How 3D pool design works before we dig

It is a to scale model of your backyard with the pool placed in it. The house is there with its doors and windows. So are the fence line, the slope of the lawn, the big trees, the shed and anything else that matters. The pool sits in the model at its real size, with the deck, steps, equipment pad and any spa, water features or patio you are thinking about.

We do one for every pool before anything is dug. That is partly for you, because most people cannot picture a 14x30 rectangle on a lawn, and partly for us. A model shows the problems that a sketch on a napkin hides: a gate that swings into the deck, a filter pad right under the bedroom window, a corner that ends up 2 feet higher than the other.

The model is only as good as the measurements behind it. On the first visit we walk the yard and record:

• The back of the house, including doors that open toward the pool and the windows you look out of most.
• Grade. How much the yard falls from the house to the back line, and where water runs after a storm.
• Trees, with their canopy spread, and anything planted along the property line.
• Septic tanks, leach fields and wells on lots that have them.
• Overhead wires and where the service drop reaches the house.
• The route equipment would take from the street to the dig.
• Existing patios, fences, sheds and play sets.

Property lines come from your deed, plat or survey, not from where the old fence happens to be. If lot lines are tight, a survey is money well spent, because setbacks are measured from the real line.

For fiberglass, we place the actual Liberty Composites shell you are considering, not a generic shape. Liberty lists its dimensions to the widest point of the outside edge and notes that lengths, widths and depths can vary up to 3%. That outside edge is what has to fit in the hole, so it is what we draw. Our packages add a 4 ft concrete wrap deck, which the model shows as well.

Seeing the shells side by side is where a lot of decisions get made. A Hero 12x26 and an Anthem 14x30 look similar on a brochure page. In a model of your yard, the difference in lawn left over is obvious, and so is the price difference between the $74,900 and $90,200 packages. Some people size up once they see it. Others find the smaller shell leaves room for the patio they actually want.

For ICF concrete and Latham vinyl liner pools, the shape is custom, so the model is where we settle it. We can bend a wall around a tree we are protecting or square it off to line up with the house.

Most of what we catch falls into a handful of groups.

Code clearances. The electrical code keeps overhead service drop cables at least 22.5 feet above the water, with the rule reaching 10 feet out horizontally from the inside of the pool walls. A pool placed under the wire from the pole to the house is a common mistake on older lots, and moving the pool is far cheaper than moving the wire. Barriers matter too. CPSC guidelines call for a barrier at least 48 inches high with self closing, self latching gates, and many Ohio towns write similar rules into their code. The model shows where the fence runs and which way the gates swing.

Setbacks. Each town sets its own distances from lot lines, and they can change by zoning district. Stow, for example, requires a zoning permit for pools and notes that setbacks vary by district and by the type of structure. We check the rules for your address and draw them into the model as lines the pool and deck cannot cross.

Grade. On a sloped Northeast Ohio lot, the pool deck has to be level while the yard is not. The model shows how much the low side sits out of the ground, whether we need a step down or a retaining wall, and where the dirt from the dig could go.

Daily use. Can you see the whole pool from the kitchen? Does the path from the back door to the steps cross the deck or the lawn? Is the equipment pad close enough to keep plumbing runs short but far enough that you do not hear the pump from the patio table?

Sun is free heat, and our swim season is short, roughly Memorial Day to Labor Day. At Akron's latitude, the noon sun in late June climbs to about 72 degrees above the horizon and drops to about 55 degrees by early September, based on NOAA's solar calculator. In the evening it sits much lower, so a row of trees on the west side can shade the pool for hours before sunset.

We place the model on your real orientation, and you can look at where shadows fall in the morning and late afternoon. Owners who swim after work care most about afternoon sun. People who plan to heat the pool into fall care about all of it.

Once the pool fits, the fun part starts. Common choices we work through on screen:

• Shell size and shape, or the custom outline for ICF and vinyl.
• Where the steps and benches go, and whether you want a tanning ledge. Liberty's standard ledge sits 12 inches below the top of the pool, which is about 6 to 8 inches of water.
• A spa, spillover spa or water features such as sheer descents, bubblers and waterfalls.
• How much deck beyond the included 4 ft, and what surface: broom finish, stamped, exposed aggregate or pavers.
• Outdoor kitchen, pergola or fire pit, now or later.
• Automatic cover or safety cover, heater and where the equipment pad sits.

The equipment pad deserves its own look. Our packages include the electrical hook-up at the equipment, but the power run from your electrical panel to the pad is a separate item, and so is any extra decking, fencing or hauling off dig spoils. In the model you can see how far the pad sits from the panel and how long the plumbing runs are. A pad tucked beside the garage might mean a short wire run and a quiet patio. A pad at the far corner of the yard can mean long trenches through the lawn. Neither is wrong, and the model lets you weigh them with real distances.

If you plan to add an outdoor kitchen in two years, put it in the model now. Conduit and gas lines are easy to leave in place under a new deck and painful to add through a finished one.

Our lead designer, Mike, has spent more than 40 years designing and building pools and was featured on HGTV's "Pool Kings." Owner Todd Stump brings more than 13 years in high end construction, including custom pools and complex structural projects. Between them, they have seen most of the ways a backyard can surprise you, and the model is where that experience gets applied to your lot.

Randy W. put it simply in his review: "Great company to work with very helpful with the design process I would recommend this company!"

It is not a survey. If a setback is tight, the property line needs to be confirmed by a surveyor. It also cannot show what is underground until someone digs. We call OHIO811 before excavation, and we trace private lines to wells, sheds and septic systems ourselves, but rock or a pocket of wet clay can still show up in the hole. The model reduces surprises. It does not remove every one.

Color on a screen is also not color in water. Fiberglass finishes look different in bright July sun than they do on a monitor, so we will show you real samples before you pick.

The approved model becomes the plan for everything else. We use it for the permit drawings, since we handle permits, and for any HOA review you need. On dig day, the outline painted on your grass matches what you approved. If you want to change something, the time to do it is before that paint goes down.