Pools & Spas in West Los Angeles
Pool and spa design and build across West Los Angeles, from canyon lots in Brentwood, Bel-Air and the Palisades to the compact yards of Westwood, Beverlywood and Santa Monica. The structure, the access and the approvals get worked out first, and the pool is drawn together with the terrace, the planting and the privacy around it.
Pools in West Los Angeles
The Westside packs very different lots into a few miles. Above Sunset, in the Brentwood canyons, Bel-Air and the Palisades Highlands, a pool goes onto a slope with structure, haul routes and fire clearance attached. Below it, in Westwood, Cheviot Hills, Beverlywood and much of Santa Monica, the lots are flat but small, and the pool has to share the yard with dining, lounging and the privacy you want from the house next door.
The climate is the other difference. Marine air keeps Westside summers mild and plenty of mornings gray, so heating decides how many months the water actually gets used, and closer to the beach, salt air works on anything metal. In the Palisades, many families are rebuilding after the January 2025 fire, and the pool is being planned alongside a new house rather than added to an old one.
On hillside lots in the City of Los Angeles the Baseline Hillside Ordinance limits grading, retaining wall heights and setbacks, and a pool on a slope usually needs structural engineering for the shell. Single-route canyons like Mandeville, Sullivan and Kenter also decide how the excavator, the crane and the shotcrete reach the yard.
Westwood, Beverlywood and Ocean Park lots are smaller than most of the Westside, often with rear alleys and street parking only. We size the pool to the yard, consider a plunge pool or a raised spa that does double duty, and plan deliveries and staging around the street before the first truck arrives.
Canyon Brentwood, Bel-Air and most of the Palisades sit in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone with LAFD brush clearance rules. The first five feet around the house stay non-combustible, and on a rebuild we coordinate the pool, the grading and the drainage with your architect while the house is still being drawn.
Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Culver City run their own permitting. The rest of the Westside is the City of Los Angeles, with Coastal Zone review near the beach, landmark review in Santa Monica and association review in neighborhoods like Beverlywood. We confirm what applies to your parcel first.
Westside communities we serve: Brentwood, Bel-Air, Beverly Hills, Holmby Hills, Westwood, Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, Cheviot Hills, Beverlywood, Culver City
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 Westside lot with a mature sycamore, oak or a curving garden worth keeping, since the outline can be drawn around 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 Belongs on the canyon and view lots above Sunset and in the Palisades, where the drop is already there. The structure that holds the edge is usually the largest cost, so it is priced early.
Best for Smaller yards, tighter budgets, and jobs where a shorter build matters more than a custom shape.
On your property Practical on a flat lot south of Sunset with clear side or alley access. Canyon lots and tight Westwood side yards 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 mid-century property brought back to its own era: a refined pool with a tanning ledge, a stepping-stone spa and a crisp drought-tolerant walk out front. More pairs like this are in our before-and-after archive.
The existing-conditions drawing covered the house, garage, driveway and yard: established lawn, concrete, gravel and beds, plus the outdoor kitchen area, the spa and the paths already in use. We documented irrigation lines, water and gas meters, hose bibs, panels and drainage points with spot elevations, which is what any grading analysis has to start from.
The sketch kept the layout that was there and tightened it, marking out seating, dining and gathering areas with new paving patterns to sort out the flow. New and adjusted planting brought in texture, color and privacy. Selected mature trees stayed where they were.
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. Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Culver City each issue their own permits; Brentwood, Bel-Air, Westwood, the Palisades, Cheviot Hills and Beverlywood go through the City of Los Angeles, with the Baseline Hillside Ordinance on hillside lots, Coastal Zone review near the beach and LAFD brush clearance in the fire zones. We pull the permits in house, and what each city asks for shapes the drawings, not the other way around.
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
I would definitely recommend Pacific Outdoor Living. We had a great experience. They helped us through all the permitting and difficulties of having a hillside home and following LA pool requirements.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Questions
Often yes, if it is sized to the yard rather than to a brochure. On a compact Westwood, Beverlywood or Santa Monica lot that usually means a plunge pool, a pool with a raised spa that doubles as seating, or a side-yard layout, with the deck, dining and planting drawn at the same time. The 3D design shows you how the whole yard fits before anything is built.
Generally yes. Hillside lots in the City of Los Angeles fall under the Baseline Hillside Ordinance, grading beyond 50 cubic yards needs a permit of its own, and a pool on a slope usually needs structural engineering for the shell and the retaining. Larger export can mean an approved haul route. We identify which apply during the site analysis so the pool is drawn to clear them.
Ideally while the house is still in design. Grading, drainage, utility runs, retaining walls and the ember-resistant zone around the house are far easier to get right when they are planned alongside the architecture, and many Palisades parcels also need Coastal Zone review. Planning the pool then avoids tearing out new work later.
For most Westside families, yes. Marine air keeps summers mild and mornings cool, so an unheated pool sits unused for much of the year. Heating, a spa that shares the pool equipment and a cover make the water usable from spring through fall, and near the beach we specify corrosion-resistant fixtures and hardware for the salt air.
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 across West Los Angeles, from Brentwood, Bel-Air and the Palisades to Westwood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Cheviot Hills and Beverlywood. 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.
