Custom shotcrete pools, built on the Space Coast.
Engineered and permitted for coastal Brevard, from excavation through startup. One crew, one schedule, and a dated plan for every stage in between.
What people worry about
Nobody worries about the finished pool. They've seen the renderings and they know what they want. What keeps people up is the middle. The yard is torn open, there's nothing to swim in yet, and for weeks a hole in the ground is the only sign anyone is working.
That stretch is where most bad build stories come from, and it's rarely the workmanship. It's silence, a stalled site, and nobody who can tell you what happens next.
It's also the part we manage most carefully, which is why the rest of this page is about it.
One team, one schedule
A pool build touches excavation, steel, concrete, plumbing, electrical, gas, decking, and often a screen enclosure. A lot of build delays are handoffs between companies that don't answer to each other. Here, every trade runs on one schedule, coordinated by one person.
Design and engineering
Shape, depth, benches and features settled before dig day, with sealed engineering and large-format drawings on site as the working reference.
Permitting
Luke handles it in-house and tracks it end to end, rather than handing it to a permit runner who resurfaces when something is rejected.
Excavation and shell
Dig, rock and compaction, form boards, steel, and shotcrete placed by a dedicated shotcrete crew we've used for years.
Plumbing and equipment
Trenching, plumbing, pressure testing, then pumps, heater, controls and lights. The hydraulics are calculated before a pipe is glued rather than sized by habit, plumbing is upsized to cut head loss so the pump works less, exposed pipe is painted against the sun, and the pad is laid out so it can actually be serviced. Equipment is verified on site before install rather than assumed.
Gas
Heater gas lines coordinated with the build so there's no gap between the pool being ready and the heater being connected.
Screen enclosure
Built and installed by Alfred Innovations Inc under CBC1266346. It goes up before the bond coat so metal shavings don't end up in your finish.
What the shell is built to
The shell is the one part of a pool nobody can inspect after the fact. These are the numbers worth asking any builder for.
- Shell thickness
- Eight inches minimum. The minimum end of what gets engineered in Florida is nearer six. More concrete is more strength and a more watertight structure.
- Steel
- A #4 rebar grid or larger, sized as engineered for your pool.
- Concrete
- A 5,000 psi minimum mix. Published shotcrete guidance puts the minimum for a pool at 4,000, and 5,000 where the concrete is exposed to chlorides. A pool on this coast is.
- Base
- Four inches minimum of compacted rock under the whole footprint, so the shell is evenly supported rather than bridging between firm spots.
- Forming
- Rigid plywood form boards. Flexible forms bow under shotcrete placement, which leaves a shell thick in some places and thin in others. Where a freeform shape needs flexible Steel-Tex, we shorten the form widths to hold it.
Your engineer's sealed drawings govern what gets built on your lot. There is always a rule of thumb in pool construction, and it never supersedes a licensed engineer. These are the standards we bring to the drawings.
How a build runs
Six stages. Two of them have fixed rules that can't be shortened, and any builder you talk to should be able to tell you which two.
- Before dig
Planning and selections
Luke meets you personally to settle finishes, tile, coping and decking before anything is ordered, so materials arrive ahead of the crew instead of the crew waiting on materials. Utilities are located, access is assessed, and septic and dirt disposal are decided on paper. Late selections are the most common reason a build stalls, which is why they are settled here.
An hour of planning in the office saves hours in the field.
- Dig week
Excavation, steel and form boards
We lay out the job site, verify elevations, setbacks and underground utilities, and make sure the pool sits exactly where it should before a bucket goes in. Luke runs the excavator himself. We overdig for the drains, so the shell is never sitting on top of your plumbing. We bring in rock and compact it for the shell's base, set rigid plywood form boards, and tie #4 steel at a closer spacing than most builders use, bent on a rebar bender so it is where the drawings say. Where the design allows, main drains go in the walls or the benches: it looks better and it works better.
A lot of pools are built with the shell shot straight over the plumbing. If that plumbing ever needs replacing, it is buried under the concrete.
- Hard gate
Inspection before shotcrete
An inspector verifies pressure on the plumbing, the embedded fittings, and four points of bond wire contact with a lead wire running to the equipment.
Nothing gets shot until it passes. Everything on that list gets buried in the shell for good, and this is the last point where any of it can be fixed at a reasonable cost.
- Shoot day
The shell is shot
We're there for it. We watch how the concrete goes on, where the rebound lands, since material that bounces off the wall shouldn't end up built into a bench or a floor, and how the benches and curves are formed. These are the small details that make a pool feel like it was built for you, and they are decided in the hours the concrete is still workable.
Most builders don't show up for shotcrete. It's when the shape of your pool is actually made.
- Shell + 30 days
The cure
Concrete doesn't harden by drying out. It hardens through a chemical reaction between the cement and water, and that reaction keeps building strength for weeks, which is why the shell is watered every day. Let it dry or heat up and the surface shrinks faster than the concrete beneath it, and that's where shrinkage cracks come from. The time isn't wasted: form boards come off, and backfill, compaction, trenching, plumbing and pressure testing all happen inside the cure window.
The thirty days can't be shortened. A builder who starts coping early is trading your shell's strength for a week on the calendar.
- Finish
Coping, tile, deck, interior, startup
Coping and deck, then waterline tile, then the bond coat and the pebble interior. The interior is Tempool's Element Series, shot by Tempool, who have done our plaster for years. No acid wash: it exposes pebble fast and shortens the life of the surface, so the exposure is done by method instead, and SetNCure goes in the mix for more even color and a steadier startup. Then we run the startup ourselves, by the Orenda method. It's the last construction step, not the first maintenance one.
The full sequence with the reasoning behind each stage is written up in Field Notes.
What a build costs.
Every property is different and we won't quote over the phone. Here's where builds start, and what moves the number.
New pools start around $100,000. A standalone spa can come in under that.
Questions we get
How long does a pool take to build?
It depends on permitting, weather and scope, and nobody can give you a date before seeing the property. One element is fixed: the shell cures for thirty days after shotcrete before coping and tile can start. What you should expect from us is a dated schedule before work starts, and a call when something moves.
What gets inspected before the shotcrete?
Once steel and form boards are up and before concrete is placed, an inspector verifies pressure on the plumbing, the embedded fittings, and four points of bond wire contact. Nothing gets shot until it passes, because all of it is buried permanently in the shell afterward.
Do I need separate contractors for gas and the screen enclosure?
No. Gas is ours: we hold the Florida LP gas installer licence, so heater and fire feature lines are run by us rather than by another trade. Screen enclosures are contracted separately through Alfred Innovations Inc under CBC1266346, a separate company Luke also owns. Because he owns both, he sets both schedules, so the enclosure goes up when the build needs it rather than when another company can fit you in.
Who handles a warranty claim on the equipment?
We do. Luke Gell Pools is a Jandy warranty station, so when equipment we installed on your pool needs warranty work, the repair is us rather than a phone tree and a third-party service company that has never seen your pool. It is part of being our client, and it is one reason we install Jandy by preference.
What's included that I might be paying extra for elsewhere?
Engineered plans are included rather than an extra, and so is the full HOA architectural submittal package, which is where a build most often stalls for a month. Permitting is handled in-house. At the end you get Pool School: we walk you through your own equipment before we leave, so the first time something needs attention you are not reading a manual.
Can you work alongside my home builder?
Yes, and it's usually better if we're brought in early. Coordinating the pool with a house under construction affects access, utilities and grading, and decisions made before the slab is poured are cheaper than the ones made after.
Can I finance it?
Yes. We work with HFS Financial, a home-improvement lender that finances pools and the work around them. You apply with them directly, and the terms are between you and HFS; we never see your application. If you want a number before you apply, book the walk-through first. Apply with HFS Financial
When do I pay?
Milestone billing. Each stage triggers its own invoice and is only billed once complete. Nothing is billed ahead of the work.
Pools we've built
Walk your project with Luke.
Luke comes out himself and inspects your pool with you. Before any work starts, you get an itemized proposal and a dated schedule.