Case study, Los Angeles

Arnwood

Location: Los Angeles
Scope: Outdoor living build: pool, pergola, and sunken fire lounge
Documented: Excavation to finish, photographed on site
Services: Outdoor living · Pool and spa · Hardscape and landscape

An existing valley home reworked around its backyard: a pool, a sunken fire lounge, and a pergola covered outdoor living room. The renderings show the design as it was drawn. The photographs show the same backyard being built, from the first trench to the olive going in the ground. It is easy to show only the first picture and the last one. The whole middle of this page is the part that decides whether the last picture happens.

The order this backyard actually got built in

A backyard like this looks like landscaping and is not. It is a small construction project with a foundation, an inspection sequence and a mechanical system in it, and the order is fixed. Nothing that shows in the finished photographs could have been moved earlier.

Utilities and grade, first. Trenching runs alongside the house before anything is dug for the pool. Everything the finished yard needs to run arrives now, or it arrives through concrete later.
The excavation, and the formwork laid out across the yard. The pool comes out of the ground and the shapes of everything else get set out around it at the same time.
Footings formed, and inspected. Formed, then looked at by somebody who does not work for us, then poured. That order does not bend.
Steel tied to the drawing. Reinforcing steel for the shell, tied and checked before anything covers it.
Rebar and plumbing set together in the formwork. The plumbing is committed at this moment. This is the last day it is cheap to move a skimmer, a return or a drain.
Gunite. The shell takes its shape in one operation.
Pebble interior. The finish goes on the inside of the shell.
The pergola, over a filled pool. Posts and beam first, then rafters.
The specimen olive, set into a yard that is nearly finished. A tree that size has to be set over work that is already done, so its day is chosen early even though it happens late.

Most of that sequence is invisible in the finished backyard. It is the part that decides it.

The decisions that were already made before the concrete

By the time the formwork was laid out, the pool's plumbing runs, the location of the fire lounge, the pergola's post positions and the olive's root ball were all committed, because every one of them lands in or under something that gets poured.

The front of the house shows the same thing from the other side: brick piers and new hardscape, set to lines that were fixed while the yard was still open.

Backyards get value engineered late, and this is why that goes badly. There is no late in a yard with a pool in it. There is before the pour and after it.

How we run a build like this

The photographs on this page were taken because somebody was on site to take them, through every stage of the work. That is the same habit that produces the written report an owner gets while the work is going on: what happened, what is next, and what we need a decision on. See how we work with architects and designers, which is where the reporting and the RFI turnaround are set out in full.

We do not price a yard like this from a photograph. We walk it, look at what the grade and the access will allow, and give you a scope with the line items visible.

Arnwood — backyard with pool, pergola, and sunken lounge, architectural rendering — The backyard as designed — pool, pergola, and sunken lounge — architectural rendering

Arnwood — pool and sunken fire lounge at dusk, architectural rendering — Pool and sunken fire lounge — architectural rendering

Arnwood — pergola-covered lounge and dining, architectural rendering — Covered lounge under the pergola — architectural rendering

Arnwood — covered outdoor living room, architectural rendering — The covered outdoor living room — architectural rendering

Arnwood — sunken fire lounge, architectural rendering — The sunken fire lounge — architectural rendering

Arnwood — trenching alongside the house during excavation, under construction — Excavation — utilities and grade go in first (under construction)

Arnwood — pool excavation with formwork laid out across the yard, under construction — The backyard comes out — pool dug, formwork set (under construction)

Arnwood — formed footing ready for the pour, under construction — Footings formed and inspected (under construction)

Arnwood — reinforcing steel tied for the pool shell, under construction — Reinforcing steel, tied to the drawings (under construction)

Arnwood — rebar and plumbing set in the formwork, under construction — Rebar and plumbing set before the pour (under construction)

Arnwood — pool shell after gunite, under construction — Gunite — the pool shell takes shape (under construction)

Arnwood — pebble interior finish in the pool, under construction — Pebble interior finish going in (under construction)

Arnwood — pergola posts and beam raised over the filled pool, under construction — Pergola structure goes up over the finished pool (under construction)

Arnwood — pergola rafters seen from below, under construction — Pergola rafters set (under construction)

Arnwood — specimen olive tree set in its planter beside the pool, under construction — The specimen olive set in place (under construction)

Arnwood — covered patio looking out to the pool near completion, under construction — Covered patio, looking out to the pool — nearing completion (under construction)

Every construction photograph on this page was taken on an ordinary working day. If you want to see what your own project would look like from the inside, start with a conversation.

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