Custom pool design and custom pool builders in Naples, FL

What separates a Knaak pool from other Naples pool builders.

Naples has no shortage of luxury pool builders. What is harder to find is a pool builder that designs the pool as part of the broader landscape, and then builds it without a handoff to another company. Most firms do one or the other. A designer hands you drawings and leaves. A builder hands you a shape from a catalog.

That is what we do. The pool, the spa, the deck, the surround plantings, the lighting, the screen enclosure - all designed together as one composition. All built by one team. The detail that the architect drew is the detail that gets installed.

Built for the Naples climate.

Naples is hard on pools. The salt air, the summer storms, the humidity, the hurricane season - every material decision has to account for them. We specify materials and equipment that perform here, not just look good for a photoshoot.

Premium tile that does not check in the temperature swings. Coping that does not powder. Equipment that survives a power surge. Decks that drain in a Florida downpour. These details are why a Knaak pool still looks intentional ten years in.

The pools Naples asks us for.

Every custom pool in our portfolio started as a drawing for one specific property. These are the kinds of pools we are asked to design and build most often in Naples and Southwest Florida, each linked to a project where you can see the result.

Infinity and vanishing-edge pools

Where the lot faces a lake, a fairway or the water, the edge disappears into the view. At Modern Retreat a shallow sun shelf cascades into an infinity edge over the lake and the 18th hole. At Functional Refresh the pool concludes with a vanishing edge that spills into the lake beyond. At Intracoastal Renaissance a classic pool's infinity edge received a dramatic upgrade.

Elevated and raised poolscapes

When the grade or the architecture calls for it, we lift the pool or the terrace around it. At Modern Royale the rear section of the patio was raised by 18 inches to define the space and clear the obstructions of the original poolscape. Reinvented Mid-Century in Fort Myers elevated a ranch-era yard into a resort-inspired retreat.

Pools with an integrated spa

The spa is drawn into the pool composition rather than bolted on. Alfresco Oasis renovated the pool and spa together in a restrained modern Danish sensibility. Wabi Sabi Sanctuary recreates the calm of a luxury spa resort at home.

New-build poolscapes

On a new Naples build the pool is planned with the house, not after it. Tropic Poolscape makes the pool the heart of the property, where water, palm and stone come together. The Sunwashed House turned an expansive yard into a modern family retreat.

Pool renovation

An aging Naples pool is brought forward without rebuilding the property: re-tiled, re-decked, re-equipped, re-lit, and reconnected to the outdoor kitchen, the pavers and the planting around it. The Grand Retreat and Boater's Paradise are both waterfront renovations of dated exteriors. The pool renovation in Naples page covers what a renovation includes, when to rebuild instead and what it costs. See the full portfolio for the rest.

Our design-build process.

Four phases. One team. Same hands the whole way through. The pool is one part of the master plan, alongside the pavers and hardscape, the outdoor kitchen, the pergola or shade structure, the lighting and the planting.

Phase I · Site Walk

No design begins until the place is understood. The first visit is the principal walking the property: sun exposure, drainage, view corridors, existing canopy, the way the family lives outdoors. Site walk to signed master plan, 2 to 3 weeks.

Phase II · Design

The pool is drawn to the architecture, the grade and the view. Master plan to permits in hand, 6 to 10 weeks, including engineering, City of Naples or county permitting and any architectural review board submittal.

Phase III · Build

One team builds it, with no handoff to another company. Permits to construction complete, 2 to 6 months.

Phase IV · Install

Planting, lighting and the final walkthrough. Construction complete to plant installation and walkthrough, 4 to 8 weeks. The full sequence is on our process page.

Luxury pool builders, not a pool company.

Most Naples pool builders sell a shell and leave the rest to someone else: the deck, the shade, the kitchen, the planting, the lighting. Knaak Design Group is a landscape architecture studio that builds pools as part of the whole property. The pool, the spa, the sun shelf, the hardscape around it and the pergola over the lounge are drawn as one composition and built by one licensed design-build team, so the finished environment reads as a single piece rather than a pool with things added later.

Custom pool design.

Infinity and knife-edge pools that borrow the view, elevated pools that step with the architecture, spas set into the pool line, sun shelves sized for real furniture. Every design starts with the house, the lot and the sightlines from inside, then moves to 3D renderings so the scale, the water line and the shade at four in the afternoon are settled before engineering. Pool, spa and equipment are engineered and permitted as part of the same drawing.

What a Naples custom pool costs.

Investment depends on the property and the scope. Our published planning ranges run from $150,000 to $300,000 for a new pool and the environment around it, and $30,000 to $150,000 for the renovation of an existing pool and its surround. Estate-grade work runs higher. A single focused addition around an existing pool, such as a new deck, a pergola or an outdoor kitchen, is published at $25,000 to $75,000, and a whole-property outdoor environment at $250,000 to $500,000 and above.

These are planning ranges rather than estimates, and the figure for your project is confirmed in the written proposal after the site walk. The full set of ranges, including outdoor kitchens and complete property reworks, is on the investment page.

Where we build.

Naples is home. We design and build custom pools across Southwest Florida, including Marco Island, Bonita Springs, Estero, Fort Myers, Port Royal, Pelican Bay, Grey Oaks, Mediterra, Olde Naples, Park Shore and Aqualane Shores. Gated community architectural review and city permitting are handled by us, not handed back to you.

Each neighborhood asks something different of the pool. In Port Royal pools are sited to read against the water, with infinity edges that vanish into Gordon Pass and glass-tile finishes that pick up the gulf color. In Grey Oaks the brief is resort-tier: infinity edges aimed at fairways, dedicated lap lanes and separate spa rooms. Mediterra pools read like classical fountains, with travertine surrounds, formal geometry and raised spa rooms. On Marco Island and in Fort Myers the gulf and canal exposure call for infinity edges aimed west, hurricane-rated equipment enclosures and salt-water filtration specified for the climate. In Pelican Bay the pool is designed to read against the gulf or the courtyard wall, and in Olde Naples pools are sized to the lot with geometry that respects historic setbacks. Every one of them is drawn to the same standard and carried through the same architectural review and permit process by us.

Custom pool builder, pool contractor or design-build?

In Naples a custom pool builder usually means a company that sells a shell and a finish package, and a pool contractor means the licensed trade that digs, forms and plumbs it. Knaak Design Group designs and builds custom pools. It is a design-build landscape architecture studio, established in 2005, led by a Registered Landscape Architect (RLA #6666903) who also holds a Florida Certified Building Contractor license (CBC #1256813). The pool is drawn by the principal to the house, the grade and the view, engineered and permitted as part of the master plan, and the same studio builds it, from the first stake to the first swim. There is no handoff to a separate company that takes over the project.

That is the difference a search for custom pool builders in Naples does not capture. The pool is the one element on the property that cannot be moved later. Its geometry sets the deck, the shade, the kitchen, the planting and the lighting, so the firm that draws it should be the firm accountable for how it is built. Read about the firm, see how a project runs, and look at how pool, deck and lanai read as one surface at Blue Marlin and Coastal Clean.

Custom pool design features we draw into Naples pools.

Every feature below appears in a built Knaak project, not a brochure. Each one is drawn into the pool from the first sketch, because a sun shelf, a spa or an edge added to a finished shell never reads as if it belonged there.

Sun shelves and shallow play

A shallow sun shelf sized for real loungers, often with LED bubblers, is the most requested feature in Naples. At The Sunwashed House the sun shelf accommodates children's play and sunbathing while an integrated spa seats four to six. Tropic Poolscape pairs a sculpted pool and sun shelf with shaded lounging, Cape Cod Inspired sets one into a new Naples build, and Courtyard Chill adds in-water loungers below a raised water wall.

Spas: raised, perimeter-overflow and integrated

The spa is part of the pool line, not a separate tub. A raised spa with a tiered spillover anchors one end of the pool at Bonita Escape and Lely Island Couple's Retreat. Perimeter-overflow spas, where the water line sits flush with the coping, are centered on the lanai at The Grand Retreat, Resort Worthy and Reinvented Mid-Century. At Boater's Paradise a hexagon spa was shaped to the pool's geometry and the canal view, and Historic Beach Revival integrates a jacuzzi spa into a lap pool on the shoreline.

Edges, scuppers and water in motion

Infinity and vanishing edges go where the lot faces water or a fairway, as at Modern Retreat, Functional Refresh and Intracoastal Renaissance. Water scuppers flow into the pool at Boater's Paradise, laminar deck jets arc across the water at Alfresco Oasis, a raised water wall anchors Courtyard Chill, a swim-up bar and sunken firepit lounge sit at the water line at Functional Refresh, and an underwater sound system plays at Lely Island. Finishes follow the same logic: glass tile on the waterline and spa at Blue Marlin, and custom precast coping with an ogee bullnose where the architecture asks for it.

Pool shapes: rectilinear, free-form, courtyard and lap

Rectilinear pools are centered on the lanai at The Grand Retreat and Resort Worthy. A free-form pool follows native planting at Everglades Magic, a central pool and spa anchor the walled garden at Courtyard Oasis, and a lap pool runs along the shoreline at Historic Beach Revival. The shape comes from the lot and the house, never from a catalog.

Integrated outdoor living

The pool is drawn with the outdoor kitchen, the pergola or louvered shade structure, the fire pit or linear fireplace, the pool deck and hardscape, the landscape design and the lighting, so the lounge faces the water, the shade falls where you sit and the kitchen has somewhere to serve to. Neo-Ecletic Dream frames the pool and spa with colonnades, water and fire, and The Weekender fits a pool, a summer kitchen and a media wall into a compact lot.

A new custom pool, or a pool renovation?

Not every Naples property needs a new pool. If the shell is sound and the problem is a dated shape, a tired finish, a builder-grade deck or equipment past its life, a renovation brings the pool forward for a fraction of a rebuild. Our published renovation range is $30,000 to $150,000 for the pool and its surround, and projects like Alfresco Oasis, Boater's Paradise and The Grand Retreat show how far a renovation can go. The full scope, the renovate-or-rebuild question and the signs a pool needs work are on the pool renovation in Naples page.

A new pool is the answer when the geometry is wrong for the house, when the pool sits in the wrong place for the view or the sun, when the lanai and the outdoor living need to move, or when the property is a new build. Then the pool sets the plan. New pools and the integrated environment around them are published at $150,000 to $300,000, and the investment page explains what moves the number. On the site walk the principal will tell you plainly which path the property calls for.

Common questions.