Pool Builder
in Encino, CA

Encino has some of the largest residential lots in the San Fernando Valley, and that single fact changes what a pool project is. On most Valley streets the question is whether a pool fits. In Encino the question is what the yard should become — because there is usually room for a full-size pool, a raised spa, a broad stone deck, a shaded loggia, and an outdoor kitchen without any of it feeling crowded. The scope is bigger, so the coordination has to be better.

That is the case for hiring a general contractor rather than a pool-only crew. A pool subcontractor builds a shell and leaves; the deck, the retaining, the gas line, the lighting, and the landscape become your problem to manage across four companies. We design and build the entire backyard on one permit set, one schedule, and one written fixed-price contract, so the elevations actually resolve where the coping, the deck, and the planter walls meet.

The estate properties south of Ventura Boulevard, where Encino rises toward the hills, add a second layer. Those sites need soils and geotechnical work, shells engineered for slope setback, and retaining or caissons to hold a level pad. And nearly every established Encino property — flat or sloped — comes with mature landscaping and large trees that dictate where a pool can physically go and how equipment reaches the yard. Encino is City of Los Angeles, so all of it is permitted through LADBS, and our office on Burbank Boulevard in Valley Glen is a short drive east.

Big lots invite bigger programs. Encino's residential parcels are among the largest in the Valley, and the deep rear yards on the estate streets leave room for a full resort layout rather than a pool squeezed against a fence. That is an opportunity and a discipline: more square footage means more hardscape, more drainage to solve, and more elevations that have to resolve against each other. We plan the whole yard on one drawing set instead of building a pool and improvising the rest.

Slope changes the engineering. South of Ventura Boulevard the ground rises toward the hills, and those estate properties behave differently. Expect a soils and geotechnical report, a shell designed for its setback from the descending slope, and often retaining walls, caissons, or grade beams to create a level pad and hold it. Elevated decks and vanishing edges are achievable there — they are simply structural work, and they get engineered and priced as structural work.

Mature landscaping is a constraint, not a detail. Established Encino properties carry decades of canopy, and large or protected trees frequently decide both where a pool can go and how equipment reaches the yard. Root zones, low limbs, long driveways, and gated motor courts all shape the route for excavators, spoils trucks, and the gunite line. We survey access and set tree protection before mobilizing, because on these lots it is the honest variable in the schedule and the price.

Permits run through LADBS. Encino is City of Los Angeles, so plan check and inspections go through the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, with Valley submittals handled at the department's Valley development services center. Setbacks from property lines, structures, and easements are verified at plan review, as is clearance from overhead lines — and on sloped sites, grading and haul routes come under review as well.