Pools by Design

What happens on plaster day? It's the interior finish going on, and it's the day that decides how your pool looks in fifteen years, not just this week.

Crew's on site before sunrise. The interior finish goes on in one continuous application, no stopping. By afternoon a gray concrete shell has turned into a pool. Then the hose goes in and doesn't come out for about 24 hours, because a Pebble finish has to fill continuously to cure right.

Take this one for example: mid-blue Pebble, travertine coping, wide step entry. From here it's 28 days of careful water chemistry and it's fully cured.

Nobody posts this part. It's also the part that decides whether your pool still looks good after fifteen years of desert sun and hard water. Pools by Design builds custom gunite pools in Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, Catalina Foothills, Dove Mountain, and Sahuarita. Free consultation at the link in bio.

What's a sheer descent? It's that clean, wide ribbon of water falling from a raised wall into the pool. You've seen one. You probably didn't know it had a name.

Its softer cousin is a rain curtain, a fine sheet falling from a beam or pergola edge.

Both do two jobs. They add the sound of moving water, which does more for a backyard than almost anything you can look at. And they bring a modern architectural line a rock waterfall can't.

Light one from behind at night and it's the whole show. We put a 12-foot sheer descent on a Marana build this year and it's still the first thing anybody comments on. Pools by Design builds custom gunite pools in Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, Catalina Foothills, Dove Mountain, and Sahuarita. Free consultation at the link in bio.

Fill in the blank: the best thing about a Tucson backyard in September is ______________.

We'll start. Ours is that you can finally enjoy time in the backyard without melting!

When's the best time to build a pool in Southern Arizona? Fall. Here's why, and none of it's a sales pitch.

1) Crews work faster and finish better at 85 degrees than at 108.
2) Monsoon season ends September 30, so weather delays drop way off.
3) A pool that breaks ground in fall is finished and cured long before everyone calls in March wanting one by Memorial Day.

Spring buyers wait in line. Fall buyers swim.

We've got fall starts going in right now across Oro Valley, Marana, and the Foothills. Free consultation at the link in bio. Pools by Design serves Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, Catalina Foothills, Dove Mountain, Sahuarita, Vail, and Sierra Vista.

Easiest screen-free hour in a Tucson house? The one that happens in the water. Nobody has to be talked into it.

No negotiating. No timer. No argument about five more minutes. Kids get in, phones stay on the table, and somewhere in there everybody talks more than they have all week.

Our season's got two good months left in it. Use them.

Free consultation at the link in bio. Pools by Design builds custom gunite pools in Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, Catalina Foothills, Dove Mountain, and Sahuarita.

Would you rather: a spa that spills into the pool, or a fire feature you can actually sit around?

The good news? You don't have to choose.

Mid-September in Tucson, the monsoon humidity finally breaking, light going gold around 6:30, water still warm enough that nobody hesitates on the way in. Fire bowls lit.
Most of the country gets about six evenings like this a year. We get dozens.

Get a free consultation at http://poolsbydesignaz.com?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_medium=facebook&utm_content=d6299cf7-8272-4e4d-8153-62c8d4ebc3f1. Pools by Design serves Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, Catalina Foothills, Dove Mountain, Sahuarita, Vail, and Sierra Vista.

Saltwater or chlorine? Trick question. A saltwater pool IS a chlorine pool. The salt cell just makes the chlorine on site instead of you hauling jugs home.

What you'll notice: softer water, no chemical smell, no bleached swimsuits, way fewer pool store runs.

What you should know going in: the cell's a consumable and is rated to last 5 years, and our hard water means you're still checking chemistry.

For a pool that runs six to eight months a year, most of our clients think that trade is obvious. Pools by Design builds custom gunite pools in Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, Catalina Foothills, Dove Mountain, and Sahuarita. Free consultation at the link in bio.

How is a gunite pool built? Here's the order:

1) Layout and excavation. Three weeks ago this was flat decomposed granite behind a house.
2) Steel, tied to the engineered plan for that specific lot.
3) Plumbing and electrical rough-in.
4) Gunite shot over the whole shell, then cured.
5) Tile, decking, and interior finish. That's what's next here.

Every one of those stages gets inspected before the next one starts. None of them get rushed to hit a date.

Fall's when this work goes best in Southern Arizona. Crews aren't fighting 108 degrees, the monsoon delays are behind us, and you can see it in the finish quality. Start a pool in September and you've got a finished backyard well before the spring rush shows up. Pools by Design builds custom gunite pools in Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, Catalina Foothills, Dove Mountain, and Sahuarita. Free consultation at the link in bio.

Is LED pool lighting worth it? It's the highest-impact upgrade per dollar we install, and September's when you find out why.

The sun's setting almost an hour earlier now than it was in June. Your pool's spending a lot more of its life in the dark, and lighting decides whether that's a problem or the best part of the day.

Color-changing LEDs go in the pool and the spa, and we'll wash light up the face of a rock waterfall so the whole backyard becomes the view from your kitchen window. Warm and low for a quiet Tuesday. Full color when people are over.

This east side build we wrapped this summer runs its whole lighting scheme from a phone. Pools by Design builds custom gunite pools in Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, Catalina Foothills, Dove Mountain, and Sahuarita. Free consultation at the link in bio.