Pool Builders in Bali: How to Choose One (and What We Build)
If you’re looking for a pool builder in Bali, you’ve probably worked out that it’s hard to compare them.
Everyone’s portfolio looks similar. Nobody publishes prices. Quotes vary by a factor of three for what sounds like the same pool. And the thing that actually determines whether you’re happy in five years — how much the pool costs to run, and whether it still looks good — isn’t in any of the brochures.
So this page is two things. First, what we’d want to know if we were choosing a builder here. Then, honestly, what we do and don’t do.
First: the questions worth asking any builder
Ask these of us, and of everyone else you talk to. The answers tell you more than the portfolio does.
“What will this cost me every month once it’s finished?”
This is the question almost nobody asks and it’s the one that matters most. A pool is not a purchase, it’s a subscription. Chemicals, power for the pump, a technician, water to replace what evaporates and what goes out with every backwash. Over ten years the running cost of a conventional pool in Bali can approach what you paid to build it. Any builder who can’t give you a monthly figure hasn’t thought about it, which tells you something.
“Where is the water coming from, and where does it go?”
On an island with the water pressures Bali has, this is not a philosophical question. If the answer is “a bore, and then the drain”, ask what happens when the bore gets saltier — because in coastal Badung it is measurably getting saltier every year.
“Who maintains it, and are they the same people who built it?”
A great deal of Bali pool grief comes from the handover. The build crew leaves, a maintenance contractor arrives who wasn’t involved in the design, and nobody owns the problem when the water goes green.
“What happens in wet season?”
Overflow, drainage, where the runoff goes, whether the plant room floods. Ask specifically. In Seminyak and Legian this is not hypothetical.
“Can I see one you built three years ago?”
Not three months ago. Any pool looks good three months in. Three years is when you find out about the finishes, the plumbing and the equipment choices.
“What’s in the quote, and what’s excluded?”
The gap between quotes is usually not the pool. It’s whether excavation, spoil removal, retaining, decking, fencing, lighting, plant room, permits and commissioning are in or out.
Building a pool in Bali: what actually happens
Design and permits — a few weeks to a few months. Depends on your plot, your local banjar, and whether the pool is part of a larger build. Pools attached to a wider renovation usually ride on the existing permit; a standalone pool on an existing property may not need much. This is genuinely site-specific and worth checking before you commit to a date.
Excavation — 1 to 3 weeks. The variable is access. A tight gang in Seminyak with no room for a machine is a different job from an open plot in Ubud. Spoil removal in a dense area can cost more than the digging.
Structure and waterproofing — 4 to 8 weeks. The part that determines whether you have problems later, and the part clients see least of.
Finishes and plant — 3 to 6 weeks. Interior surface, coping, decking, plumbing, equipment.
Commissioning. For a natural pool this is different and it’s the bit worth understanding: the biology needs time to establish. The pool isn’t “finished” the day it’s filled. It settles over the first weeks as the planted zone gets going. A builder who tells you a natural pool is done on handover day is overselling.
Realistically, three to five months for a standard residential pool, longer if it’s part of a wider renovation. The most common delay is imported materials arriving late. There’s more on this in our build timeline guide.
What we build
Chlorine-free natural pools. Not low-chemical — no chemicals. The water is cleaned by a planted regeneration zone and a bed of graded stone, the same way a healthy spring stays clear. There’s a full explanation of how it works if you want the mechanics.
The trade-off is honest and it’s mostly about space: a natural pool needs roughly 30–50% more area than the swimming surface alone, because the regeneration zone has to be big enough to do the work. On a tight plot that’s the deciding factor, and it’s the reason we turn work down.
What you get in return: no chlorine, no salt cell to replace, no draining and refilling, water you can swim in with your eyes open, and something that looks like part of the garden rather than a rectangle of blue tile dropped into it.
What we also do: converting an existing pool
This is worth knowing about, because most people don’t realise it’s possible.
If you already have a chlorine or salt pool that you’re tired of — the cost, the smell, the constant balancing act — it can often be converted rather than replaced. The existing shell is usually the most expensive part of a pool, and it’s the part you keep.
Broadly, a conversion means:
- Assessing the existing shell, waterproofing and plumbing. If the structure is sound, you’re in good shape. If it leaks, that has to be fixed first regardless of what you fill it with.
- Adding a regeneration zone. This is the part that needs space — either alongside the existing pool, or by giving over a portion of the existing water area to planting.
- Reworking the circulation. Different flow rates, different plumbing logic, usually a new pump sized for continuous low-energy running rather than short high-power cycles.
- Removing the dosing equipment, and the salt cell if there is one.
- Establishing the biology, which takes a season to fully settle.
When conversion makes sense: the shell is sound, you have room adjacent to the pool, and you’re planning to keep the property for a while. The payback comes from the running costs you stop paying.
When it doesn’t: the shell is failing, or the plot genuinely has no room for a regeneration zone. In that case we’ll say so. Sometimes the honest answer is that the sensible move is to keep maintaining what you’ve got.
We’ll tell you which of those you’re in on the first call, usually from photographs and a few measurements.
What we don’t build
New conventional chlorine pools. If you’ve weighed it up and a standard chlorine pool is what you want, we’re the wrong company and we’d rather say so on this page than three weeks into a conversation. There are competent conventional builders on the island.
We’d only ask that you read what a chlorine pool actually costs to run in Bali before you decide. Not to talk you out of it — some plots genuinely suit a conventional pool better — but because the monthly figure surprises most people, and it’s easier to know now than in year three.
Where we work
Across the island, with the most experience in these areas:
- Canggu — west-facing plots, sunset light, and a measurable saltwater intrusion problem
- Ubud — valleys, jungle edges, and very different ground
- Uluwatu and the Bukit — limestone, deep bores, and why recharge pits usually don’t work there
- Seminyak — dense plots, flooding, and new on-site retention rules
Each of those pages gets specific about the ground conditions, because the ground is what decides what’s possible.
The first step
A free 30-minute video call. We’ll talk through your site, your needs and your vision — and if it’s a conversion, photographs of the existing pool tell us most of what we need.
If it looks like a fit, we come and walk the site, then produce a design sketch or concept and a cost estimate. No obligation.
And if a natural pool isn’t right for your plot, we’ll tell you that on the call rather than after a site visit. It’s a short conversation and it saves everyone time.