Building the Backyard Pool at Pinta, Start to Finish
From dirt and rebar to a beach entry turquoise pool: how the backyard at our Pinta Residence in Miami's Bay Heights came together in four acts, on the same schedule as the rest of the build.
Luxom Studio · LUXOM Developments
· 7 min read · Last reviewed
Key takeaways
- The clip compresses the Pinta backyard into four acts, dirt, rebar, gunite, water, but the real sequence ran on the same schedule and the same team as the rest of the house, coordinated from day one.
- Pinta's pool has a beach entry rather than a stepped edge, which means the shell is graded and sloped, not flat, and that changes how the excavation, the steel grid and the gunite spray all have to be sequenced.
- Miami-Dade's structural and wind requirements apply to a pool shell the same way they apply to the house behind it, which is why the steel and gunite phase runs longer here than in most markets.
- The white travertine deck, laid in the same plate and stripe pattern as the interior floors, is what ties the pool to the house instead of reading as a separate hardscape project bolted on afterward.
- The plaster finish coat is what actually turns the water turquoise. The first fill is the moment that color, and the timber pergola and outdoor kitchen built around it, finally read as one finished backyard.
From the build
The clip we posted of the Pinta backyard runs four acts in a few seconds: dirt, rebar, gunite, water. It ends the only way a Miami backyard should, a full beach entry pool sitting turquoise against a white travertine deck. Here is what actually happened between those four frames.
Act one: excavation and layout for a beach-entry pool shape
Every Luxom pool starts with layout, not digging, and Pinta's backyard needed more of it than most. The house at 10 Pinta Rd, in Miami's Bay Heights enclave beside the Vizcaya gardens, wraps a single storey L-shaped plan around the pool and a timber pergola with its own outdoor kitchen, so the pool's footprint had to be staked against the house, the lounge deck and the property's setbacks all at once before an excavator ever touched the ground.
The shape itself added a step most rectangular pools skip. Pinta's pool has a beach entry, a gradually sloped floor rather than a stepped edge, which means excavation and layout for a beach-entry pool shape follows a graded curve instead of a flat plane. That slope gets checked against the engineered plan as it comes out of the ground, since a beach entry that grades even slightly wrong reads as uneven the moment the pool fills. Once the shape is confirmed, the digging itself moves fast, days rather than weeks, which is exactly why it is the shortest cut in the clip and the shortest phase in real life.
Act two: steel reinforcement and gunite shell construction and cure time
The second act is where a pool's structural life actually gets decided, and most of it happens underground and out of frame. Steel bar gets tied into a grid that follows the engineered shape exactly, walls, floor and the graded beach entry slope, because that grid is what carries the shell's strength for decades, not the concrete sprayed over it. Only once the steel clears inspection does the gunite crew spray the concrete shell over it in a single continuous pass, following the same curve the steel grid already committed to. That is act three in the clip, the moment a wireframe cage turns into an actual pool shape.
Steel reinforcement and gunite shell construction and cure time is also the phase a timelapse cannot show honestly: once the shell is sprayed, it needs roughly three to four weeks of cure time before it can safely carry tile, coping or a finish coat. There is no shortcut through that cure window that does not eventually show up later as a crack.
Miami-Dade code and permitting for a pool shell built alongside a new house
Miami-Dade code and permitting for a pool shell built alongside a new house is where the schedule really gets set, not the framing most people picture when they think construction takes time. Florida's Building Code sets wind and structural standards for high velocity hurricane zones in Miami-Dade County, and those standards apply to a pool shell the same way they apply to the house behind it. That means the steel has to pass inspection before a single pass of gunite goes on top of it, and the whole sequence gets reviewed on the same permit set as the residence rather than as a separate, lighter weight structure.
On a sloped beach entry, that inspection covers more surface area and more transition points than a flat floor would, which is part of why this phase runs longer at Pinta than a standard rectangular build. It is a slower path than a stand alone pool contractor pulling a permit on their own, but it is also why the shell holds up for decades instead of just for a warranty period.
Coping, tile and travertine deck detailing that ties the pool to the house
With the shell cured and rough in inspected, coping, tile and travertine deck detailing that ties the pool to the house is what turns a concrete cavity into a finished space. At Pinta, that deck is the same white travertine, laid in the plate and stripe pattern, that runs through the interior floors, carried straight out from the living spaces to the pool edge without a hard material change. That continuity is a deliberate choice, not a default: a pool that shares its stone with the house it sits behind reads as one property. A pool finished in whatever the deck contractor had on hand reads as an addition.
Coping sets the actual edge, the detail that frames the water and determines how the beach entry meets the lounge deck above it. Teak decking and warm travertine accents carry that same material language further out into the yard, tying the pool deck to the rest of Pinta's landscape rather than leaving it as an isolated slab.
Coordinating the pool build with the pergola and outdoor kitchen on one schedule
Coordinating the pool build with the pergola and outdoor kitchen on one schedule is what let the whole backyard finish as one space instead of a pool with a patio added on later. Plumbing, electrical and equipment rough in for the pool go in before a single deck material gets set, and at Pinta that rough in ran alongside the footings, the gas line and the electrical conduit for the timber pergola's outdoor kitchen right next to it.
Sequencing a pergola and a pool separately usually means digging back into a finished deck later for a gas line or a conduit run that should have gone in the first time. At Pinta, the outdoor kitchen's rough in shared the same trench work as the pool's plumbing and equipment pad, planned together on paper long before either one was poured or framed.
Pull quote
The pool at Pinta was never going in after the house. It was on the same permit set and the same schedule from day one.
Act four: plaster finish and the first fill, what actually sets the water color
The last act, plaster finish and the first fill, what actually sets the water color, is what everyone remembers from the clip. The interior finish system, plaster or a comparable coat, goes on last, sprayed across the full shell including the beach entry slope. The turquoise is not a filter. It is that finish coat working with the water's depth, the same way the finish and lighting inside a house determine how a room actually reads once it is lived in rather than just built.
The first fill is the payoff moment for a real reason: it is the first time anyone, including the crew that built it, sees the finish and the water together. At Pinta, that fill was also the point where the backyard stopped being a job site and started being the space the family would actually use, the beach entry, the travertine deck, the pergola and its outdoor kitchen, all reading as one finished picture instead of a sequence of trades that happened to share an address.
Why the backyard was never four separate projects
Pinta was designed around what Luxom's own concept note for the house calls borrowing from nature the space the house is built upon, a single storey plan that gives its center to bamboo, palms and water rather than to more square footage. A pool bolted onto that plan after the fact would have undercut the entire idea. Instead, the pool, the beach entry, the travertine deck, and the timber pergola with its outdoor kitchen were drawn, permitted and built as one continuous backyard, by the same team that designed and built the house itself, architecture with SBB Arquitectura and interiors by Margaret Bissu.
That is the same principle behind how the Samana Residence went up, start to finish: one team, one schedule, from the first drawing to the last fill. It is the difference a timelapse compresses into four quick acts but that actually takes months to coordinate, a backyard planned as one space from day one, not a house with a pool added to the yard once the closing paperwork was done. If you want to see how a pool phase like this fits inside a full development budget and schedule, our development cost breakdown walks through the categories, and our guide to building a custom luxury home in Miami covers the start to finish process a pool like this runs alongside. To see how the same approach played out at another property, read how the Samana backyard pool went from excavation to a finished turquoise pool, watch the full dirt to water clip on Instagram, or reach us through contact to talk through what a build like this looks like for your own lot.
Pull quote
The pool at Pinta was never going in after the house. It was on the same permit set and the same schedule from day one.
Filed under
Questions about luxury pool construction Coconut Grove Miami
01How long does it take to build a custom pool in Miami from excavation to the first fill?
A custom gunite pool in the Miami area typically runs eight to twelve weeks from excavation to first fill once permits are in hand, longer when the pool is built alongside a full home construction where inspections and trade sequencing add time. A beach entry shape like Pinta's adds steps on top of that baseline, since the graded entry slope needs its own steel and gunite passes before the rest of the shell can proceed. Our guide to building a custom luxury home in Miami, start to finish walks through how a pool phase like this sits inside the wider construction schedule.
02What is a beach entry pool, and why does it take longer to build than a rectangular pool?
A beach entry, sometimes called a zero entry, replaces the usual steps or ladder with a gradually sloped floor that walks straight down into the water, the way an actual beach does. That slope has to be graded and staked as precisely as the rest of the shape, then reinforced with steel that follows the curve rather than a flat plane, and gunite has to be sprayed evenly across an angled surface instead of a level one. At Pinta, that entry is also where the pool meets the lounge deck, so the grading had to line up with the travertine paving above it as well as the shell below it.
03Does Miami-Dade's building code apply differently to a pool built alongside a new house?
No, and that is exactly the point: Florida's Building Code sets wind and structural standards for high velocity hurricane zones like Miami-Dade County, and those standards apply to a pool shell the same way they apply to the house sitting behind it. That means engineered steel, inspected rough in, and a cure window before tile and coping go on, all reviewed on the same permit set as the residence rather than treated as a separate, lighter weight structure. It is a slower path than a stand alone pool contractor pulling a permit on their own, but it is also why the shell holds up for decades instead of just for a warranty period.
04What actually determines the finished color of a luxury pool, the tile or the plaster?
The plaster, not the tile. Waterline tile frames the edge and the tanning ledge, but the interior finish coat sprayed across the entire shell, plaster or a comparable finish system, is what the water sits against and what actually reads as color once the pool fills. At Pinta, that finish was chosen to sit against the white travertine deck and read as the same clear turquoise the clip ends on. The first fill is the only moment anyone, including the crew that built it, sees the finish and the water depth together for the first time.
05How does the pergola and outdoor kitchen at Pinta fit into the pool's construction schedule?
They go in on the same timeline, not after. The timber pergola and its own outdoor kitchen sit off the pool deck at Pinta, so the footings, the electrical and gas rough in for the outdoor kitchen, and the pool's equipment pad all had to be planned together before any of it was poured or framed. Sequencing a pergola and a pool separately usually means digging back into a finished deck later for a gas line or a conduit run. At Pinta, the outdoor kitchen's own rough in shares the same trench work as the pool's plumbing and electrical, which is also covered in our piece on outdoor kitchen design in the tropics.
06Can you actually watch the Pinta build, not just read about it?
Yes. The dirt to water sequence is posted as a timelapse on Instagram, and this article walks the phases the clip compresses into four acts. For the full house behind this same backyard, see how the Samana Residence went up, start to finish, or reach out through contact to talk through what a build like this looks like on your own lot.
Explore the portfolio
Projects to see
Talk to the studio
If this belongs in your home, our studio will draw the plan.
Initial conversation, 30 minutes. We listen to the brief and respond with a scoped proposal within five working days. You can also read the services page for typical timelines and fees.
Written by Luxom Studio · LUXOM Developments
The design and development studio behind LUXOM residences in Coconut Grove, Miami
Keep reading
From the journal
Development · Aug 1, 2026 · 6 min
Building the Backyard Pool at Samana, Start to Finish
From excavation to a brim full turquoise pool: how the backyard at our Samana Residence in Coconut Grove came together, phase by phase, on the same schedule as the rest of the build.
Development · Aug 1, 2026 · 6 min
Building the Samana Residence, Start to Finish
From an empty Coconut Grove lot to a finished 3,227 square foot home: how the Samana Residence went up, phase by phase, built and finished start to finish by the same family behind every Luxom home.
Interiors · Jul 31, 2026 · 4 min
Outdoor kitchen design: layout and materials for the tropics
How to plan an outdoor kitchen that survives a Miami climate: the working layout, the finishes that hold up to salt and sun, and the details that decide whether it lasts.