Pools & Spas in Glendale
Pool and spa design and build for Glendale's hillside and foothill lots, from Rossmoyne and Adams Hill to the Verdugo canyons. The retaining, the drainage and the access get worked out first, and the pool is drawn together with the terraces, planting and lighting around it.
Pools in Glendale
Most Glendale backyards are not flat. In Rossmoyne, Verdugo Woodlands, Adams Hill and the canyons, the ground falls away from the house, and the level pad a pool needs has to be built rather than found. Retaining and grading are usually the first lines on the plan, and often the largest.
The slope is also where the water goes. Glendale sits on the alluvial fan below the Verdugo Mountains, so a hillside yard collects runoff from everything above it, and a large share of the city sits in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone with annual brush clearance inspections. Both get designed in alongside the pool.
Retaining walls do the real work on a Glendale lot. We size and step them with the pool layout, keeping wall heights within what the city will approve without an oversized engineering exercise.
Runoff arrives from uphill, not just from the roof. Catch basins, solid pipe to an approved outlet and deck grades that carry water away from the shell and the wall footings are planned before anything is poured.
In the hillside zones the planting plan has to pass an annual inspection. We keep the first five feet around the house clear, use irrigated low planting near the pool and the structure, and let the deck and spacing break up continuous fuel.
Steep driveways and narrow side yards decide how the excavator, the shotcrete and the materials reach the yard. We plan access, staging and where the pool equipment can sit and be serviced during design, not on delivery day.
Nearby communities we serve: La Crescenta, Montrose, Eagle Rock, Burbank, Pasadena
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 Suits a Glendale slope where the pad is irregular or there are native trees worth keeping, since the outline can follow the ground.
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 A natural match for a Glendale view lot, because the drop is already there. The retaining and the structural section decide whether it is practical before anything else does.
Best for Smaller yards, tighter budgets, and jobs where a shorter build matters more than a custom shape.
On your property Rarely practical on a hillside Glendale lot. The shell comes in one piece and needs a clear route to the hole, which steep driveways and narrow side yards seldom give it.
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 tiered backyard quieted down into a spa-first retreat, with a linear fire feature, turf-to-paver terracing and a clear look out across the valley. More pairs like this are in our before-and-after archive.
Concrete tiers and lawn already stepped down behind the house, and the property line ran right along the hillside edge. Those two things decided everything that followed: the grade changes across the site, and that edge.
The first sketches worked to the elevation change and put in an infinity-style water feature, modern hardscape and clearly defined living areas. Walking the layout with the homeowners is what kept it open. A tiered yard like this crowds up fast if you fill every terrace.
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. Glendale runs its own Building and Safety department, and on hillside lots in Chevy Chase Canyon, Verdugo Woodlands and Glenoaks Canyon, grading, retaining wall and indigenous tree review can come on top of the pool permit. We pull the permits in house and work through plan check, so the approval path is clear before a crew mobilizes.
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 yard had flooding, an aging pool finish, old irrigation, and an unusable layout-a list of problems we felt overwhelmed by. Pacific Outdoor Living helped turn those problems into a complete new design that transformed our space. The new layout is beautiful, functional, and finally usable year-round.
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.
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.
Our backyard transformation into a tiki oasis by Pacific Outdoor Living was nothing short of extraordinary! Julian Montford's design expertise and Trent Morrill's impeccable coordination made this project an absolute pleasure from start to finish. The 500 square foot pavilion and tiki hut added an enchanting touch, while the refurbished built-in pool became the centerpiece of our newfound paradise.
Pacific Outdoor Living gets a 5 star review because of their outstanding customer service and job performance. We recently renovated our backyard with an in-ground pool and outdoor space. The job took no more than two and a half months to complete. Samantha the designer, worked with us to sketch exactly what we wanted and provided us with a 3D model of how our backyard would look like. It came out exactly what was sketched.
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.
Questions
Yes. Hillside pools are a large share of our work. The planning items are how much retaining the pad needs, how equipment reaches the yard, where the pool equipment can sit and be serviced, and how the plumbing and electrical cross the grade. We resolve those in design, with the grades shot and the section drawn, rather than during excavation.
It should be fixed as part of the same project. Regrading, area drains and properly routed solid pipe cost far less to install while the yard is already open than to add afterward, and a pool deck built over an unresolved drainage problem will not last.
It shapes the zone closest to the house more than the rest of the yard. The first five feet stay clear of combustible material, the near zone is planted low and irrigated, and hardscape and spacing break up continuous fuel. Further out, toyon, coffeeberry, sages, ceanothus and native grasses handle Glendale's heat on drip irrigation.
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. Glendale is well inside our Greater Los Angeles service area, and our Sun Valley yard and showroom are roughly fifteen minutes away. Use the address checker on our Glendale page to confirm coverage for your exact property.
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.
