What makes the price of a lagoon pool
Two pools of the same area, fifteen kilometres apart, are not priced the same. This is not a way of dodging the question: it is that most of the quote turns on what a drawing does not show — access, ground, levels. Here are the items that make the difference, in order of weight.
Site access
A site reachable by a road where a concrete mixer truck and a mechanical digger can manoeuvre, and a site at the back of a plot reached only through a two-metre gate, are not priced the same way. In the second case, smaller equipment is needed, more handling, sometimes removing the soil by bucket rather than by lorry. For a strictly identical pool, the gap is counted in tens of hours of labour.
This is the number one reason why a visit comes before a quote. Nobody can assess that from a photo.
The nature of the ground and the levels
Loose ground is quick to excavate. Rocky ground calls for a rock breaker. A shallow water table means drainage and sometimes a tanking system. A sloping site can be an asset — it allows a natural overflow, a high shallow area and a low deep section — or an extra cost, if the earth has to be retained.
The area, but above all the length of edging
On a rectangular pool, you think in square metres. On a lagoon pool, the square metre does not tell the whole story: it is the length of edging that is expensive. A heavily indented shape, with coves and headlands, calls for more custom reinforcement, more finishing, more coping and more time than the same area in a simple shape.
Depth and the submerged shallow area
Every increase in depth adds soil to remove and water volume to treat afterwards. Conversely, a submerged shallow area is not deep: it costs relatively little in earthworks, but it calls for a careful finish since it is visible and walked on. On a lagoon pool, it can take up a large share of the pool — see a well-proportioned submerged shallow area.
Equipment
A waterfall is not just a rock: it is a dedicated pump, a pipe network, an electrical supply. Underwater lighting needs conduits laid before the concrete. An automatic cover requires a housing planned from the design stage, and a cover is what limits evaporation most. All of this is anticipated: added afterwards, it is markedly more expensive, when it is still possible at all.
Finishes and surroundings
This is the most elastic item in the quote, and often the one discovered too late. The covering, the coping, the outdoor terrace area, the rocks, the planting and the irrigation can represent a very large share of the total budget. A bare pool in a patch of bare earth is not a finished pool.
Why we do not publish a price list
A price displayed on a website holds only for the pool used to calculate it. Two neighbouring sites, with an identical pool area, are not priced the same as soon as access, ground or finishes change.
A free form in sprayed concrete also sits above a rectangular pool of the same area, for the reasons explained above: it is the technique that makes the shape possible, and it is the technique that costs.
The only figure that holds for your site is the one in a quote drawn up after a visit. That is also why the price of a lagoon pool in Morocco cannot be compared from one project to the next.
What to look at in a quote
A quote that fits on one line with a lump sum lets you neither compare nor make trade-offs. Ask for the breakdown item by item: earthworks and spoil removal, structure, waterproofing, plumbing and plant room, lighting, shallow area, coping, surroundings. It is that breakdown which will tell you where the money goes, and what you can adjust if the budget gets tight.
Remember also to ask what the quote does not cover: electrical connection, water supply, initial filling, restoring the garden after the machinery has been through. It is the missing lines that create bad surprises, not the ones that are written.
A detailed quote takes half a day to draw up and an hour to read. If you are seriously comparing two proposals, that is the level of detail to demand — from us as from anyone else.