Burbank Pool Builders engineers and builds new custom gunite inground pools across the east San Fernando Valley and the hillside-adjacent neighborhoods of Los Angeles. We solve the structure first, the soil, the slope, the retaining, the access, then shape a shell to fit the lot exactly. From the soils read through engineering, permitting, excavation, steel, gunite, and finishes, one crew owns the build.
- Gunite shells shaped to the lot
- Sloped and hillside-adjacent engineering
- Soils report and structural plan handled
- Retaining tied into the pool structure
- Installed to current code
How we build a pool into a difficult lot
A custom build starts where the lot is hardest. Before we draw anything you would call a design, we read the grade, get a soils report where the slope or fill calls for one, and have a structural engineer size the shell and any retaining for the real loads. That structural plan is the spine of the project. Everything visible hangs off it, and we will not pour a yard of concrete until it is solved.
With the structure settled, the shape of the pool follows. We lay out the steel to the engineered plan, shoot the gunite shell so it carries the soil pressure and the water load together, and build any retaining or raised beam as part of the same structural system. On a sloped lot the sequence matters more than usual, because each phase has to be braced and supported before the next can go in.
Then come the parts you actually touch: the waterline tile, the coping, the interior plaster or pebble, and the deck that frames it all. Because one crew carried the project from the soils read to this point, the finishes land on a shell we know is sound, and the whole pool reads as one piece rather than a structure with a cosmetic layer bolted on.
Designed around your valley yard
The right pool for an east-valley or hillside-adjacent home is the one the lot allows and the slope rewards. A yard that drops away at the back can carry a vanishing edge that frames a view; a tiered yard can step the pool and spa down the grade; a tight valley parcel needs a layout planned around how equipment can even reach the dig. We design with those realities first so the plan we hand you is one we know we can build.
We also design for how your household will use the water. A family wanting a shallow play shelf needs a different shell than one focused on lap swimming or on a spa perched to catch the evening light off the hills. The depth profile, the steps, the benches, and the features all get shaped to your life and to the contour of the lot, never pulled from a stock template.
Because we engineer and build what we draw, the structural choices and the aesthetic ones get made together. The retaining, the shell, the deck, and the equipment all influence one another on a sloped lot, and planning them as a single project is how the finished backyard ends up coherent.
Engineered to hold in moving ground
Soil in the hills and the valley floor is not static. It expands, contracts, and settles with the seasons, and a pool has to be engineered to ride that movement without cracking. We size the shell and the steel to the soils report, detail the bond beam and any retaining for the slope, and shoot the gunite to spec so the structure carries its loads with margin to spare.
The finishes are chosen to last under the valley sun. Quality plaster, quartz, or pebble interiors, durable tile and coping, and decking that holds up to heat and hard use are what keep a pool right years after the build. We pick them with you to suit the design, never as a default add-on.
We build to local pool code and the relevant ANSI/APSP and ICC-5 standards, with the engineering and inspections that make a hillside-adjacent pool both safe and durable. If you are planning a new pool on a tricky lot in the east valley, call 424-421-3775 for a free design consult and an honest, engineered plan.
How your home needs connect
A pool is a design-build project, so pool construction rarely stands alone, it connects to pool renovation, pool remodels, pool resurfacing, building the deck, heater and salt systems, and our crew handles all of it as one accountable team. We bring the same service to Pool Construction in Studio City, Sherman Oaks pool construction, North Hollywood pool construction, Pool Construction in Toluca Lake and everywhere else across the Los Angeles area.
If you searched for a local pool crew near you, you have reached a local pool builder, call 424-421-3775 any time. For background, read Tight Access and Pool Construction: Building Where the Equipment Barely Fits on our blog, or head back to our Los Angeles home page to see everything we do.