How Long Does It Take to Build a Pool in Alabama?

It's the first question most people ask, and it deserves a straight answer. Mr. Pool describes a typical build as taking a few weeks to a few months, and your exact timeline comes at your consultation, once someone has seen your yard and knows what you want. That range is wide on purpose. Here is what moves a project toward one end or the other, and what to expect along the way.

What happens during a build

Pool builds follow a rough order, though the details vary from yard to yard. First comes the plan: size, shape, depth, and the features you want. Then the ground work, which means excavating and shaping the hole. After that come the walls and concrete footing, the plumbing and equipment lines, the concrete bottom, and the liner. The deck, coping, ladder, and any fence or cover follow. The last stage is filling the pool, starting up the equipment, and balancing the water.

Mr. Pool builds with its own construction crews. A standard package covers the walls and footing, the concrete bottom, the liner, cantilever coping, a ladder and handrail, an energy-efficient pump, skimmers and drains, a concrete deck, maintenance tools, and training.

What stretches the schedule

Size and shape come first. Mr. Pool's standard sizes run from 12 x 24 up to 20 x 40, and a bigger pool simply means more work. Shapes beyond a plain rectangle, like L-shapes, T-shapes, and curved designs, add steps. Then there are the extras: a hot tub, a custom waterfall, a fireplace, an outdoor kitchen, a custom bench with jets, a spray deck with paver boards. Each one is worth having, and each one adds time.

Your property matters as well. Access for equipment, the slope of the yard, and what the soil is like all affect the excavation. Alabama clay holds water, so a stretch of rainy weather can pause ground work and concrete work until things dry out. Weather is the part nobody controls, so any honest builder will tell you the dates are a plan and not a promise.

How to plan around it

If you want to swim by a certain date, such as Memorial Day or a graduation party, start the conversation early. Starting in late fall or winter gives you room to choose features and settle on a schedule without feeling rushed, and it gives you a realistic picture of what is possible by summer.

Make your decisions early, too. Delays on a build often come from open choices: liner color, features, deck details. Come to the consultation with a rough idea of what you want, and ask how each option affects the timeline. Bring a few photos of pools you like, a sense of how you will use the space, and any questions about the yard itself, such as where the pool can sit and how the crew will get equipment in. If you plan to finance the pool, raise that early as well. Mr. Pool works with Lyon Financial, a lender that focuses on pools, and sorting out financing before the work starts keeps one more question from slowing things down.

Questions to ask at your consultation

The consultation is where your real timeline gets built, so go in with questions. A few worth asking:

• Which features on my wish list add the most time to the build?
• What can I decide ahead of time to keep the schedule moving?
• How does rain affect the schedule on my lot?
• When would a pool started now be ready to swim in?
• Who is my main contact while the crew is on site?

Ask them all. A good builder would rather talk through the schedule now than explain a delay later, and the answers help you decide how much to put into the first phase and what could wait for a later season.

What you get when it's done

A finished Mr. Pool build comes with a one-year warranty on construction. New owners also go through Mr. Pool school, the hands-on training that shows you how to run the pool and look after it, and new-build owners get 10 percent off chemicals. The pool is handed over with balanced water, so you are not starting from scratch on day one.

The most useful thing you can do is get your own timeline instead of an average. Stop by the showroom at 875 N Eastern Blvd in Montgomery or call (334) 271-7665 for a free quote on a new pool, and ask about the schedule for your yard.