Design Process

Transforming your outdoor living space into a breathtaking oasis takes a lot of time and hard work – it’s not possible to get the results we strive for without a thorough consultation process and meticulous planning. We understand that such an immense project is unfamiliar territory for most people, so we’ve put together a guide to our workflow.

1. Reach out

Once we receive an initial inquiry, we’ll aim to get back to you within 24 hours. We’ll have an informal conversation about how you use your home, what you are looking to use your outdoor living space for and what your ideal timeframe would be. We’ll then arrange a more formal appointment.

2. Consultation

Before your appointment, we’ll require an up-to-date plat plan or land survey. You’ll want to prepare for this appointment by thinking about the features most important to you and your family.

Joe, our owner and lead designer, and our Vice President Nicole, will meet with you at your home (or our offices, if the house is not yet built). This is where we’ll get as much information as possible about your home and yard, taking photographs and notes – this usually takes around 1-1.5 hours.

3. Design

We’ll take a few weeks to produce an initial design based on our discussions. It’s important for us to take the time to get every detail right, in order to maximize the potential of your space.

We make use of state-of-the-art technology to produce stunning 3D renderings of your design, so you can see exactly how it would look in real life – we’re the only pool builders in the area to offer this service.

4. Review & Revise

We’ll arrange for you to visit our beautiful design studio. Here, you’ll receive a fully customized proposal and view your design on the big screen in glorious technicolor. You can spend time with us making any necessary changes and, once the design is finalized, you can select your desired materials on-site from our extensive collection of samples.

We’ll also give you a login for Buildertrend, our construction software management program, which enables you to to view your contract, approve selections, and see photographic updates – all from an app on your phone!

5. Approval

You’ll need approval from your HOA before building takes place. We’ll help you with this by providing the necessary documents, and we’ll work on getting a city or county permit (whichever is applicable). Once we have all the necessary permits, we’ll contact you to give you a heads up on when construction will commence (depending on weather).

Before starting to build, you’ll have another meeting with our customer service representative to review your welcome documents and construction flow sheet – we’ll make sure all of your questions are answered.

6. Construction

Finally, the most exciting part! While our construction team is hard at work, they’ll treat your home with the greatest care and consideration, and will be on hand to answer as many questions as you need. Throughout the process, your construction team will update the Buildertrend app with milestones and pictures for you to see wherever you are. You’ll receive weekly email updates informing you of the work that’s been done and what’s to come.

The building process generally goes like so:

• Excavate
• Form
• Rebar
• Plumbing
• Concrete
• Tile and coping
• Hardscaping
• Landscaping
• Final finish
• Fill your new pool
• Proper care and maintenance
• Pool School

We can continue to look after your outdoor living area with our weekly maintenance service, carried out by our full time maintenance manager. This way, your pool and backyard will continue to look impressive and perform well for years to come. We can also discuss with you about our self cleaning pool installations to help reduce maintenance.

Ashton Pools by Design are Delaware’s premier pool builders and outdoor living experts. Contact us today to see how we can transform your space.