Pool Placement Strategy: Why You Should Keep the Patio and Dig the Side Yard

The Scenario

A homeowner recently asked:

"Backyard ideas"

The GardenOwl Diagnosis

The Assessment

You have a classic "blank slate" backyard that is currently suffering from an identity crisis. This lack of direction significantly hurts your property's overall curb appeal. You have a massive expanse of pavers—likely concrete unit pavers—that are in good condition, and a distinct strip of what looks like artificial turf running down the side. Addressing The Linear Corridor Effect (The Bowling Alley) often starts with identifying the purpose of each yard area. You want a pool, and you are debating the classic homeowner dilemma: do you demo the hardscape to put the pool front and center, or do you squeeze it into the green space on the side?

The Trap: The "Center Stage" Mistake

The most common mistake I see in yards like this is the urge to put the pool right in the middle of the existing patio. It feels like the logical focal point, but it is usually a financial and functional disaster.

First, ripping up that many square feet of perfectly good pavers is just burning money. Unless the base is failing or the drainage is flowing back toward your foundation, that hardscape is an asset. Second, if you drop a pool right outside those sliding glass doors, you lose your primary "transition zone." You generally don't want a wet deck immediately where you step out of the house. It ruins the flow for dining and lounging, and it tracks water straight onto your indoor floors. You need a dry zone for the BBQ and the table, and a wet zone for the splashing.

The Solution: The Side-Yard Lap Pool

The smarter play here is to embrace the existing zoning. Keep the pavers for living and use the turf strip for swimming. Here is how to execute that:

1. The "Plunge" or Lap Pool That turf strip looks to be about 10 to 12 feet wide. This is tight, but it is prime real estate for a gunite shell or a drop-in fiberglass unit. By placing the pool here, you create a destination in the yard rather than an obstacle course. You preserve the paved area for furniture, fire pits, or an outdoor kitchen.

2. Navigating the Setbacks Before you fall in love with a design, you need to check your local setback codes. In many municipalities, you cannot dig within 3 to 5 feet of a property line. If that fence line is the property boundary, a 12-foot width might effectively become a 7-foot swim lane. That is still enough for a lap pool, but you need to know those numbers before you call a contractor. Check your local zoning or the International Residential Code (IRC) guidelines if you are in the US, or your council regulations if you are elsewhere.

3. Breaking the "Fishbowl" Effect Right now, this yard is sterile. It is all hard surfaces—brick, pavers, metal fence. This creates an echo chamber and a heat island. If you put water in that side strip without adding plants, it will feel like swimming in a public corridor.

Since you are tight on space, you can't plant wide oak trees. You need vertical screening.

• The Fix: Cut a 12-18 inch trench along that metal fence. Plant non-invasive, clumping bamboo (like Bambusa textilis 'Gracilis') or a tight columnar tree like 'Sky Pencil' Holly or Italian Cypress. This breaks up the "prison yard" look of the tall fence and dampens the sound.

4. Softening the Hardscape To tie the two areas together, place large, heavy pots on the paved area near the pool edge. This helps transition from the "dry living" room to the "wet pool" room without needing to do any masonry work.

Visualizing the Result

This approach saves you thousands in demolition costs and gives you a better functional flow. But pools in tight spaces are tricky—if you get the scale wrong, the yard feels claustrophobic.

I highly recommend using a visualizer before you break ground. If you want to test this on your own yard, upload a photo to our Exterior Design App and see what a lap pool would look like in that specific turf strip compared to the patio.