Building an inground pool involves a lot of moving parts. Most homeowners find out the hard way that juggling separate excavation companies, pool contractors, and concrete deck crews turns a summer project into a scheduling nightmare. One crew finishes, the next one is three weeks out, and the whole yard sits torn up in the meantime.
We handle the dig, the pool shell, and the deck with one crew using our own equipment. That means you have one point of contact, one schedule, and no gaps where work stalls because someone is waiting on someone else.
We've been doing concrete work across the Metro East for 20 years. Inground pool construction fits naturally into what we already do every day — excavation, forming, pouring, and finishing concrete. The pool is just a more involved version of that work, and because we own the excavation equipment and the trucks, we're not marking up a subcontractor to dig your yard.
Our Inground Pool Construction Approach
An inground concrete or gunite pool starts well before any concrete gets poured. The excavation has to be right. If the dig is off, everything downstream is off. We operate our own equipment, so we control the grade and the shape from the start.
After excavation, we form and pour the pool shell. For gunite builds, shotcrete is applied over a steel rebar structure to create the shell. Both approaches produce a durable pool that can be shaped to fit your yard and your plans, unlike vinyl-liner or fiberglass pools, which are limited to standard shapes.
Because we also do concrete flatwork every day, the pool deck gets the same attention as the shell. We pour slip-resistant or stamped finishes, sized to your space and tied into the pool coping so the whole project looks like one cohesive build. That's harder to pull off when a concrete company and a pool company are working off separate timelines.
When Homeowners Call Us for a Pool
You want one company to handle all of it. The stories we hear most often involve a homeowner hiring out the excavation separately, then finding the pool contractor and the concrete deck crew can't coordinate their schedules. The project drags into fall. We eliminate that because we do all three phases.
You want a pool that can be customized to your yard. If your lot has a slope, an odd shape, or existing landscaping around it, a prefab pool isn't going to fit cleanly. A concrete or gunite shell can be formed to match what you actually have to work with.
You want the deck to be part of the project, not an afterthought. A pool without a proper deck is half-finished. We build the pool and pour the deck in the same project, so the finished product is ready to use, not just ready to swim in.
You've gotten bids from pool-only contractors who don't do the concrete. Some pool contractors build the shell and stop there. You still need someone to form and pour the deck, cap the coping, and tie everything together. We do that work ourselves.
Our Process, From Dig to Deck
1. Free On-Site Estimate We come out, look at your yard, talk through what you want, and give you a clear price before anything starts. Pool construction involves real variables — site access, soil conditions, pool size, finish type, deck square footage — so an on-site visit is the only way to price it accurately.
2. Site Prep and Excavation We dig with our own equipment. We haul the dirt out with our own trucks. No waiting on a separate excavation crew or paying a markup for hauling.
3. Steel and Shell For gunite pools, we place the rebar structure and apply the gunite shell to the specified thickness and shape. For concrete pool construction, we form and pour to the design. Either way, the structure is built to hold up for the long haul.
4. Pool Deck Forming and Pour Once the shell is set, we form and pour the surrounding deck. We use slip-resistant finishes as standard, and stamped concrete is available if you want a decorative look around the pool. The deck integrates with the pool coping so there are no awkward gaps or mismatches.
5. Cleanup and Haul-Away We load debris and leftover material onto our trucks and clear the site. You don't coordinate a separate haul-away; that's built into how we run every job.
What an Inground Pool Project Costs
Inground pool construction is a significant investment, and the price varies based on several real factors: pool size, depth, shape, shell method (concrete vs. gunite), finish choices, deck square footage, finish type on the deck, and site conditions like access and existing grade.
There's no honest way to quote a number without seeing the site. What we can tell you is that doing the excavation, pool build, and concrete deck through one crew is typically more efficient than managing three separate contracts and dealing with the scheduling gaps that come with that.
We offer free on-site estimates with no pressure. We'll come out, walk the yard, talk through what you're picturing, and give you a written price before any work begins.
Call us at 618-514-2663 or reach out by email to set up a time.
Where We Build Pools
We work across St. Clair, Madison, and Monroe County. Most of our pool projects are in residential areas in the larger communities, but we take jobs throughout the three-county area.
Key markets we serve regularly include O'Fallon, Belleville, Shiloh, Swansea, and Fairview Heights in St. Clair County; Edwardsville, Collinsville, Glen Carbon, and Troy in Madison County; and Waterloo and Columbia in Monroe County.
If you're in a smaller community nearby and not sure whether we work in your area, give us a call. We're based in Freeburg and we cover a wide stretch of the Metro East.
Related Services
If you're planning an inground pool, or need other concrete and excavation work done, here's what else we handle:
- Concrete / Gunite Pool Build — More detail on the gunite construction method, how the shell is built, and what to expect from that process.
- Site Prep & Grading — Excavation and base grading done with our own equipment. Applies to pool digs as well as driveways, pads, and new construction prep.
- Concrete Demolition & Haul-Away — If your project involves removing an existing surface or structure, we break it out and haul it off ourselves.
- Dump Truck Hauling Service — We run our own dump trucks for dirt, gravel, rock, and debris. That's how we keep pool excavations and other jobs moving without waiting on outside haulers.