Think green: the pool and landscape industries have always worked side by side. Now, pool professionals are venturing into landscape territory

Pool & Spa News, Nov 19, 2004 by Rebecca Robledo

Ed Gibbs has nurtured relationships with landscape architects and other design professionals for years. But in 2000, the president of Master Pools by Gib-San Pools in Toronto opened a new landscape company to complement his pool-building operation. The backyard room concept has become the rule rather than the exception for his clients.

"We felt that because of the lack of control, the client wasn't getting the one-stop shop or turnkey operation," he says. "It wasn't a revolutionary idea to get into the landscape business. It was more of an evolutionary thing."

Landscape architects and pool builders have always been in each others' backyards, so to speak. However, the last decade has seen the lines between them blur. During this time, the backyard room concept became popular, and pool builders started working more closely with landscape architects and designers. Today, adventurous builders such as Gibbs are crossing over by opening landscape divisions of their own.

Close cousins

In the 1990s, the backyard room concept set a new standard for the design of backyards and any component within them. The idea was to create the backyard as a complete living environment and visually link it to the home.

"People started to see their backyard as an extension of their living environment, rather than someplace where Dad goes to mow the lawn every Saturday," says Mike Geremia, president of Geremia Pools in Sacramento, Calif., a Pool & Spa News Top Builder.

Consumers now appreciated design and became more willing to pay for it. For example, even homeowners with moderate incomes want more than a 12-by-12-foot swatch of deck with an aboveground pool.

"Ten years ago, I couldn't give away design," says landscape designer/contractor Kathy Marosz, owner of Enviroscapes in Sail Diego. "I'd have to virtually do it for free. Now I have people willing to pay what it takes."

At consumers' prompting, pool builders and landscape architects started working more closely together. On some jobs, the builder would be the subcontractor. On others, the builder would commission the design from the landscape architect.

Eventually, some pool builders went straight to the source, recruiting landscape professionals as in-house pool designers. "Bar none, you can pick out the projects that are put together by professional designers," says Randy Beard, co-owner of Pure Water Pools, LLC, in Costa Mesa, Calif.

"Everything is about artistic balance and perspective," he adds "It's a complete setting."

If you don't think the backyard room concept has left its mark, look at the latest batch of pools to win design awards, says left Fausett. The president/CEO of Aquatech Society, a buying group in Huntington Beach, Calif., helped judge the most recent NSPI Design Awards.

"We weren't judging pools; we were judging entire landscape environments," Fausett says. "If somebody just submitted a pool, and didn't do the landscaping, they weren't being competitive enough."

Coming together

Some firms are just beginning to cross over to the landscape side, offering backyard design and installation services along with the pools they sell. It's a move that requires a lot of resources. For example, you need to hire new employees with landscape backgrounds and train them to design around pools, purchase trucks and equipment, find a place to store plants, and set up accounts with new vendors.

Most pool professionals who offer backyard design and installation services run large companies, building high volumes and netting significant earnings. With infrastructures already in place, they can absorb a new division and afford the added overhead.

"We do almost every phase of construction in-house," says Gregg Whitley, vice president of Aqua Pool & Spa in Ripon, Calif., a Pool & Spa News Top Builder. "We already had trucks and equipment, and 300-plus employees. Adding 30 or 40 more to get the job done wasn't a big deal for us."

To bridge the knowledge gap, builders hire experienced landscape professionals to lead the new divisions. Some purchase new companies, bringing the previous owners and employees into the existing infrastructure.

Mostly, these pod builders view their landscape divisions as added services for customers. They don't offer landscape services unless the homeowner is purchasing a pool. "Our first goal is always to try to get the pool," says Rob Ault, president of Pacific Sun Pool 'N Spa in San Diego, a Pool & Spa News Top Builder.

Some builders have found that landscape work yields lower profits than pools. But Ault hasn't experienced this because his high-end customers are prequalified. "Their budget's already larger because they want a swimming pool," he says. "If you just bought a new house, can barely make the payments and just want some grass and sprinklers put in, we're probably not the company for you."

But it isn't only upscale customers who are interested in landscape services. "That's a major misconception," Whitley says. "Every customer needs landscaping work in their backyard when we're done."