Why the house, pool and garden are planned together
The house, pool and garden should be designed as one project, because they share levels, drainage, services, machine access and the sequence of work. Add the pool and garden after the house and you almost always end up digging up something finished: the terrace, the lawn, the paths and sometimes the facade.
From 2022 to 2024 we built a detached house with a pool from start to finish, with solar panels on the roof. The main lesson is simple: the pool is not a separate purchase, it is part of the house. It affects the ground-floor layout, where the plant room goes, the electrical supply and where water drains off the plot.
Levels and routes: from the kitchen to the water
Start with how you will live outdoors. The route from the kitchen to the terrace for meals, the path from the pool to a shower and WC without dripping through the living room, loungers in the shade, storage for cushions and pool toys. Draw all of it on the site plan along with the house.
Then the levels. The ground-floor level, terrace, pool coping and lawn must be coordinated. If terrace and pool sit level with the living room, the space reads as one, but thresholds and falls need working out so water stays outside. On a sloping plot, common in the Garraf and on the hills above Castelldefels, levels decide where retaining walls are needed, and they are a visible part of the budget.
Paving around the pool is chosen together with the living room and terrace floors. It must be slip-resistant when wet, not get scorching in summer sun the way dark stone does, and stand up to chlorinated or salt water. Using the same material inside and out, in different finishes, almost erases the line between house and garden, but the junction at the sliding doors and the drainage channel in front of them are detailed separately.
Services: plant room, pipework and power
A pool has its own equipment: pump, filter, water treatment and sometimes heating. It goes in a plant room or a pit near the pool. Too far away means long pipe runs and losses; too close to the bedrooms means noise. Its location belongs in the house design alongside the boiler, heat pump and solar inverter, so that runs are short and everything is accessible for maintenance.
Pool pipework, site drainage, irrigation and cables for outdoor lighting and terrace sockets all run underground. Their routes, and sleeves under the paths, go in before any paving or lawn. The house's electrical supply is sized to include the pool pump, pool heating and, if planned, an electric car charger.
A pool usually needs its own permit from the Ajuntament, even when the house has been approved. The type and timescales are confirmed with the Ajuntament or a gestor; it is best to include the pool in the overall project from the start.
Sequence of works and machine access
It pays to dig the pool while the earthmoving plant for the house is still on site. Leave the pool for later and the excavator and concrete mixer have to reach it across a finished plot, and sometimes that access no longer exists because of the boundary wall, terraces or planting.
The garden comes last, but its groundwork is laid with the house: falls, drainage, irrigation routes and positions for large trees. Roots from a big tree near the pool or pipework are a common problem a few years on, so species and distance are settled in the design.
What to fix in the contract
Put in writing which outdoor works are in the contract and which are deferred. For the deferred stages, define what has to be prepared now: sleeves under paths, power and water outlets, fixings for a pergola or outdoor kitchen, drainage for a future lawn. That way the next stage does not mean breaking up what is already built.
We build houses in Barcelona, the Garraf and the Maresme with one person in charge of the site, in Spanish or Russian, and stage payments under the contract. Our own crew does the main build; the pool, landscaping and other specialist work are carried out by trusted subcontractors under our coordination. Send us the site plan and we will reply within an hour.