Seventy years of Tulsa backyards, boiled down to the calls worth getting right while the plan is still on paper
Fiesta Pools and Spas has been one of the pool builders in Tulsa since 1956, and the costly mistakes rarely happen during construction. They happen in planning: a pool sized for the wrong reason, sun and drainage left out of the plan, a decking budget that runs dry and no safety cover.
A pool can be built well and still be the wrong pool. The shell’s sound, the pump hums along, and three summers later the owners wish they’d gone wider, moved it out from under the oak or poured twice the deck. None of that is a construction defect. Those are planning calls, and they get made months before an excavator rolls through the gate.
Fiesta is in its 70th year of building pools around Tulsa. That’s a long time to watch the same few regrets come up again and again. Here they are, what each one costs you later and how to catch it while it’s still a line on a drawing instead of a slab of concrete.
Picking a size from a photo instead of from your habits
Most people choose a size by looking at a picture they like or the pool next door. The better starting point is a plain question: who’ll be in the water on a normal Tuesday, and what will they be doing? A couple who swims laps wants length. A family with three kids wants a big shallow area. People who mostly float and talk want steps, benches and a ledge more than square footage.
| How you’ll mostly use it | Size for this | Common miss |
|---|---|---|
| Laps and exercise | A long, straight run | Freeform curves that cut the lap short |
| Kids and play | Plenty of standing-depth water | Too much deep end, not enough shallow |
| Lounging and talking | Steps, benches or a tanning ledge | Paying for volume nobody uses |
| Hosting a crowd | More deck, rather than more water | A big pool with nowhere to sit |
| Cooling off after work | A modest pool near the house | A long walk across the yard every evening |
Bigger isn’t automatically better. Every extra foot means more material and digging up front, and more water to treat, filter and heat every season after. Too small has its own price, though. If friends come over and half of them end up sitting on the edge, you’ll feel it every summer.
A few real sizes help set the scale. Fiesta’s gunite packages are built around a 15×30 freeform, a 15×25 rectangle and a 15×30 rectangle. Optimum semi-inground freeforms start at 14×23 and top out at 19×32. Try this before you meet with anyone: lay a garden hose or a line of flour in the shape you’re picturing, set a few patio chairs around it and leave it for a week. You’ll know fast if it feels cramped or swallows the yard.
How big should a pool be for your yard?
Water is only one piece of the space you’ll use. Around it you’ll need deck, a place to set the pump and filter, a fence or other barrier, and room to walk between the back door and the water. Cities also set setbacks from property lines and easements, and those rules can shrink the usable space more than people expect. Start with the yard you actually have, subtract all of that, and size the pool to what’s left.
If the math feels tight, look at the shape before you cut the size. A rectangle uses a narrow lot well, and round or oval semi-inground pools tend to fit awkward corners that a long freeform can’t.
Ignoring where the sun lands and the water runs
Shade sounds nice until October, when the tree that made it drops a season’s worth of leaves into the pool. Fiesta even published a blog post about clearing leaves from a pool, which tells you how common the problem is. Full sun all day has its own downside here. By July the deck gets hot under bare feet, and the water can feel more like a bath than a swim late in the afternoon.
Spend one Saturday tracking the light. Note where the sun sits at 9 in the morning, 1 in the afternoon and 6 in the evening, since that’s when you’ll likely be out there. Morning sun with some afternoon shade from the house is a comfortable mix for a lot of Tulsa yards. If the hot spot is unavoidable, ask about cool deck, one of the decking finishes Fiesta offers.
Drainage is the quieter mistake, and the more expensive one. Oklahoma storms dump a lot of water fast. Put a pool in the low spot of the yard and every hard rain sends runoff, mulch and grass clippings straight toward it. The fix is simple and free: next time it pours, grab an umbrella and film the yard. Watch where water pools and where it runs, then show that video to your builder. Ask which way the finished deck will shed water and where that water ends up.
Why does decking blow so many pool budgets?
Decking gets treated like an afterthought, and then it eats the leftover budget. Fiesta’s gunite and fiberglass packages come with 400 square feet of decking. Sounds generous. Do the math on a 15×30 pool, though. Spread evenly around the edge, 400 square feet works out to a strip a little under four feet wide. A single lounge chair is longer than that.
So picture the furniture first. Where do the loungers go? The table and chairs? The grill? Is there a spot in the shade for the people who don’t swim? Draw those in, and the real deck size shows up on its own.
Material matters as much as size. Fiesta’s decking choices run from pavers, natural stone, tile and cool deck to wood-grain composite and concrete that’s stained or stamped. They don’t cost the same, and the gap per square foot multiplies across the whole patio. Fiesta’s fiberglass cost guide names decking among five price drivers. The others are pool size, the features you add, how custom it gets and the conditions on your site. Price the deck at the size you’ll really use, not the size that happens to come in the package.
Leaving the safety cover for later
By the end of planning, the budget is stretched and the safety cover looks like the easy cut. It’s the one line worth protecting. A pool sits in the backyard all year, including the months nobody swims, and that’s when a curious toddler, a visiting grandkid or the family dog is most likely to wander near it without anyone watching.
Loop-Loc safety covers, which Fiesta carries, stretch taut over the water and hold fast to anchors set in the deck. Planning matters here because those anchors go into the decking, so the cover belongs in the design conversation and not in a phone call two years later. A good cover also keeps leaves and debris out over the winter, which makes spring opening a lot less ugly.
A cover works alongside the barrier your city requires, not instead of it. Fences, self-closing gates and door alarms each cover a different gap. Ask your builder what your address needs and plan all of it together.
Smaller misses that add up
- Putting the equipment pad under a bedroom window or right on the neighbor’s fence line. Pumps run for hours, so put the pad somewhere you won’t hear it at night.
- Choosing a pool type on sticker price alone. Fiesta’s posted ranges overlap, and vinyl needs a fresh liner somewhere between year six and year 10, while fiberglass never has to be resurfaced.
- Forgetting the lights. Two color-changing LEDs come standard in Fiesta’s gunite package, and evening is when a lot of people actually swim.
- Deciding features late. Fiesta tells buyers to settle the major choices before construction begins. Adding a spa once the steel’s in place costs much more than drawing it in from day one.
- Ignoring the path between the house and the water. If the pool is a long trek across wet grass, it’ll get used less.
What does the Master Pools Guild mean for your plan?
The Master Pools Guild, a global group of custom pool builders dating back to 1962, counts exactly one Tulsa builder among its members: Fiesta. Builders can’t apply their way in. Membership comes by invitation, generally with one member per area, and every member agrees to follow a code of ethics. Most guild builders, Fiesta included, focus on custom concrete.
For planning, that background shows up in the process. A gunite project opens with a sit-down consultation. You show up with pictures, ideas and a number you’re comfortable spending. Fiesta’s design studio then builds the plan as a digital 3-D model, and a second visit lets you look it over and ask for changes. That review is the cheapest place to catch every mistake on this page. Moving a pool five feet on a screen costs nothing.
A planning checklist for your first meeting
- List who’ll use the pool most and what they’ll do in it.
- Save pictures of pools that caught your eye, with a note on what grabbed you.
- Set a total budget that covers deck, fence, safety cover, lighting and furniture along with the pool itself.
- Note where the sun sits at morning, midday and evening.
- Film the yard during a hard rain.
- Mark trees you want to keep and trees you’d be happy to lose.
- Choose where the pump and filter will live, away from bedrooms.
Show up with that list and the conversation moves faster, and the design starts from your yard instead of from a catalog. To see the pool types and posted prices before you come in, browse Fiesta’s swimming pools page. If features are already on your wish list, the guide to custom pools in Tulsa walks through what each one adds.
Pool planning questions
How wide should a pool deck be?
A pool deck should be wide enough for the furniture you plan to set on it, plus room to walk past. Fiesta’s packages include 400 square feet, which is a strip under four feet wide around a 15×30 pool. Sketch where loungers, a table and a grill will sit, then size the deck to fit them with room to walk.
Do I need a safety cover if I have a fence?
You still need a safety cover if you have a fence, because each one blocks a different risk. A fence keeps people out of the yard, while a cover like a Loop-Loc keeps anyone who gets past it out of the water. It also keeps leaves out over winter. Plan the anchors with the deck.
What size pool fits a small yard?
The pool size that fits a small yard best is usually a compact design, not a shrunken big one. Fiesta’s Optimum semi-inground line starts with a 14×23 freeform and a 16-foot round, and round or oval shapes fit tight corners well. Leave room for deck, fencing and the equipment pad before you settle on a size.
Should a pool go in the sun or the shade?
A pool should go where it gets a good share of sun but sits clear of trees that drop leaves into it. Morning sun with some afternoon shade from the house works well in many Tulsa yards. Track the light at a few times of day before you pick the spot.
Bring your plans to 93rd and Sheridan
Bring the hose outline photos, the rain video and your budget. The 93rd and Sheridan store serves south Tulsa, Jenks, Bixby, Glenpool and south Broken Arrow (see current hours). You can also request pool pricing before your visit.
Fiesta Pools and Spas, 93rd and Sheridan
9241 S Sheridan Rd, Tulsa, OK 74133
(918) 494-0133
Pool builders and more at 93rd and Sheridan
- Pool contractor at our South Sheridan location
- Pool installation in south Tulsa
- Swimming pool construction at 93rd and Sheridan
Hours, directions and phone for this location are on the Fiesta’s 93rd and Sheridan store, 9241 S. Sheridan Rd. page.
