Gunite pool construction: from excavation to plaster

Excavation starts the gunite pool building process

Excavation opens the build: the crew paints the outline of the pool on the lawn, checks it against the approved plan and the setbacks, then digs to the design depth plus room for the shell and the plumbing trenches. Before any of that, the layout has already been through the site assessment, the engineering drawings and the village permit, so the dig follows a document rather than a guess.

A few things happen during this stage that are easy to miss from the kitchen window. Access for the excavator and the soil trucks is planned, which is why a run of fence sometimes comes out temporarily. The floor of the hole is graded to the contours of the finished pool, including the slope to the deep end, and any groundwater that shows up is dealt with before steel goes in. River Pools (updated 2025) notes that a gunite pool begins with the dig, and every trade that follows builds directly on what the excavation leaves behind, which is why a careful dig matters more than a fast one.

Steel rebar framing and plumbing rough-in

The structural stage ties steel rebar into a cage that follows every wall, step, bench and curve of the design, and runs the plumbing rough-in through that cage before any concrete is sprayed. The cage gives the finished shell its strength, and it is what makes a custom form possible: the steel can be bent to a curve or a corner a manufactured mold could never offer.

Plumbing rough-in happens alongside the steel, not after it. Skimmer bodies, return lines, main drains, lighting conduit and any spa or fountain lines are set in position and pressure-tested while the walls are still open. The same River Pools guide describes crews installing the plumbing while reinforcing the walls and floor with rebar in the same stage. A line that has to be added after the concrete goes on means cutting into a finished shell, so a pool contractor who plans the plumbing with the steel avoids rework later. An attached spa, a raised wall or a sun shelf is framed here too, in the same steel that forms the pool.

Shooting the shell, and why a gunite pool takes time to cure

Shooting the shell is the coordinated spray day that forms the pool, and the cure that follows it is the longest quiet stretch of the build, because the finish cannot go on until the concrete has bonded. River Pools (updated 2025) puts that curing period at roughly one month, about 28 days, before the concrete has fully bonded. The spray day that precedes it, which crews call shooting the pool, is a coordinated push: a crew sprays a dry cement-and-sand mix, wetted at the nozzle, onto the rebar cage until the walls and floor reach their designed thickness, while the nozzle operator controls the water and another crew member cuts and trowels the fresh material to the profile. The structure takes its final form before the trucks leave.

Then the site goes quiet, and this is the stage that worries homeowners most. During the cure the shell is typically kept damp so it gains strength evenly rather than drying too fast, and the same discipline matters again later for the finish: In The Swim attributes most plaster-surface shrinkage cracking, the fine crazing pattern, to insufficient curing time or letting the surface dry out in hot weather. Nothing looks different from one day to the next, but the wait is doing real work. Ask the builder how the shell is kept moist during the cure and who checks it.

Tile, coping and the finish coat after the cure

Waterline tile, coping and decking go on after the shell has cured, and the plaster or aggregate finish coat is the last step on the shell itself. River Pools (updated 2025) walks the build from excavation through rebar and plumbing, the gunite spray, curing, coping and decking, to the plaster or tile finish coat, with the coping and deck work placed after the cure rather than during it. In that same window the waterline band is set, along with any tile on steps, benches or a raised dam wall, and the equipment pad receives the pump, filter and heater.

The finish coat is its own decision. Plaster is the traditional choice; quartz and pebble aggregate blends and full tile are the alternatives, each with a different look, feel and service life, and that choice is covered in its own guide in this series. What matters for the sequence is that the finish goes on only after the shell has cured and the tile and coping are set, and the finish crew works to those edges. Once the finish is applied the pool is typically filled right away, start-up chemistry follows, and the deck, fencing, lighting and landscaping close out the visible work.

How long does it take to build a gunite swimming pool?

The build time for a gunite swimming pool depends on permitting, weather and the curing wait far more than on the spraying itself, and national planning guides put the construction phase at a span of months rather than weeks. HomeAdvisor's national planning guidance puts concrete pool construction at roughly three to six months after permits, against two to four weeks for a fiberglass pool in the same guide. Those are national planning ranges, not a Wave commitment and not a schedule for any particular yard, and they measure a different span from the construction-phase figure below, which excludes design, engineering and permitting.

Wave Outdoors Pools' own planning guidance separates the parts: design and engineering coordination can take about eight weeks, permitting commonly takes about one to three months, and after approvals and site readiness, concrete construction typically takes six to eight weeks, with excavation itself a few days. These are planning ranges, not schedule guarantees; design development, municipal review, site conditions, scope and season all move them.

In the Chicago suburbs, season is the big variable, so ask whether a late-season start would push the finish work past the winter shutdown. Wave's guidance also notes that concrete pool construction can continue in winter under a temporary tented enclosure when site conditions, weather and the approved project plan support that method; that is a question to ask, not a promise.

What a well-sequenced build looks like on the calendar

On the calendar, a well-sequenced gunite build runs excavation, the steel and plumbing inspection, the gunite day, the cure window, then tile, coping and the finish coat, with each village inspection signed off before the next crew arrives. The homeowner sees it as a calendar: the excavation date, the steel and plumbing inspection, the gunite day, the cure window, the tile and coping work, the finish date and the fill, with village inspections marked in between. Seeing the whole sequence laid out is also the easiest way to judge whether a quoted timeline is realistic: a proposal that skips the curing wait, or folds permitting into the build weeks, is promising something the process does not allow.

That is why the choice of builder matters more than any single stage. The steel work, the nozzle crew, the curing discipline and the finish crew are different skills, and pool builders who coordinate them well are the difference between a shell that lasts and one that needs attention early. The installation page for a gunite pool explains how that coordination works, what a site assessment covers, and what the next conversation looks like when you are ready to plan a custom concrete build.

Sources: River Pools (updated 2025); HomeAdvisor (national inground pool guide); In The Swim