The hidden costs of a pool project are not really hidden. They are missed.

They get missed because there is a gap between what a homeowner knows, buying maybe one pool in their lifetime, and what a builder knows after a thousand of them. Nobody is hiding anything. The questions just never come up, and then they come up at the worst possible moment.

Becky Martinez is the Director of Intelligence at River Pools Virginia. She started there in high school running water tests, and 20 years later she has had her hands on the planning, permitting, and logistics of more than 1,000 inground pool installations. She has watched these surprises land on homeowners more times than she can count, which makes her a very good guide for this one.

In this conversation, Becky walks through seven categories of cost that homeowners most often miss:

• Site restoration after the crews leave, and where your builder's scope of work actually stops
• The plat, and why the document that defines your property lines and setbacks is the most important piece of paper in the project
• Excavated dirt, which comes out of the ground at nearly twice the volume of the pool itself and has to go somewhere
• Drainage, patio, and landscaping, which together can account for half the total project budget
• Public and private utilities, including what a locate service will and will not mark
• Safety barriers, where fencing, covers, and door alarms are code requirements rather than upgrades
• Retaining walls and the permit stack, which on a complicated site can run to six permits or more

Along the way, Becky tells the story of a homeowner whose county did not require a plat, who assumed the fence line was the property line, and who ended up with a good portion of a finished patio on the neighbor's land. That one worked out. It very easily might not have.

None of this is a reason to skip the pool. It is a reason to ask better questions before you sign, and to get every answer line itemed in the contract. Becky's closing advice is worth the listen on its own: do not fixate on the pool, and do not put the project off a year to avoid the work of planning it, because the planning is the part that saves you money.

Start planning your backyard at https://www.riverpoolsandspas.com, where you'll find self-guided decision tools, a cost estimator, and hundreds of articles built to help you dot the i's and cross the t's before you break ground.

The Pool Guides Podcast – by River Pools
Catch the Wave.

Everybody asks what a pool costs to build. Almost nobody asks what it costs to own. This episode fixes that.

Cristian sits down with Tyler Hermon of Pools of Fun in Indianapolis, who has spent 18 years in the industry assisting with pool sales, five retail stores, and a full maintenance division. That combination is rare, and it is exactly why he can walk you through the real ten-year picture on fiberglass, vinyl liner, and concrete pools without flinching.

You will hear where the money actually goes: the liner replacement that tends to show up around year ten, the concrete resurface that costs roughly double, and the pumps, heaters, and salt cells you will swap whether you planned for them or not. Tyler is honest about insurance too, including why a diving board or slide can quietly cost you coverage, and how an automatic cover pays you back on chemicals, heat, and peace of mind.

Then comes the part you cannot put on a spreadsheet. In roughly a thousand pools sold, Tyler cannot name one family who said it was not worth it. As he puts it, the maintenance people fear and the maintenance they actually deal with are rarely the same thing.

A few things that come up along the way:
• Which pool type is cheapest to own over a decade, and why
• The difference between paying up front and paying later
• What really drives insurance and property tax changes on a pool
• When doing your own maintenance saves money, and when it just costs you a Saturday
• Why "we will wait until the kids are older" is the regret Tyler hears most

If you are weighing a pool and trying to picture life ten years in, this is the conversation to have first.

Planning your own backyard? Head to riverpoolsandspas.com for a pricing estimator, decision-making tools, and hundreds of articles built to help you decide with confidence.

Most homeowners spend more time around their pool than in it. Which means the patio, the deck, and the gathering spaces around the water carry most of the experience. So how do you plan that space well?

In this episode, Cristian sits down with Trey Watford, lead designer at River Pools Virginia, for a practical, design-driven conversation about patio square footage. They cover the realistic averages, the dimensions behind every common gathering space, and the side-by-side comparisons that show why allocation matters more than total size. If you're planning a fiberglass pool and trying to figure out how much patio you actually need, this one's for you.

In this episode

• Why patios get underestimated and how to avoid the most common regrets • The honest average patio size, and when your needs land outside it • How much room each zone really needs (conversation, dining, fire pit, hot tub, grill, outdoor kitchen) • Minimum walkway widths around the pool for safety and comfort • Practical ways to visualize your space at home before signing anything • How to phase your patio over time without ending up with a patchwork look

About Trey Watford

Trey Watford is the lead designer at River Pools Virginia. He brings a Virginia Tech background in landscape architecture and years of hands-on experience designing high-end outdoor living spaces around fiberglass pools.

Watch the video version on YouTube to see Trey's design walkthroughs on screen. Search The Pool Guides Podcast.

Start planning your pool at riverpoolsandspas.com.

Catch the wave.