New Pool Construction IN Gastonia, NC

Designed Around Your Lot, Built for Decades of Summers

A backyard pool is either the center of the household or an expensive hole in the ground, and which one you get is decided long before anyone swims. Dockery's Pools and Patios approaches new pool construction as a whole-yard project, covering design, excavation, shell work, plumbing, decking and finish for homeowners throughout Gastonia, NC and nearby Belmont, Mount Holly and Dallas.


Our crews have been building inground pools for 60 years, long enough to know how Piedmont clay behaves, where water wants to run after a storm and which shortcuts show up as cracks three winters later. We build both gunite and vinyl liner pools, size the circulation to the water volume rather than the price sheet, and keep the same people on your site from the first survey stake through final startup. Send us the details of your yard through our contact page.

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For the fastest reply, call or text us 24/7 at 704-606-2111

Free Estimate!

For the fastest reply, call or text us 24/7 at

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New Pools We Build

  • Custom Pool Design and Layout

    Design begins with the lot itself: sun angles, drainage patterns, setbacks and the view from your kitchen window. We shape the footprint, depth profile and step placement around how the household will actually swim, then stake it out on the ground before excavation.

  • Excavation and Site Preparation

    Dirt work decides whether a shell stays true for decades. Crews mark utilities, cut a clean access route, dig precisely to the engineered profile and haul away spoil, leaving a subgrade that is compacted, square and ready for steel.

  • Gunite and Concrete Shell Construction

    Reinforcing steel is tied to spec, then gunite is shot and hand-troweled into one monolithic shell with no seams left to fail. A full curing period follows before any interior finish is applied, because rushing that stage is where hairline cracking starts.

  • Vinyl Liner Pool Installation

    Panel walls are set plumb and braced solidly, the floor base is troweled smooth, and the liner is fitted to exact shell measurements. The result costs less than gunite upfront while still giving you a genuinely custom shape, depth profile and step configuration.

  • Pool Decking and Coping

    The surround is what your feet actually touch every day. We pour decking that drains away from the water instead of toward the house, set coping that caps the shell cleanly, and pick textures that stay comfortable under bare feet in August.

  • Equipment and Circulation Setup

    Pumps, filters, heaters and returns are sized to the water volume and the actual pipe run lengths rather than guessed at. Correct hydraulics mean quieter operation, a noticeably lower energy draw and water that turns over completely instead of stagnating in the corners.

How Custom Construction Creates the Right Pool

A Yard Your Family Actually Uses

Summer stops being something you drive somewhere else to enjoy. Weekends move outside, kids invite friends over instead of asking for rides across town, and the stretch of hours between dinner and dark quietly becomes the best part of the day.

A Design That Fits Your Property

Nothing gets forced onto the lot. Shape, depth and placement all follow the ground you already own and the way the yard drains, so the finished pool feels like it was always meant to be there rather than dropped into leftover space.

Structure Built to Outlast the Mortgage

A correctly engineered shell, compacted subgrade and properly bonded steel are what separate a 40-year pool from one that needs major structural repair by year 12. Most of what protects that investment sits in the parts you will never actually see.

Real Value Added to the Home

A well-built pool reads as a genuine upgrade to future buyers rather than a maintenance liability, particularly when the decking, retaining walls and drainage surrounding it have been finished to the same standard as the water itself.

Lower Running Costs from the First Season

Right-sized pumps, efficient filtration and clean hydraulic design cut what you spend every month on power and chemicals. Efficiency designed in at the beginning always beats trying to retrofit savings onto a system that was planned carelessly.

One Team Accountable Throughout

There is no juggling separate excavators, concrete crews and plumbers who each blame whoever came before them. A single crew carries the whole schedule, which means fewer dead weeks between phases and one name responsible whenever a question comes up.

Water Worth Waiting Through One Winter For

The best time to start a pool is the season nobody is thinking about it, and the best reason to choose a builder is what happens after the excitement of the dig wears off. Dockery's Pools and Patios has built enough pools around Gastonia, NC to know that homeowners remember the drainage, the deck comfort and the equipment noise long after they stop noticing the tile pattern. If you have been circling the idea for a few summers, send us the shape and size of your yard through our contact page and we will lay out what is realistic for the space.

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Frequently Asked Questions

  • What is the first step in building an inground pool?

    Site evaluation comes first, before any drawing. We look at soil, slope, drainage, utility locations, setbacks and equipment access, because those factors shape the design far more than a catalog picture does and decide what the yard can realistically hold.

  • How much space do you need in a backyard for an inground pool?

    A modest pool needs roughly 800 square feet once decking and safe clearances are counted in. Local setbacks from property lines, septic fields and structures usually matter more than raw square footage when working out what will genuinely fit.

  • What is gunite and how is it different from fiberglass?

    Gunite is concrete sprayed over a steel cage and shaped on site, so any size, depth or contour is possible. Fiberglass shells arrive premade in fixed shapes, install much faster, and cannot be altered once they have been set.

  • Can a pool be built on a sloped lot?

    Yes, and sloped lots often produce the most striking results once finished. Retaining walls, engineered fill and careful grading create the level shelf, though that earthwork and structural support add meaningfully to the scope and duration of the project.

  • How far does a pool have to be from the house or property line?

    Setbacks vary by jurisdiction, commonly running 5 to 10 feet from side and rear lines and further from septic systems or utility easements. Dockery's Pools and Patios verifies every requirement in Gastonia, NC before the design is finalized.

  • What equipment does a new pool need?

    At minimum a pump, filter, skimmers, a main drain, return lines and bonded electrical. Dockery's Pools and Patios installs automation, lighting, heating and salt systems during construction in Gastonia, NC, since retrofitting any of them later costs considerably more.

  • Does a new pool need to be fenced?

    Yes. Barrier requirements apply to residential pools and get checked at inspection, covering fence height, gate latching and self-closing hardware on every access point. We plan the barrier during design so it never becomes an expensive afterthought.

  • How long does the concrete shell need to cure before finishing?

    Gunite typically cures under a daily watering regimen for around 28 days before any interior finish work begins. Skipping or shortening that window is one of the most common reasons surface problems appear within the first few seasons.