that if you are standing in the doorway of your summer kitchen located at the back of the yard looking at your landscaping pond located more toward the center of the yard, that your pond will appear proportionally related to nearby gardens, trees, fountains, your swimming pool, and your home in the far background of the scene.

What you do NOT want is a pond that appears to be crowded up against another landscape element or outdoor building. If a pond is part of a larger garden design, then an exception to this rule applies, but you will need a professional landscape designer to develop it in order to make it work with the surrounding landscape.

Does the shape and design of the pond matter?
Yes. A landscaping pond is part of a master landscape plan that is based on several things. The most important factor in the creation of this plan is the style of your home architecture. Since the intent of professional landscape design (not to be confused with rudimentary basic lawn services) is to create an outdoor living space equivalent in the quality of life to the interior comforts of a home, there must be a sense of reflection and congruence between the two realms these two realms blend into a singular expression of personal lifestyle.

You should therefore be aware that a pond can be a beautiful addition to your landscape regardless of the size of your home and your property. However, the size and shape of that pond will need to be designed proportionally as one of many elements in order to create the feeling of harmony and freedom you seek in Houston outdoor living.

Should I have lighting installed in my landscaping pond?
Yes. Without lighting, your pond can only be enjoyed during the daytime. Special lighting fixtures will transform it from a dull shadow on the nighttime Houston landscape into a magical realm of color and dancing shadow. Both general lighting for visibility and special effects lighting are now possible with underwater, low-voltage LED lights that are very cheap to operate and safe to use in submerged locations. They will not harm fish or aquatic plants and pose no threat to humans and pets when installed correctly by a licensed professional.

If you plan to stock your pond with fish, the most important kind of plant to install is oxygenator plants. You must be cautious not to install any plants that are toxic to fish. The list is too long to enumerate here, but just a few of these include amaryllis, bottlebrush, boxwood, caladium, dapne, hydrangea, and bird of paradise. If you have any questions about what should or should not be planted in your landscaping pond, it is best to confer with your landscape designer and let him or her recommend aquatic species with aesthetic value that will also be good for your fish.

What species of fish can I have in my pond?
That depends on the size and depth of your landscaping pond. Koi are a favorite fish, but they may not do well in just any type of pond. You may need a more formal koi pond like we often build in order to give them an appropriate environment. Goldfish and other species of carp will live in almost any type of water. If your property is big enough for a large landscaping pond of significant depth, you can even have it stocked with sun perch, catfish, or bass.

Houston Swimming Pool Contractors

Are you dreaming of new landscape plans, one that includes a swimming pool in your back yard? If so, Exterior Worlds is one of the best regarded Houston swimming pool contractors and we’d be happy to help with your project.

The process starts with the design. As longtime Houston swimming pool contractors, we are experts in the design aspect. Your choices range from lagoon pool designs to waterfall landscape designs to site-specific designs—and just about everything in-between.

Our swimming pool discussions always include safety. Areas for your consideration:

• Non-slippery surfaces in the immediate wet area.
• Depending on your lifestyle, a pool fence to safeguard who has access to the water, such as an ornamental iron fence.
• Night lighting. The lighting for your pool should be viewed as part of your overall residential landscape lighting plan with the intention of making it seamless with the whole.

If you are landscaping for entertainment, you might want to think about putting in additional water elements that elevate the design impact. Examples of these head-turners include pool water fountains and fire and water fountains.

For those of you considering landscaping remodeling, Exterior Worlds is a particularly smart choice as your Houston swimming pool contractor due to our willingness to go the extra mile in getting the job done right. While a swimming pool remodeling project certainly can be done and often is something that needs to be done, it is a complex job that requires the most from your swimming pool professionals. In other words—no time for a cookie-cutter frame of mind.

Once the design is nailed down, then as your Houston swimming pool contractor we will do the following:

• We schedule a pre-construction meeting to let you know what to expect, when and by whom.
• Simultaneously, we will begin the permitting process.
• Once the necessary approvals are in place, then comes the grading and excavating of the site.
• Rebar is then installed in the shell, as well as the plumbing and electrical work is completed.
• The pool will be sprayed with a concrete-like substance called gunite.
• After the gunite cures, comes the installation of the coping, specialty features such as outdoor fireplaces or retaining walls, and the pool deck.
• As the last step, the gunite is plastered, often using upgraded materials such as quartz finishes in a wide range of textures and colors.
• Then add water and the fun begins.

As you can tell, it is no small task to undertake the building or restoring of a swimming pool. Therefore, it may be in your best interest to hire us as general contractor, also known as a project designer. In this capacity, we bring two important assets to the table. The first advantage is that we can look at your entire landscape design to ensure that the pool integrates with the total picture and that all your landscaping zones flow together.
The second benefit is financial—we will schedule the different subcontractors, thus keeping the work progressing in a logical and timely manner, which, in the end, saves you money and aggravation.

Since 1987, Exterior Worlds has provided upscale landscape services, including project management for swimming pools construction and remodeling to the Houston area. Call 713-827-2255 for a consultation.

Houston Pool Remodeling

Of all the Houston landscaping ideas available, Exterior Worlds has found that luxury swimming pools are one of the most popular. Our clients want their landscapes to be uniquely their own, a touchstone of their aesthetics and sensibilities. In particular, with a swimming pool, they can make it a shimmering reflection of their lifestyle, an example of Houston outdoor living at its finest.

Pools have become an expected amenity for the upscale home, never more so than in these days of staycations and cocooning at home. With that in mind, many of our clients face a Houston pool remodeling project, being owners of older homes with pools built in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

A Houston pool remodeling project starts with the selection of your general contractor and swimming pool designer, such as the superlative landscaping services you will find at Exterior Worlds. We combine the talents of an expert and dramatic flair for design with listening intently to the customer and the skill to keep the complicated projects on track and on budget.

The complexity of your Houston pool remodeling job depends on many factors with the most elaborate ones being those in which everything is wrong—the wrong location, the wrong style and the wrong materials. In these cases, it’s not just the pool that needs to be retrofitted and updated; rather the entire backyard needs to be changed, added to and rearranged.

With some older pool remodels, in order to meet current regulatory requirements, we have to completely overhaul the plumbing and electrical systems. Whenever possible, we try to salvage the shell which means removing the concrete, redoing the plumbing and electrical, and then rebuilding the structure around the existing shell.

At the other end of the complexity spectrum, you have the situation in which the area can be updated by merely changing out the surrounding elements. In some cases, the pool area can be remodeled by replacing the pool deck, which is the material, usually a form of masonry, that encircles the pool. Such a pool deck remodel project allows you to coordinate its material choices with others in your master plan, restoring the tones and textures to a complementary balance. Examples of today’s material choices for pool decks include tinted and stamped concrete, brick or stone.

In general, it is good to start any remodeling project with a clear eye. You may find that once embarked upon a Houston pool remodeling project, you uncover all kinds of problems inside the shell and beneath the pool deck that need to be fixed. Leaking plumbing and worn electrical systems are just two of the most common. Since no two projects will ever be alike, this prospect underscores the necessity of hiring an experienced contractor, such as Exterior Worlds, who are experts specifically in pool remodeling.

While undertaking a swimming pool restoration, you might want to consider adding other custom hardscapes to your overall design. Luxury landscape items such as waterfalls, garden structures, and outdoor fountains, for example, create pleasing visual and auditory environs—spaces that that you, your family and your friends will enjoy for years.

Since 1987, Exterior Worlds has provided comprehensive landscape and design services in the Houston area. Call us at 713-827-2255 for a private consultation.

Pool Deck Remodel

Is your swimming pool area looking dated or rundown—or has it even become unsafe? If so, call Exterior Worlds for a pool deck remodeling project.

Let’s begin with a quick primer on swimming pool construction terminology and the finishes involved. The interior shell of a pool is covered with plaster that hardens like concrete and seals the interior of your pool. Popular upgrades used today include quartz finishes in a wide variety of colors and textures.

Next comes the pool coping, which is the area that immediately surrounds the pool. The coping locks in the pool plaster on one side and seals the deck on the other. Because you want to ensure a non-slippery surface in the immediate wet area, preferable choices are tile, stone or brick.

Then—the pool decking that encircles your luxury swimming pool. It is usually made of some kind of masonry and connects the pool to the rest of the spaces. It becomes a special dimension within your landscape design, creating usable, safe spaces that are visually pleasing.

Before you make a decision about your decking material, consider your total landscape design. You can integrate your swimming pool design into its surroundings by creating smooth transitions between the pool, yard and general background. A swimming pool adds texture to an otherwise blank and flat yard, so be creative. If you have small yard, a pool turns it into an oasis. For wood decks or flagstone patios attached to the house, you can use your pool decking choices to coordinate or contrast with them. In general, you don’t want a very dark color for your pool deck because it will absorb heat. Likewise, you don’t want it too light because of the higher maintenance.

You have a marvelous range of materials to choose from with a pool deck remodeling project. A pool deck remodel project gives you the opportunity to coordinate material choices in your landscape, something that can get out of balance in older homes that have undergone many home projects. Keep in mind that you want the tones used in the house and landscape to be complementary. Our clients’ choices include tinted and stamped concrete, brick and stone. One example of a design conscious choice would be to use a darker stone with a light grout or rich dark grout with a lighter stone color.

In discussing a pool remodeling project, all decisions should factor in safety. Now may be a good time to think about installing a fence around your swimming pool. Exterior Worlds will be happy to discuss different options. For example, you may want to highlight the fence by using custom ornamental iron fencing or, conversely, you may prefer to make it unobtrusive by having us weave bushes around its perimeter.

Some of our clients find that once they start a pool renovation project, such as pool deck remodeling, they uncover additional problems beneath the deck that need to be updated, such as the plumbing, the pool lighting and the general electrical system. Once the decking is ripped out, you have an opportunity to address those issues, too, a decision that usually saves money in the long run.

Limestone Patios, Architecture, and Décor

What architectural theme does this best support?
All architectural themes and Houston landscape designs can benefit from limestone forms. Limestone is a soft stone that can be easily crafted into almost any style shape or form. This makes it easy to match the resulting form to the specific architecture of houses and outdoor buildings.

Limestone can also be polished, which makes it very good for creating ornamental or decorative elements. There is very little that we cannot do with limestone.

Are there any negatives to limestone?
Limestone’s only negative attribute is that it is highly porous, so any surface that requires resistance to water should be built from something else. Aside from this very narrow and singular limitation, it can be used to build virtually any type of hardscape.

Where is it mostly used?
While it works with any type of architecture, its most powerful expression is found as a compliment to very strong architecture. There is a cultural and historical association that all of us share in that links limestone to antiquity.

Classical buildings and porticos were commonly built of this stone, so any work we do on today’s Houston landscape can convey that same feeling of grand drama and regal authority that we associate with our own heroic, historical origins.

English and French landscape designs both convey a strong sense of presence due in part to the their deliberate incorporation of classical materials and their insistence on symmetry and geometry that trace their way back to Rome, Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia—cultures that all used limestone to build their monuments, temples, and great works of art.

What if I could care less about ancient culture?
Then you can enjoy limestone’s modern application. Because of its malleability, limestone is a timeless material to work with. It is easily molded to human intent, and it works just as well in contemporary and modern Houston landscapes as it did on Appian vineyards and Greek hillsides 2,500 years ago.

You can go forward with limestone just as easily as you can go backward. The choice is yours.
What are some decorative objects that you can build out of limestone?
Many decorative Houston landscape design elements can be made from limestone. These elements include custom fountains, walls, arbor columns, urns, and planters.

What garden design does this work well with?
It works best with Mediterranean, French, and Italian themes. Limestone makes ideal material for building architectural walls, retaining walls, garden stepping stones, and linear planters to set the boundaries of garden space.

Will just about any outdoor building benefit from a limestone patio?
Yes, because we can shape the stone to match the architecture.

Swimming Pool Renovation Project

The Berry family of Houston, Texas recently hired us for a pool renovation project. The pool surface, plaster, tile, and coping required reworking. Originally, the Berry’s had contacted us to see of we could simply restore the pool. We told him that we certainly could, but after pointing out to him how the pool was actually working against his overall landscape design, we were able show him how swimming pool renovation would actually give them a better outcome than they had hoped for.

The original pool had some design challenges that prevented it from working harmoniously with the remainder of the landscape aesthetic. Part of the pool was framed by an architectural wall and by a partly brick and bluestone patio. The problem with this design was that the wall was too tall. It created a sense of separation from the remainder fo the yard, and it obscured the view of a beautiful arbor located just behind the pool. It also hosted a contemporary, sheer descent waterfall fountain that looked oddly modern and out of place in relationship to the traditional lawn garden design of the yard. Restoring this wall to its proper relationship with the landscape was the most important component of our swimming pool rennovation project.

We knew that the fountain had to go because the contemporary design did not work with the freeform swimming pool design or the residential architecture of the home. We felt that the wall would work better if it were one foot lower, and if it took on the appearance of a more deliberate vertical extension of the brick and bluestone patio. To create this façade, we had to rebuild the wall with bluestone columns that match the tile of the patio. These columns rose up in stately form behind the water and were capped at the top. Wiers jutted out from beneath the capstones and poured water into pool. These wiers were crafted with a thermal finish in a flame detail.

We continued our swimming pool renovation with an expansion of the brick coping. This drew greater emphasis to the body of water within its form, and helps focus awareness on the tranquility created by the fountain. We also removed the outdated diving board and replaced it with a diving rock. This was more attractive, and far more safe as well.

We then extended the entire pool and patio another 15 feet toward the right to give the area a more relaxed, sweeping feeling. We also changed out the spa coping that had a lot of problems. It had an odd shape, so we custom crafted brick interlace coping that would fit the oodd shape. We also expanded the brick coping all around the pool from the original 8 inches to a full 12 inches.

We then expanded the new forms of our swimming pool renovation into the rest of the yard. We began by building a sense of connection to an arbor that stood behind the pool. The arbor needed no remodeling of its own, but it had been previously obscured by the oversized wall. Because an arbor is both a seating area and an architectural focal point of outdoor landscape design, we wanted to generate an interest in its location, and create something that would invite visitors to venture beyond the hardscape into the world under the trees.

To accomplish this, we built a walkway out of bluestone stepping pads that actually extended across the surface of the pool. We also built a terrace and a dining area in front of the arbor to make it a place where people could spend an entire afternoon and evening under the trees.

Infinity Pools

An infinity pool is a swimming pool or reflecting pool with a negative edge. It is also called a zero edge pool or disappearing edge pool. The intention of this design is to suggest that the water extends beyond the horizon to and vanishes into an indeterminable point beyond—literally into infinity.

Infinity pools are among the most challenging elements of landscape architecture to construct. It requires a great deal of skill on the part of the swimming pool design specialist to create the effect of vanishing water. It also requires adapting the pool to geological formation surrounding the structure. In the Houston landscape this can be particularly challenging due to the fact that we have such flat terrain.

Infinity pools here must be constructed at a high enough elevation to allow water to drop into the unseen realm at the edge of the structure. In actuality, this so-called unseen realm is really a concealed catch basin hidden beneath a weir over which the water flows. The water pours into this basin and is recirculated into the pool by silent pumps.

In order to generate the flow of water necessary to create this silent disappearing act, we have to build the weir at least one-half to one inch lower than the required water level. We also have to build a separate circulation system for the edge flow. Sufficient momentum must be present in the water in order to cause it to run over the weir into the catch basin below.

We also have to be very careful to take into account inconsistencies in flow caused by swimmers. When people swim in an infinity pool, they will naturally displace more water into the edge than normal flow will produce. The catch basin must large enough to withstand this displacement, and the pump must be sturdy enough to return the water to the upper pool.

Without exception, edge pumps in infinity pools are larger and more powerful than the main pool pump for this reason. They also feature very sophisticate filtration mechanisms to prevent the debris that flows over the weir from clogging the pump. A great deal of mathematical calculation goes into designing these edge pumps and catch basins, which might be another reason that the word “infinity” is used as a descriptor for these very special water features.

Beyond the sophisticated engineering they feature, infinity pools create some of the most magnificent scenery in all of landscape design. This is because they are always built in relationship to other points in the scenery. They can function as giant mirrors reflecting the overhanging branches of trees. They can point toward a pond or natural stream, or they can stretch toward open sky and appear to blend blue vastness with water and fluid movement with rainbows and clouds.

Small Swimming Pools

Small pools are very popular in urban areas where there are very small lots and little room for landscaping. Many of these lots have exceptionally large houses on them and tiny backyards. Others have patio homes and townhomes with a predominantly hardscape backyard landscape. Garden designs must be highly customized to home architecture and proportional to the limited space at hand. Swimming pools must be smaller but still provide the amenities and comforts of their larger equivalents on more expansive estates.

This is not as difficult as it may seem to the experienced expert in custom swimming pool design. Small pools are no different than large swimming pools or custom swimming pools. They are shaped just like other pools but are built to a much smaller scale. They can look like luxury spas, geometrically proportional forms, or even giant fountains. The benefits that they offer are anything but small, however.

A small pool can be heated so people can enjoy it year round. Many doctors recommend that arthritis patients invest in these pools because it helps soothe aching joints. Physical therapists also recommend them to patients in recovery from knee injuries and back injuries. Although a small pool may lack the area of a custom swimming pool or luxury swimming pool, it can nevertheless be constructed in a manner that facilitates good, hardy exercise.

The way we accomplish this is to construct small pools with swim jets that create strong currents in the water. The swimmer can face into the current and swim half-laps to the other side, then return to the other side to repeat the process. In fact, many people find that they get better exercise in a small pool than a larger one due to the pressure of the water and the challenge it presents to their muscles.

Small pools are also very decorative additions to a small backyard behind a cottage or townhome. They look tranquil and idyllic when surrounded by a custom garden design or small custom patio. Adding a water feature to an otherwise limited amount of greenery predominated by hardscape is typically all that one needs to alleviate the sense of having too much inorganic form in one’s yard. Water, though not technically organic, is the very stuff of life whose fluidity conveys a sense of movement, dynamism, and even mystery at times.

One way to enhance all of these unique attributes of water is to add a fountain features to a small pool. A custom fountain of any style can be built in a pool provided its dimensions remain in proportion to the pool itself and surrounding structural architecture. One of the most popular styles is the waterfall fountain. Waterfalls can be constructed in any number of forms ranging from the traditionally natural to the deliberately contemporary and modernesque.

They can also be built either at the end of a pool or along the sides. Building a waterfall along the side can actually add a safety factor to your small pool. Since we discourage the use of diving boards due to the hazards they have been known to create, a diving rock can be substituted next to a roaring waterfall that gives a swimmer a much safer way to get into the water and also allows him or her to directly experience the falls firsthand. This can make a small swimming pool look and feel much bigger, and in many instances, magnifies the dimensions of the backyard as a whole.

Reflecting Pools

A reflecting pool is a shallow pool with a very calm surface. It is normally built near another structure or element in order to reflect its form like a mirror. It can be part of a garden, a courtyard, a centerpiece for a backyard, or a standalone feature in a park or urban plaza. More famous reflecting ponds include the reflecting pool in Washington DC, The University of Western Australia, Planalto Palace in Brasilia, and Hermann Park in Houston, Texas.

The remarkably calm water that characterizes these solemn, still masterpieces is created by a simple trick of physics. The edges of the pond are made slightly deeper than the center. This inhibits wave formation and keeps the water very still even when the wind is blowing. In residential landscape design, reflecting ponds are used to link divergent landscape elements into a unified aesthetic of contemplation. The surface of the water acts like a mirror to inorganic and organic forms alike, bringing them together in a single moment.

Reflecting pools are commonly built near large garden sculpture or fountain. This has the effect of magnifying the element and making it appear more prominent on the landscape. They are also popular elements to add to areas populated by outcroppings of trees. When there are only a handful of trees on the landscape, a reflecting pool makes it appear as though there are many more than their actually are. While some areas of Houston, such as the Memorial Area, have an abundance of trees, other parts of town have smaller lots and have fewer trees. Building what amounts to a landscape mirror will make any back yard look larger than it actually is and more like a park area when you walk outside.

Reflecting pools are also built near homes and commercial buildings. This has the effect of extending the edifice of a structure forward into space. In parts of Houston where the new trend is to build up instead of out, reflecting ponds can be a valuable addition to a high-rise apartment community. The vertical presence of the buildings can be brought toward the center of a courtyard build around a reflecting pond that converges in a mirror of angles and shapes in the center of urban living space.

Reflecting pools in these environments are often done with vanishing pool edges. An infinity edge makes the water look like a true mirror in every sense of the term. In the absence of a visible shell or coping, all you see is the water’s edge and the forms that the water reflects. Generally, more contemporary settings call for this effect because of the mathematical connotations it conveys and the sophisticated aesthetic it generates in landscape design.

Landscape architects prefer to build reflecting pools with very dark basins. This prevents the basin itself from reflecting light back out of the water. Only the light that strikes the surface is reflected back toward the eyes—creating the mirroring effect we have been discussing in this analysis. The remainder of the light that penetrates the water is absorbed by the darker hues of the pool basin.

Swimming Pool Restoration

Swimming pool restoration creates an attractive aesthetic that will stand out in the landscape. Older pools that were constructed in the 70s and 80s were built with standard-grade materials that were rather lackluster to begin with. Over the years, these surfaces have become weather-beaten and even less attractive. By restoring a brighter, newer appearance to these surfaces can make an otherwise ordinary pool look extraordinary at a much lower cost than a complete renovation would entail.

Aesthetically, we work to make the pool more noticeable and to give it a stylistic touch that will last beyond historically dated decorative trends. Tiles are replaced that are more sophisticated in color and texture and that will last beyond the momentary preferences of the present decade. Superior materials that are both more colorful and longer-lasting are chosen based upon their relationship to architecture, hardscape, and softscape elements—not simply the swimming pool itself.

Restoration also involves replacing the plaster that lines the gunite shell of the pool. Laying new, more durable plaster in place of the old helps restore a shiny appearance to the pool interior which adds depth and mystique to the water when illuminated at night.

We also rework plumbing at this time - Drains must be placed a certain number of feet apart to avoid creating suction wells at the bottom of the pool. As regulations have become stricter over the decades, older pools have now fallen out of compliance because their drains are too close together. Moving them to an appropriate distance from one another is a major aspect of swimming pool restoration that must be attended to if we are going to service our clients impeccably and thoroughly.

The experience we have gained over the years in outdoor architecture and custom hardscape design also better enables us to match tile textures and colors to surrounding patio design, outdoor buildings, home architecture, and garden design. We do all of the advance planning work for our clients by choosing the best materials, colors, and textures that will appropriately compliment those elements surrounding the pool. We then sit down with the client and go over these options one by one.

At this point, swimming pool restoration is in a highly consultative phase in the landscape design-build process. It is important to choose the blueprint of design, materials, and colors first before doing anything else. We do not insist that clients go with a particular, singular option, but instead work to frame the project for homeowners and let them consider which of our professionally-recommended courses of action will best suit the needs of their custom swimming pool.

After tile color and texture have been chosen, we also discuss options for new coping. Many different types of materials can be used to build this very significant swimming pool element. Sometimes, when it is not safe or practical to lower the pool shell, we will change the elevation of the coping and surrounding patio and thereby change the elevation of pool access. This proves to be of immense value in situations where there utilities, drain systems, or vital tree roots located near the pool.

Both design elements and the finer details of swimming pool restoration are finalized by the homeowners before implementing redesign. We recommend that clients consider upgrading patios and adjacent garden design at this time as well. This helps ensure a continuous aesthetics throughout the back yard proper, and it further magnifies the restoration work we do on the pool by creating complimentary forms and structures in the immediate environment.

Swimming Pool Renovation

Swimming pool renovation is a design-build service that transforms the existing size, depth, and appearance of an existing pool. The pool shell will often be replaced by an entirely new structure. The geometry of the pool, along with horizontal and vertical measurements of its form, will also change accordingly. New surface areas will also be added to its exterior, ranging from high-grade coping and tile work to spas, water jets, and new surrounding hardscape structures.

This level of redesign is not something the average pool contractor wants to work with. There are too many control grade factors, such as distances between corresponding points, to attend to cost effectively. Pool contractors prefer to build new structures from the ground up, and the focus is always on making the structure workable and attractive as a unity within itself—not a reciprocal element of a larger landscape design.

When our team undertakes a swimming pool renovation project, our entire mindset originates from a much different frame of reference. We approach the task at hand with the intention of creating better landscape architecture through the introduction of a new swimming pool design that will more appropriately compliment home architecture and serve as a more effective aesthetic fulcrum between organic and inorganic elements.

In order to do this, we have to do everything onsite. There are too many factors to consider in the design-build process to work from a drawing board perspective. Whereas the pool contractor plans a new structure in an office, then brings those plans to the location and builds them out, we have to do something completely different. We have to let the landscape design speak to the plan we are developing and work our design into the fabric of surrounding elements. This ensures the outcome of our swimming pool renovation work will be proportional and balanced with its surroundings.

Beginning the design process onsite has other advantages beyond the aesthetic. There are many challenges that face the team each step of the way. Tree preservation is very important to our company. Root systems can travel deep underground and fan out in all directions from tree trunks. We cannot simply start digging out the far end of the pool without first determining if this is going to damage one or more vital roots that could affect the health, or even the life, of a tree.

Drainage systems and utility lines also have to be worked around. The city of Houston does not like it when you cut their gas and power lines—and you won’t like it either if you lose power or gas in your home as the result of clumsy swimming pool renovation techniques. Many different things can be done to work around buried utilities and tree roots, but they must be done methodically and systematically. Rushed jobs by inexperienced companies almost always result in some sort of damage that costs the homeowner additional and very painful expenses.

Swimming Pool Companies

So, if you want to put in a pool or remodel an old one—where to start? Most people think of swimming pool companies, a natural assumption. Swimming pool companies are the people with the skill and expertise to actually build the pool. The construction begins with grading and excavating the site. This phase is followed by installing rebar, or reinforced steel, and the electrical and plumbing work. At this point, the pool is ready for the initial inspection. Once approved, the next step is to spray on gunite, the concrete-like substance that forms the shell of the pool. After it cures, the coping and tile are then installed.

However, to ensure the best final outcome, you should give serious consideration to hiring a general contractor or project designer, like Exterior Worlds, before you even think about the construction phase. As project designers, we are specialists in keeping your custom swimming pool project moving, on track and on budget. Also, through our many years in business, we have developed relationships with the best experts for each particular task, which includes knowing the best swimming pool companies in this area.

We are experts in helping you define the best pool for you and your family. This skill includes developing the right questions and the right answers, such as:

• How best to keep children safe? Perhaps an ornamental iron fence around the pool.
• Will you be using the pool for business and formal entertaining? Maybe an outdoor room, complete with outdoor fireplace and entertainment center, would be enjoyable.
• Do you work long daytime hours and will use the pool mostly at night? If so, Exterior Worlds are experts in landscape lighting.

We are also experts on the codes and regulations in the different cities and neighborhoods of this region. This expertise covers appropriate tree preservation programs to protect the valuable trees on your lot, a skill-set most swimming pool companies do not have. Over the years, we have saved our clients a lot of money in this one aspect alone.

In most of the luxury landscape designs that we work in, the pool is just one element. At Exterior Worlds, we take a turnkey approach to your yard and therefore consider other hardscapes, such as garden structures (to create auxiliary focal points for variety) or pathways (that accentuate the pool as the main focal point).

Some of our clients have a theme for their landscapes, such as a classic landscape design or Mediterranean landscape design, which we take it into consideration when planning the pool. As an example: for the contour of a luxury swimming pool within a classic landscape design, we might suggest an oval or rectangle—in other words, traditional geometric shapes. It acts as a frame for the water and becomes a classic design element itself.

For another idea that is both beautiful and efficient, consider combining the pool with a pool water fountain. It heightens your visual and auditory pleasure of the pool while, at the same time, eliminating some maintenance redundancies of two separate bodies of water.

Swimming Pool Builders

Swimming pool builders are the specialists you call upon for the actual building of the pool’s structure. Their work begins with the groundwork—digging the hole into the desired shape and installing the rebar that becomes the supporting foundation of the pool. The next steps require applying the gunite to the shell and plastering it.

For more than 20 years, Exterior Worlds has served as general contractor and project designer for swimming pool construction. Our expertise includes pools for existing homes, new home construction and pool remodeling. We provide the essential, and often money-saving, service of scheduling the various contractors, such as the swimming pool builder, the mason workers and electricians, so that the project is completed on time. This oversight also ensures that the work flow is logical to avoid having to tear out completed work and start over because one step was out of sequence.

An additional benefit of using our project design services is that we take your dreams and desires for your pool and integrate them into your overall garden design. For instance, you may want to situate the pool so that your summer kitchen opens onto it. Or perhaps your patio design has an outdoor fire place that creates a secondary focal point. We work hard to make sure that all the zones of your landscape design are in proper relationship with each other.

Before you get to the point of needing a swimming pool builder, we will help you go through the decisions of the pre-construction phase, which includes these considerations:

• Material choices. Pool decking, usually some kind of masonry or stone, surrounds the immediate area around a luxury swimming pool. For pool decking, the choice of materials varies depending on personal preferences, preferred budgets and design considerations. We recommend surfaces like stone, brick and concrete as beautiful and durable options because these non-slippery products are good for wet areas. We also encourage our clients to coordinate their selection with any existing materials, as in a mature landscape and on the exterior of their home.
• The extras. Landscape lighting creates additional pleasure—few elements in a landscape have quite the visual power created by the interplay of water, light and shadow. Thus, good landscape lighting allows you to enjoy the pool at night even when you’re not in it. It also makes the pool safer for nighttime swimming. Speaking of safety, we also discuss with our clients the option of a pool fence. An ornamental iron fence around the pool is often a sensible—and attractive—provision.
• Pool options. There are scores of add-ons you can put onto your pool to increase your overall enjoyment of it. For example, spas, caves, natural falls, a pool water fountain, slides, diving boards and vanishing edges. We help our clients think through how they intend to use the pool and what features would be practical, yet enhance their pleasure.

Custom swimming pools turn a backyard into a perfect entertainment area, whether your lifestyle involves business entertainment or creating a fun center for children and teens. Let Exterior Worlds find the right swimming pool builder for you.

Exterior Worlds has been providing landscape services, including project management for swimming pools construction and remodeling, to upscale neighborhoods in the Houston area since 1987. Call 713-827-2255 for a consultation.

Pool Landscape Design

Pool landscape design creates a focal point for the backyard.
As important as trees and garden design are to a property, backyard landscapes need more than just greenery to function as effective outdoor living environments. Houston residents who rely upon their backyards for home entertainment and special events need a focal point for activity that offers an equal amount of aesthetics as well as functionality.

A well-constructed swimming pool creates just such a hub for activities and recreation. It represents a special environment connected to all surrounding environments. Regardless of whether or not guests every get in the pool, they will invariably be drawn to the patio, lounge furnishings, and outdoor rooms constructed around its perimeter.

Pool landscape design unites home architecture with surrounding landscape.
Many pool contractors recommend a shape, size, and style of swimming pool that based on the belief that the pool can function as its own independent reality within the landscape. There is kernel of truth in this perspective. Certainly the pool is quite possibly one of the most unique things you will ever find in a back yard. However, the viewpoint that the pool is so unique that it exists separate and apart from its surroundings invariably proves limiting and unworkable from a global aesthetic perspective. Because of its prominence, the pool’s appearance has a powerful subliminal effect on the overall appearance of the surrounding property. If the pool is too large, or if its shape directly clashes with the architecture of the home, it causes a tangible sense of emotional discomfort simply because its appearance does not harmoniously blend with the vegetations, structures, and house that it ideally should be working to compliment.

Pool landscape design differs from pool design in that it deliberately bases the size, shape, and geometry of the pool on the architecture of the house and the surrounding landscape theme.
The home itself is the most preeminent structure on any landscape. It represents the personality and lifestyle of its occupants, and, like it or not, establishes the tone of the landscaping theme in general.

While this may seem a needless statement of the obvious, reflect if you will, for a moment, on all the pictures you have seen over the years that show a swimming pool whose size, shape, and geometry clash with the aesthetic of the home in a similar fashion. Invariably, when a new homeowner buys the property (if they buy it), they immediately notice the angst such a scene generates and look for an expert in pool landscape design who can do something about it.

Our pool landscape design team bases the size and geometry of the pool on both home architecture and surrounding landscape elements.
By this we do not mean that the size of the pool has to mathematically correspond to home square footage. What we do mean is that the shape and style of the pool have to be carefully designed in the landscape master plan so that the pool design compliments the form and proportions of the home.

The geometric shape of the pool does not have to exactly correspond to that of the house either, but it should in some manner or the other compliment it, at least in an indirect manner, without any sense of clash or discord. Custom patios and special copings will then be added at the end of almost every project because these structures are essential design and hardscape elements that function to aesthetically harmonize the pool with surrounding organic and structural forms.

Houston Swimming Pool

What can Exterior Worlds tell us about the advantages of a luxury swimming pool?
A luxury swimming pool completes the design of your home because it is a natural extension of your indoor living space. For an upscale home, it is a necessity. When it comes time to sell your home, it is an expected amenity and also distinguishes your property from others.

Additionally, luxury swimming pools are great for entertaining whether your party is for business associates or for the grandchildren and their friends. Pools provide healthful exercise and, in this part of the world, they supply an enjoyable place to cool off during our intense summer months.

A source of lifelong enjoyment, a luxury swimming pool creates a backyard sanctuary or family center and is for those people who want to maximize their leisure time. You will want to work with a landscape architect or landscape designer to ensure that your other exterior spaces, such as an outdoor room, outdoor kitchen or garden structures, integrate well with the swimming pool design.

What design questions do I begin with?
Here are some of the issues you’ll want to discuss before taking the plunge:

• How will you use the pool? Will it be a play pool for children or are you planning to swim laps? For daily use or for entertaining?
• Do you want it heated?
• Do you want add-ons such as diving boards and slides, underwater benches, a sun shelf, a spa, waterfalls and negative edges?
• Where will you store your swimming pool equipment?
• What about a salt system? There are pros and cons to this popular choice. We tell our Exterior World clients to be aware of the surrounding material choices if they select a salt system since salt has a corrosive effect and can negatively impact soft decking materials.
• What about safety? One suggestion we make is with the use of fences. We like to hide pool fences and gates by weaving them among shrubbery. This method makes the pool area safe, up to code and aesthetically pleasing.

What materials are people using these days for pools?
Quality materials include:

• Your first choice is plaster which usually means marcite, Georgia or Canadian marble that has been crushed to a fine powder. It hardens like concrete and seals the pool’s interior. You can upgrade your look with quartz finishes—Diamond Brite™ and 3M™ Colorquartz, to name two—that come in a wide range of colors and textures. Or a different upgrade is exposed aggregate, a tumbled rock that is slightly larger than quartz. Pebble Tec® and River Rok are well-known brands.
• For the color of your plaster, we suggest a neutral palette that provides a timeless look. If you want something more daring, you can choose from a long list of colors, including dramatic black or green.
• The area that immediately surrounds the pool is called coping. Care should be taken to make it non-slippery, so good choices are tile, stone and brick. Your coping material should work well with the colors of your home’s exterior.

Pool and Landscape

A Houston family hired Exterior Worlds as design consultants on a project that involved the installation of a new pool and the construction of an arbor, and outdoor kitchen, and a new landscape drainage and irrigation system. Each of these individual elements was built by contract professionals who came in on this project as partner companies. Each contributor invoiced their part of the project separately, but based on the homeowner’s request, followed the essential elements of our landscape and pool master plan.

The original swimming pool had been built considerably lower than the surrounding landscape and had a step leading down from the patio into the water. Apparently it had been installed to contribute a sense of elegance to the original design. In reality all the steps did was divide functional space in much the same way that a wall does.

We removed these steps and built a new pool at the same elevation as the surrounding landscape. This opened up all four sides of the structure for more patio area, seating, and decorations. We built the coping out of limestone and installed glass tile along the side, under the coping. We built a travertine stone patio around the pool out of travertine blocks. The travertine blocks were cut with Groutless joints that fit together with no space between them. On one side of the pool we built a heated spa with a spillway, underwater lights, and controls that allow the homeowner to regulate water flow, temperature, and lighting levels.

Between the spa and one corner of the pool, we built an arbor out of rough cut pine. We chose rough cut pine because it is much less expensive than cedar, and it lasts 3-5 times as long. We wanted the arbor to be one of the most comfortable and prominent gathering spots on the entire landscape, so we built it with a number of amenities and decorative features that made it more than just a place to sit and talk.

Speakers connected to an indoor audio system were concealed within the structure so that sound seemed to be coming from within the wood. Special lighting and lighting controls were also installed to allow for adjustable visibility and mood-altering effect. A custom stone floor was then built irregular, rectangular stones laid over a slab and fitted together by jointed edges that required no mortar.

To create a feeling of truly comfortable living space beyond the immediate vicinity of the pool, we planted a row of Japanese yew trees behind the arbor and up lit with special landscape lights. This created something of an emerald-colored backdrop that set off the warm tone of the furniture and added an extra layer of illumination to that of the pool and the arbor.

Houston Pool Design

We are thinking about putting in a swimming pool. What can Exterior Worlds tell us about Houston pool design services?
Exterior Worlds excels at working with a discriminating clientele and all their landscape design needs, including the design and build-out of a pool. A major plus in hiring Exterior Worlds to handle your Houston pool design is the overall vision and concern we would have for your project. In general, pool contractors aren’t concerned with the whole landscape design project and make errors, such as setting the pool elevations too low or too high, and disregarding the home’s architecture.

These days, a luxury swimming pool is a necessity for any upscale home in our area. When it comes time to sell your home, it is an expected amenity. Additionally, the pool and all its components complete the design of the home and extend your living space. Swimming pools are great for entertaining, whether you do casual get-togethers, family gatherings or business entertainment. And best of all—as anyone who has endured our long hot summer season will agree—pools provide a natural place to cool off.

As for the design element, you can choose from any number of interesting shapes, materials and plantings. Whatever suits your tastes and needs—from a dramatic play of water to the simple fun of playing in the water. A water-park for children, a cocktail pool, an Olympic-sized pool or a water work of art are just a few examples of pool designs.

What materials are people using in building a swimming pool?
It is an exciting time in pool design, which has seen an explosion of quality finishes. With plaster, the standard is still marcite, which hardens like concrete and seals the interior of the pool. You can find upgrades in a full spectrum of colors and textures. Popular brand names for a Houston pool design include Diamond Brite™ and 3M™ Colorquartz™.

You can also have fun with the color of the plaster. Manufacturers now offer an array of colors for pool finishes—blues, greens, even black. Of course, a neutral palette is always appropriate and provides a timelessness that avoids a dated look when fashion changes.

Coping is the area that immediately surrounds the pool and blends the pool area into your total landscape architecture. Our clients like tile, stone and brick because of their non-slippery surfaces, something that is essential in a wet area.

By the way, if you have an existing pool that needs updating, you can use these materials for that purpose, too.

What are some of the other choices we’ll be facing when thinking about our Houston pool design?
Just to name a couple:
You might want to look into the salt systems, which have both pros and cons. The main thing to be aware of concerns the surrounding material choices since salt has a corrosive effect and it can cause soft decking materials to deteriorate.

Pools are an excellent place to work in a spa or an outdoor water fountain. You’ll not only enjoy them, but get the benefit of eliminating the maintenance of an additional body of water.

Landscape Remodeling Contractors

Many people invest in a home with the intention of remodeling it. They want to personalize the architecture and the landscape of their new residence so that it becomes a reflection of their sensibilities, values, and individual lifestyles. There are many remodeling contractors in Houston that offer a variety of services to this end. A large percentage of them focus on redesigning interior space and expanding the square footage of the house. A few, however, like Exterior Worlds, offer landscape remodeling services that involve redeveloping landforms, gardens, and outdoor structures in front and back yards. These contractors focus on creating an outdoor living environment that compliments home architecture, extends amenities into the exterior, and completes the process of personalizing the entirety of the property.

When we are called to a home to discuss a remodeling project, we invariably find that almost all of them have an existing swimming pool in the back yard. Most of these pools were installed by contractors who specialize exclusively in pool design and installation. Our experience has taught us that virtually all Houston pool companies have impressive skills and expertise when it comes to making a pool both aesthetic and functional as a self-contained unit. At the same time, however, we find that swimming pool companies, being specialists in a specific industry, have little awareness of architecture or landscaping forms external to the pool itself. We have found that it serves the homeowner much better if a landscape architect will first design—or in this case, remodel—the swimming pool to scale and geometric appropriate to the proportions and appearance of both the house and surrounding yard. Then, the pool contractor, working with the specifications handed down by the landscape architect, can apply his expertise toward developing a win-win outcome for all parties involved.

Once the pool has been redesigned and remodeled, contractors are then brought in by Exterior Worlds to redesign the surrounding patio and make improvements to hardscape structures throughout the yard. Very few custom swimming pools are installed without some sort of custom or luxury patio. This is because people need seating and lounging areas around the pool so that guests and visitors can comfortably gather and mingle around the water. While this practical function is very important, care must be taken as well to ensure that the aesthetics of the landscape are preserved in the process of remodeling a patio. Hardscape contractors will be commissioned to lay down special forms of concrete, flagstone, or limestone on various properties, depending on what works best for the overall concept of landscape design and entertainment requirements of the homeowner.

Remodeling the patio helps us also helps contractors establish a definitive theme for hardscape redesign and improvement throughout the premises. Larger homes often have two or more patios in addition to the one surrounding the pool. These custom patios can be built to any scale and designed for everything from quiet contemplation by a fountain to hosting large gatherings of people congregated around key points of interests throughout the yard. Homes on large lots in exclusive Houston neighborhoods like certain parts of Memorial, or River Oaks, may want to increase the feeling of privacy by commission our team of contractors to build custom walls around portions of their yards, patios, and even motor courts in the front. These walls can be as ornamental and decorative as they are functional and practical, and can be integrated into custom garden design and landscape lighting themes to create space within space that makes a yard look much larger than it is, and that contributes a sense of mystique to the property when visited at night.

Landscape remodeling contractors also work very hard to improve and redesign existing outdoor structures located in front and back yards. Some of these structures, such as custom fountains and wall fountains, are purely decorative in nature. Others serve specific purposes. Arbors provide seating areas under trees. Outdoor kitchens bring the convenience of the custom kitchen into the exterior space of the home. Outdoor fireplaces add warmth in the winter and decorative lighting in the summer. Some of these structures may already exist on a property but may not have been built to proper scale by previous contractors. It is our mission to ensure that the architectural and geometric forms of these structures always remain in balance with the aesthetic of the home itself and other structures and forms located throughout the surrounding landscape.

Outdoor swimming pool design

Outdoor swimming pool design is a very exciting aspect of landscape architecture. When guests visit, they invariably want to go to the pool. Regardless of whether or not they plan to swim, tan, or gather around the patio for conversation, it is essential to get the pool installed correctly. As an almost immediate extension of the human living experience, swimming pool design must, above everything else, respect home. Its size must be proportional to the house, and its surrounding patio must likewise compliment the surrounding yard. In order to get so many things right, it is best to have professional landscape architects conceptualize, initiate, and develop outdoor swimming pool design from start to finish.

This is because the professional landscape architect has higher criteria for outdoor swimming pool design than the ones pool companies typically specify. There are a number of details that can only be addressed by a landscaping company that visualizes the entire property as a unified whole. Considerations such as the elevation of the water and the depth of each can only be made accurately estimated by the professionals who sculpt the terrain itself. Pool contractors have not been trained in landscaping will often lower these specifications to save clients money on outdoor swimming pool design. This does not pay off in the long run. While costs are saved in the short term, aesthetics are compromised in the long term.

Landscape architects would rather people they ultimately want rather than take financial shortcuts that will ultimately lead to a dissatisfied homeowner. We work with many people with a sense of outdoor luxury, for example, who want to have their swimming pool designed with more than one water feature. Such things as water jets, fountains, artificial waterfalls, and even heated spas can all be incorporated into the design specifications of a swimming pool. This actually saves the client money because installing all these water features as separate elements requires additional materials and contract labor than it does to incorporate them into the pool.

When a professional landscape design services firm oversees and manages outdoor swimming pool design, everybody wins that the end of the day. The landscaper will draw up detailed plans for the pool and show the homeowner exactly how it will function in the new landscape. The pool company will then apply its expertise to building a structure that functions reliably and safely without mishap or mechanical failure. When the finished product is complete, the new custom swimming pool, lit brilliantly with underwater lighting, will look superb in relation to trees, gardens, statuary, arbors, and outdoor rooms.