Our trade
A lagoon pool is not a standard pool with rounded edges. The free form, the gentle slopes and the submerged shallow areas call for a precise building technique: you do not drop in a shell, you sculpt a pool. This page explains how we build a bespoke lagoon pool in Marrakech and across the rest of Morocco, from the first visit to the site through to maintenance, several seasons after filling.
The works
Before drawing anything, we come and look. We survey the levels, the nature of the ground, the possible presence of a water table, the sun exposure hour by hour, and above all the access: a site machinery cannot reach changes the pricing completely. It is also the moment when we spot what must be kept — an olive tree established for thirty years, a rammed-earth wall, a view.
This visit and the quote that follows from it are free and carry no obligation.
The shape is drawn from what was surveyed, then worked up into drawings and 3D views so that you see the result before a single spadeful is turned. There we settle the depths, the position of the submerged shallow area, the siting of the plant room and the routing of the services.
This is where the proportions are set: the water depth at the start of the shallow area, the depth of the main pool and the slope linking the two. Too steep, and the descent becomes slippery; too gentle, and the shallow area needlessly eats into the swimming area.
The shape is set out full size on the ground, then adjusted on site: that is where we correct what a drawing never quite shows. Then come the excavation, the levelling of the dig bottom, the drainage if the ground calls for it, and the pouring of the reinforced concrete raft that will bear the pool.
This is the stage that makes free form possible. We first build a steel skeleton — reinforcing bars and welded mesh — following exactly the shape wanted, including the curves that concrete poured into formwork could never follow.
The concrete is then sprayed onto that reinforcement, in successive passes, each pass having to begin setting before the next is applied. The result is a monolithic wall, with no joint and no cold joint. The reinforcement stays buried under a sufficient thickness of concrete: it is that cover which protects the steel and stops it from moving over time.
Sprayed by the dry process, the concrete contains very little water, which markedly reduces the risk of cracking as it dries.
Sprayed concrete makes the structure, not the waterproofing. The latter is provided by an applied covering: water-repellent render, reinforced membrane or mineral finish, depending on the look wanted. On a lagoon pool, it is also what gives the sandy-bottom effect and the colour transition between the shallow area and the deep part.
The weak points are always the same: inside corners, wall penetrations and the waterline. They are what determines how the pool holds up over time.
Skimmers, main drains, return inlets, plant room, filtration, lighting: the network is installed and tested before filling. Then come the filling, the balancing of the water and the setting of the filtration times — which are not set once and for all but vary with the season and how much the pool is used.
We show you how the plant room works before we leave, and we stay reachable for the first adjustments.
Reference points
Ecology
A pool consumes water and electricity. Both can be cut markedly, but only if you think about it before digging: most of the savings are made when the equipment is chosen, not afterwards. Here are the real items, and what can be acted on.
The filtration pump is by far a pool’s largest consumption item. It is also the one where the most is gained.
In the Marrakech climate, it is not draining that costs water, it is daily evaporation. It is very widely underestimated.
Salt electrolysis produces the disinfectant on the spot, from the salt dissolved in the water. No more drums to carry or store.
The planting around the pool can weigh heavily on the garden’s water consumption, or cost it almost nothing. That is decided at planting time.
Services
Everything that happens before signature, and that costs you nothing.
A single point of contact from earthworks to filling. You do not have five trades to coordinate yourself.
A pool is tuned over time. The first season is when you learn how it behaves.
Frequently asked questions
Three concrete differences. The shape first: it is free, therefore built in sprayed concrete on custom reinforcement, and not poured into straight formwork. Then the way you enter the water: a gently sloping beach entry replaces the ladder or the steps, you walk in as you would at the sea. Finally the integration: rocks, planting and a mineral finish make the pool blend into the garden instead of sitting on it.
No, rather the opposite. Sprayed concrete forms a monolithic shell, with no cold joint — and joints are precisely where a pool starts to leak. Sprayed by the dry process, it contains very little water, which limits shrinkage and therefore cracking as it dries. What ages a pool is almost never the structure: it is the waterproofing and the singular points, corners and wall penetrations.
There is no honest price per square metre for this type of pool: the figure depends on the area, the depth, the nature of the ground, machinery access, the presence of a waterfall, the extent of the submerged shallow area and the level of finish. A sloping site with no lorry access and a flat site by the road are not priced the same way, for an identical pool. That is why the visit comes before the quote, and why the quote is detailed line by line.
No more than a conventional pool of the same volume. The items are identical: filtration, water balance, cleaning. Two points differ: a shallow submerged area heats up faster and calls for a little more attention to water balance in summer; and a planted edge brings more leaves, which a properly sized skimmer basket absorbs without difficulty.
It depends too much on the site and the season for a deadline announced in advance to mean anything. What we can say: spraying the concrete itself takes a few hours for a medium-sized pool, but it is framed by the earthworks, the curing times, the waterproofing and the surroundings, which are the genuinely long items. The lead time is priced in the quote, after the visit, not before.
Often yes. Depending on the state of the structure, a submerged shallow area can be added, corners softened, the waterproofing redone and the surroundings reworked to change the look completely without demolishing everything. It always begins with a survey of what is there: structure, waterproofing, services and plant room.
To go further: why a free form is built in sprayed concrete, how a submerged shallow area is designed, and maintaining a lagoon pool in the Marrakech climate.
or, right now:+212 7 11 16 41 06 WhatsApp
