Guide
How much does a natural swimming pool cost?
A natural swimming pool can cost anywhere from about $15,000 to well over $250,000. The size of the pool matters, but the biggest swing is who does the work. A family that digs, lines, plumbs and plants it themselves pays mostly for materials. A family that hires every step pays for labor, equipment and management on top.
What mine cost
I built ours in Utah in 2014. It holds about 40,000 gallons and the whole build came to about $12,000, not counting the fence. That included:
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Cedar for the divider wall and dock | about $4,500 |
| Liner | about $2,800 |
| Plants, first year | about $1,500 |
| Expanded shale, two loads | about $1,400 |
| Excavator for the deep end | about $800 |
| Pipe, pump, fittings, rock | the balance |
I did most of the digging myself with a skid steer, used old carpet from a dumpster as liner underlayment, and divided plants every year instead of buying new ones. Prices have gone up since 2014, so plan on more today.
Typical costs today
These come from our designer, which prices every part of a layout: the dig, liner, filter media, plumbing, pump, plants and finish work. Utah prices, built mostly yourself:
| Design | Size | Gallons | Likely DIY cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dipper 14 | 14 ft round plunge pool | 7,000 | about $16,000 |
| Courtyard 12 | 12 x 8 ft cedar box | 4,000 | about $22,500 |
| Shelf 30 | 30 x 22 ft oval, two swim shelves | 24,000 | about $33,000 |
| Boardwalk 34 | 34 x 22 ft, boardwalk and dock | 26,000 | about $36,500 |
| Family Lake 60 | 60 x 40 ft, docks and zipline | 96,000 | about $89,000 |
| Estate 44 | 44 x 22 ft gunite shell | 54,000 | about $132,000 |
Hire the whole job out and even a small pool starts around $95,000 in our designer, because labor, equipment rental and project management stack on top of materials.
What drives the price
- Walls. A sloped bowl with rock banks is the cheapest way to hold water. Concrete block, gunite and cedar walls cost more but give you straight, clean edges.
- Size of the plant zone. About half the water surface should be plants, so a bigger swim zone means a bigger filter zone too.
- Digging access. Even a small dig with a hired machine runs about $6,000 once access problems show up. If you can run a skid steer yourself, you save the most here.
- Extras. Waterfalls, docks, pergolas and ziplines add up fast. A second waterfall adds at least a few thousand dollars in rock and plumbing.
What it costs to run
This is where a natural pool wins. Ours runs one variable-speed pump at about $45 a month of power while it's running, plus about $83 a year of beneficial bacteria. That's the whole chemical budget. No chlorine, no salt, no shock buckets.
Price your own
Every yard is different. Open the designer, sketch your pool on your own lot, and it prices every way to build it, from doing it all yourself to having it fully built for you.
See what yours would cost. Sketch it on your own yard and get every way to build it.
Open the designer