Pools & Spas in the Conejo Valley
Pool and spa design and build across the Conejo Valley, from Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village to Agoura Hills and Lake Sherwood, and on the Las Virgenes side at Calabasas and Hidden Hills. The oaks, the association review and the open-space edge get worked out first, and the pool is drawn together with the terrace, planting and lighting around it.
Pools in the Conejo Valley
The Conejo Valley is named for its landscape as much as its towns. Valley oaks and coast live oaks are the defining feature here, they are protected, and on many properties one or two of them are the best thing in the yard. A pool is placed around them, not the other way around.
Most neighborhoods also answer to an association, and many back onto open space. North Ranch, Lang Ranch, Dos Vientos and the Westlake lake community all review exterior work, and the 2018 Woolsey Fire showed what the wildland edge means here. Marine air over the Conejo Grade keeps summers milder than in the San Fernando Valley next door, which stretches the swimming season at both ends.
Thousand Oaks protects its oaks by ordinance, and grading, trenching, paving and pruning inside a protected zone generally need a permit. We map the trees and their root zones at the site analysis, then keep the shell, decking, equipment and trench routes outside them.
Dimensioned plans, specified materials, structure elevations and approved colors. We draw to the standard North Ranch, Lang Ranch, Dos Vientos and the lake community expect, so review runs alongside the schedule instead of after it.
Lots that back onto open space carry real fire exposure. The first several feet around the house stay free of combustible material, planting near the house and the pool equipment stays low and irrigated, and the deck and spacing break up continuous fuel.
The valley funnels autumn wind. Shade structures beside the pool get engineered footings and connections, umbrellas and loose elements are specified with gusts in mind, and trees are chosen and staked for the worst week of the year, not an average one.
Conejo Valley communities we serve: Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Agoura Hills, Lake Sherwood, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Simi Valley
Start here
The style follows how you want to use the yard. Pick the backyard you are actually after and the shape, the spa and the surfaces mostly follow from it. Every project below was built here in Southern California, so the planting, the shade and the surfaces are chosen for this climate.
01 A family-friendly backyard Room to swim, and room around the water. A shallow entry, shade to sit in, and turf that stands up to being used. See complete backyards 
02 A resort-style retreat A raised spa, moving water and planting layered in close. The pool is the centerpiece and the yard is built to match it. See resort-style projects 
03 A pool and entertaining space The pool is half of it. An outdoor kitchen, covered dining and a fire feature keep people outside after the swimming stops. See entertaining spaces 
04 Remodel an existing pool New tile, coping and plaster change the pool. Rebuilding the deck, planting and lighting changes the yard. See pool remodels Pool styles
Modern, Freeform, Formal, Infinity edge, Fiberglass, Pool and spa. Pick one to see who it suits, what it asks of the property, and a project where we built it.
Best for Contemporary and mid-century houses, and anyone who wants the pool to look built rather than dropped in.
On your property Needs a level or terraced area. On a slope the cost is in the retaining that makes the level, not in the pool.
Best for Families, and lots where a rectangle fights the shape of the yard.
On your property A natural answer to a Conejo Valley lot with an oak to keep, because the outline can follow the root zone instead of cutting through it.
Best for Traditional, Spanish and Colonial houses, and gardens that already work on an axis.
On your property Needs space on both sides to stay symmetrical. Tight to one boundary it stops being formal and becomes a lap pool.
Best for Properties with a view or a drop, where the far edge of the pool can be made to disappear.
On your property Suits the hillside and lakefront lots of Westlake Village, North Ranch and Lake Sherwood, where there is a drop and a view. The survey and the structural section decide whether it works.
Best for Smaller yards, tighter budgets, and jobs where a shorter build matters more than a custom shape.
On your property Works on a flatter tract lot with clear side access. Hillside and oak-studded lots usually leave the shell no route to the hole.
Best for Anyone who wants the yard usable in January, not just August.
On your property A raised spa has to be structured with the pool, not added later. Heating is where most of the running cost goes.
One coordinated team
Everything marked here is in this one photograph, and the same company drew and built all of it. So are the cabana, outdoor kitchen and fire table just outside the frame. A pool builder gives you a pool. This is the rest of it.
How a pool gets built
The five stages below are the pool version of the same five-step design process we run on every project.
Before: the yard as we found it Somebody comes out and measures. Grade, boundaries, setbacks, trees worth keeping, and where the panel, meters, valves and drains actually sit. On a pool that survey decides where the excavation can go before anything gets drawn.
Base plan The pool, the deck around it and the planting get drawn together, same scale, same sheet. This is where the yard either works as one space or it does not.
Materials Coping, waterline tile, interior finish, decking and equipment all get picked against samples. Structural work like retaining and sections through a slope gets engineered at this stage, not discovered later.
3D rendering Permits go through our own permitting department. Then excavation, steel, plumbing, shotcrete, decking and finish, with a supervisor on site and a different trained crew for each trade.
Finished Planting, lighting and equipment start-up, then a walkthrough on how the system runs and what it needs. Plants get a monitoring period after that.
Featured project
A graded dirt slope turned into a resort-style lagoon pool with a natural rock waterfall, a raised spa and tropical planting on every side. More pairs like this are in our before-and-after archive.
Big lot, awkward shape. The house, garage, concrete driveway and entry paths were already in, and everything else was dirt. The base plan gave us spot elevations, the slope, the property lines and the utility runs, and that's what decided where anything heavy could go.
We took the whole yard as one job. On a lot this size that matters: build the pool first and plant around it afterward and you end up with a pool sitting in a field. New pool and spa with a raised wall, jets and a baja shelf, fed by the waterfall. Curved paths and tiered planting move you through it, and a fire pit and BBQ area at the far end give people somewhere to end up.
Before your consultation
You do not need answers to these before you call. Knowing what the questions are makes the first conversation a lot more useful.
The yard decides more of this than taste does. Setbacks, equipment access, the fall across the site and how much room you want left around the water all narrow it before style comes into it.
Concrete is formed on site in shotcrete, so the shape is yours and the build takes longer. Fiberglass comes as a molded shell in a fixed size. Quicker, but it has to physically reach the hole.
Raised, flush or spilling. Sharing equipment with the pool costs less to build and less to run than a separate hot tub, but the structure has to be drawn in from the start.
The two details you look at most and touch most. They decide whether the pool looks modern or traditional more than the outline does.
A baja shelf is somewhere to sit in a few inches of water. Benches and wide steps add usable space without adding depth.
Heating decides whether the spa gets used in January. Saltwater runs a chlorine generator instead of buying chlorine, and it can go on any of these pool types.
Lights in the water, and lights on everything around it. Running the conduit with the rest of the work is the only way to get fixtures where you want them.
Barrier and drain requirements are set by code. The Conejo Valley straddles the county line: Thousand Oaks is a Ventura County city with its own permits, Lake Sherwood goes through Ventura County, and Westlake Village, Agoura Hills, Calabasas and Hidden Hills sit on the Los Angeles County side, each with its own city approvals. Oak permits, association review and fire-zone requirements often sit on top of the pool permit. We pull the permits in house and map all of it during design.
Investment & schedule
A pool is shaped by the property it goes into: the design, the access, the engineering and how much of the yard around it is in scope. We settle those during design, so you are deciding with the site in front of you rather than a guess.
No quote written off a photograph can account for what your property is like.
Decking, drainage, utilities, planting, shade, lighting and where people actually sit all bear on where the pool goes and how it gets built. Settling them on one set of drawings is what keeps conduit out of the wrong trench and stops paving being cut to fit afterwards.
Access, engineering, permits, finishes and scope vary a lot from one property to the next, so the investment and the schedule for a pool are set once we have seen the site and the design is settled.
Tell us about the property and what you want the yard to do. We will walk through the design, site and permitting factors likely to shape it.
What homeowners say
The pool, spa, and patio renovation turned out beautifully, and the custom waterslide became a favorite feature for the family. Our kids absolutely love it, and it's become the gathering spot for our entire neighborhood. The quality of the work and attention to creating a family-friendly space was exceptional.
They completely remodeled our pool, added a hot tub, and handled all the lighting and landscaping. Our project supervisor, Juan, demonstrated great communication and meticulous attention to detail, taking extra care to ensure that every aspect was safe for our kids and our puppy. This is clearly a company that takes genuine pride in their work.
Pacific Outdoor Living did an incredible job transforming both our front and back yards. They turned our rarely used backyard into a stunning and functional space, incorporating a new pool, pavers, and artificial turf. We met with at least four other pool builders, but POL stood out for their ability to handle every aspect of the project seamlessly, from design to construction to landscaping.
They did exactly what they promised with amazing quality and fast timing. My project manager Khalil was a pleasure to work with, and the team demonstrated exceptional professionalism and craftsmanship.
We are thrilled with our new backyard. Our pool, spa, and firepit feel like a resort, and the work was professional, clean, on time, and priced well. The entire POL team made the construction process easy and manageable, keeping us informed every step of the way. We couldn't have asked for a better experience.
They did a great job with our pool deck and pool remodel. Everything was planned in detail before even beginning, and proceeded exactly as expected. Samantha was a great designer to work with, and Scott made sure all needs were met during construction. The company as a whole is just extremely professional and dependable.
We had our backyard remodeled, which included pool installation, pergola build, and driveway paving. Our designer Julian was able to create the backyard that we envisioned and our project manager Trent made sure the whole process was smooth & efficient. They finished the project within budget and even ahead of schedule.
Questions
In most cases yes, but the oak usually decides where the pool goes. We set the shell, decking, equipment and trenching outside the critical root zone, keep summer irrigation away from the trunk and use permeable detailing where paving has to come close. In Thousand Oaks, work inside a protected zone generally needs a permit, which we plan for during design.
Yes. We prepare drawings to the standard your association requires, with dimensions, specified materials, structure elevations and color selections, and work through review comments with you. Rules differ between North Ranch, Lang Ranch, Dos Vientos, the lake community and the other associations, so we ask for your governing documents early.
Mostly the zone around the house and the pool equipment. The 2018 Woolsey Fire burned through parts of this area, and lots that back onto open space plan for it from the start: a clear strip against the structure, low irrigated planting nearby, and hardscape and spacing to break up fuel. Further out, the garden can be much more expressive.
The design stage generally runs two to five weeks depending on the size of the project and how many revisions it goes through. Construction varies with scope: small jobs can be a week, and large projects can run three to six months. Your designer and job supervisor give you a firmer timeline once the design is complete.
Yes. Pool remodeling is one of the services we offer, and several of the projects in our portfolio kept the existing pool shell and rebuilt it with new tile, coping and plaster along with the deck and planting around it.
Yes, and it is the reason the company is set up the way it is. We design and build the pool, hardscape, carpentry, planting and lighting with our own crews, so the same team is responsible for how those pieces meet.
Yes. Concrete pools are formed on site in shotcrete, which lets the shape be drawn to the yard. Fiberglass pools arrive as a molded shell in a fixed size and shape, which shortens the wet trades but depends on the shell being able to reach the excavation.
Yes. The design fee covers site measurements, an illustrated design, a 3-D design and revisions as needed, so you see the layout and the materials before anything is built.
A complete outdoor living environment involves more than individual features, so pool and outdoor kitchen cost depends on how the whole yard comes together. On the pool, the price moves with size and depth, how much grading or retaining the site needs, the coping, tile, interior finish and decking, and whether there is a spa, heating, water features or automation. On the kitchen, it moves with counter length, appliances, and the gas and electrical runs. We design the pool, kitchen, patios, lighting, and landscaping as one cohesive space, so every element complements the others and you have a clear understanding of the overall investment before construction begins.
Look at completed projects, not just conceptual designs, and look for ones like yours: a similar architectural style, a similar lot, the same features. Our portfolio covers a broad range of outdoor environments, from hillside pools and full backyard remodels to courtyards, outdoor kitchens, and drought-tolerant gardens. Evaluate the finished work and the details that bring a design to life.
Not all estimates represent the same scope or level of craftsmanship. Compare materials, construction methods, specifications, allowances, and overall project completeness, not just the final price. A low number built on vague allowances tends to come back later as change orders. Estimates priced from a measured, detailed design are the easiest to compare line for line.
Yes. A new pool or spa needs a building permit, and the gas, electrical, and any retaining walls around it can need approvals of their own. Requirements vary by city, so our in-house permitting department maps them during design and typically pulls every permit the job needs. You do not have to take time off work to queue or work out the requirements yourself.
Yes. We design and build pools throughout the Conejo Valley and the Las Virgenes communities beside it. Each community has its own page with an address checker, so you can confirm coverage for your exact property there.
Tell us how you want the backyard to look and work. We will walk you through the right pool design, the scope and what happens next.
What happens next: we set up a visit, measure the property and talk through what you want the yard to do. Then you get a design to look at before you commit to anything.
