Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Pools on the cool side
Some have $5,000 underwater speakers
Having a swimming pool in the backyard has been quite common for decades throughout the Las Vegas Valley. They usually came in a variety of off-the-rack flavors, from rectangular to square to oval to some freestyle curvy cutie, when homeowners told their pool builders to be a little creative. Then when the pool guys began adding spas — oh, yeah, that’s when you became the talk of the neighborhood.
Nowadays, those aquamarine cement ponds, as Jethro Bodine of the “The Beverly Hillbillies” used to call his, couldn’t hold water in comparison to what’s being built in Southern Nevada.
Take for example Waters Edge, a showcase home built by Sun West Custom Homes at MacDonald Highlands in Henderson. The swimming pool wraps around the front entrance of the two-story contemporary home, and you walk over it via a wooden-style bridge into the great room. The water continues to flow through this room and out to the backyard, where it opens up into a large infinityedge swimming pool haloed by a panoramic view of Las Vegas.
This backyard swimming pool, which is only a few steps outside the sliding glass doors of the adjacent master bedroom, then cascades down to the lower level of the home, creating the artistic feature of a water wall that helps cool the home when nearby glass doors are open to vent airflow across the flowing water. Thick glass windows have also been embedded in one wall in this lower level to allow viewing of swimmers in the deep end of the topside main pool.
And as an added feature, there’s a glass bathtub in the master bedroom perched over water flowing through the home that allows you to view the infinity edge swimming pool and Strip, while you slip into a relaxing soak.
“This has to be the coolest pool in the city,” said Daniel Coletti, president of Sun West Custom Homes. “The pool is all one body of water, so the pool guy only has to treat the water in one area. It also functions to cool the home, and the water creates a calming and soothing effect throughout the home.
Coletti said the Waters Edge pool is interactive with the home. The lower level with its water wall is able to cool the upper level of the house. Also, Coletti installed a water reclamation system that collects excess irrigation water and rain to augment the swimming pool system.
“I think water is a neat feature where you can make a custom home more interesting,” Coletti said, adding that he began five years ago designing swimming pools to run through custom homes. He said because the pool is one body of water, it’s no different than building a regular swimming pool.
Scott Burton, owner of Prestige Pools, said homeowners today are spending anywhere from $150,000 to $500,000 to have custom swimming pools installed. They want pools with infinity edges, glass walls so people can see swimmers and deck-level pools where the water is even with the edge of the swimming pool. They want clean, contemporary styling over backyard pools with fake Flintstone rock formations and rustic water slides, he explained.
“A pool is something more than to swim in. It’s a work of art,” Burton said. “Sunken barbecues and sunken bars are popular. When you add elements like this, it makes it more complicated and you have to make sure there is drainage or else these areas will get flooded when it rains.”
Burton said LED lights in pools are popular for different lighting effects, as are underwater sound systems so swimmers can listen to music as they swim.
With deck-level swimming pools, Burton said when someone enters the pool, water splashes out. He designed a deck-level pool where at the push of a button, the water level drops 4 inches. When swimming is finished, water that was stored in tanks is flowed back into the pool by
pushing a button again.
“I don’t know of anyone else who does this,” Burton said. “I designed the system to be simple and foolproof using gravity to drain the pool.”
Duane Forte, owner of Laguna Pool and Spa Landscaping, said nowadays it’s nothing for homeowners to spend more than $250,000 on their swimming pool. Instead of traditional cement covering inside pools, they want glass tiles that can cost anywhere from $30 to $60 per foot, pebble or travertine decks, infinity edges, fire features near poolside, and underwater sound speakers that can cost as much as $5,000 per set.
“We are seeing a lot of people staying home and wanting to enjoy their pool,” Forte said.
“The person who makes $80,000 a year doesn’t own several homes anymore. They are putting their money into their own home. … They want very straight-line pools. No one is big on caves or grottos anymore. … People are realizing I can stay home and create my own paradise in my own backyard.”
Homeowners, Forte added, want to be able to control functions on their swimming pools through their smartphones. They like being able to turn on their spa before they get home via their phone, as well as test the chemical levels of their pool, turn on fire features and change the LED lighting colors in the water.
Forte, who has been building swimming pools and doing landscaping for 25 years, said years ago 80 percent of pools built were under $100,000 and only 20 percent were over $100,000.
Today, he said, that trend has reversed itself as homeowners invest more time and money into their recreational swimming activities.
“Everyone wants what the big, more expensive homes look like,” Forte said. “The bigger, more expensive homes are definitely setting the trend. You can easily spend $250,000 for a large 20-footby-40-foot pool.”
Scott Gragson had Forte design and build his swimming pool that cost $300,000. The pool is clean and contemporary with an infinity edge, travertine decking and bluespecked tiles on its walls. There’s a fire pit adjacent to the spa and a glass-tiled sunken seating area.
“The tiles wear better and they look very nice,” Gragson said. “I have underwater speakers that sound very clean. We wanted a rustic, desert modern look that fit with The Ridges. It is clean and modern and flows with the house.”
Burton said the best advice he gives potential customers before he designs and builds their pool is for them to think about what they want out of their swimming pool.
“Is it for aesthetics or for swimming?” Burton asks. “What ultimately is your vision? Is the pool for entertainment with family and friends, or a waterpark for the kids?”
And, of course, how much are you willing to spend on your dream swimming pool?