For most of the pool houses we build, the building itself costs between $150,000 and $200,000, and a typical project lands around $175,000. Interior finish is an additional cost on top of that range. That’s the drywall, flooring, trim, paint and fixtures that turn the building into a finished room, and on a recent 400-square-foot pool house we estimated it at about $20,000.
If that’s higher than you expected, you’re not alone. A pool house looks like a small, simple building, and most people price it in their heads like one. We’d rather give you the real range now, while we’re standing in your driveway, than have you find out halfway through a project. Below, we’ll walk through what moves the price, a pool house we just finished and what it actually cost, where homeowners get misled, and how to get a range for your own project.
What Drives the Price Up or Down
Where your project lands between $150,000 and $200,000 depends on two things: what’s under and around the building, and what you put inside it.
The part most homeowners don’t see coming is everything below the floor and behind the walls. On our projects, three items move the number more than anything else, and together they typically add about $9,000 to $15,000.
Taller foundation walls. Foundation walls are the concrete walls below the floor that hold the building up. When the floor needs to sit higher than the ground around it, whether because of the slope of the yard, the height of the pool deck, or a height the city requires, those walls get taller. Taller walls mean more concrete and more labor.
More slab and rock. The slab is the concrete floor of the pool house. It sits on a layer of compacted rock that gives it a solid, stable base. When the floor gets raised, there’s more space to fill with rock, and more concrete goes into the slab itself.
Longer electrical and plumbing runs. Every pool house needs power, and most need water and drain lines too. Those lines have to travel out to the new building, usually underground. The farther they travel, and the more they have to work around things like a new pool, the more they cost.
What you put inside matters too. The pool house we just finished had a bathroom rough-in (the pipes are run and capped inside the walls and floor so a bathroom can be finished later), a bar, a mechanical room to house the pool equipment, a gas fireplace and sliding doors out to the pool deck. Every feature like that adds work, materials and coordination between trades.
Then there’s the city. Local requirements can add real money to a project, and they don’t always show up on the first set of plans. On our most recent pool house, the city’s requirements added roughly $16,000 to the construction cost.
A Pool House We Just Finished
We recently wrapped up a pool house in Kirkwood that’s a good example of how all of this plays out.
This one was built for gathering. The finished building is about 400 square feet, with a large gathering room, a gas fireplace and sliding doors that open right onto the pool deck. It also has a bar, a rough-in for a future bathroom, and a mechanical room that keeps all of the pool equipment out of sight.
During permitting, the city required the foundation to sit at a specific height that wasn’t shown on the original plans. The utilities also had to be routed a certain way so they wouldn’t interfere with where the pool was going to be installed. This part of the city is very strict about its requirements, and the permitting process took longer than usual.
The final construction cost was about $166,000. That number does not include interior finish, which we estimate would add about $20,000. Without the items the city required, we believe the project would have come in around $150,000.
What surprised the homeowners most was how much the extra foundation and slab cost. That’s a fair reaction. Nobody gets excited about concrete they’ll never see. But that slab was poured thick, and to this day it hasn’t developed a single crack. That’s the part of the budget doing its job quietly.
The homeowners were also impressed with our crews. When issues came up, they were actually fixed, and fixed in a timely manner, and communication stayed thorough from start to finish. Every project has issues. What matters is whether your builder tells you about them and takes care of them.
Where Homeowners Get Misled About Pool House Costs
The biggest misunderstanding we run into is simple: because a pool house is small, people assume it will be cheap. It’s common for homeowners to expect a number around half of what a pool house actually costs, and sometimes less.
The reality is that a pool house is a real building. It needs a foundation, a floor, framing, a roof and electrical, and often plumbing and gas. It also has to go through the city’s permitting process.
It takes a good amount of time, work and coordination to build one correctly. Concrete, framing, electrical, plumbing and finish trades all have to be scheduled in the right order, often in a backyard with limited access.
That backyard is another thing people don’t think about. A pool house project needs a laydown area, which is a section of your property set aside to store materials during construction. Equipment has to get in and out, too. That means part of your yard will be disrupted while we work, and it’s better to plan for that from day one than to be surprised by it.
Finally, the city can change the picture. Some areas are much stricter than others, and requirements that weren’t on the original plans can show up during permitting, along with a longer wait for approval. On our recent project, that added roughly $16,000 and extra time.
We’d rather rip the bandaid off. Before any work starts, we walk through what the project will involve and what it’s likely to cost, including the parts nobody enjoys hearing about. You should be making this decision with the full picture, not a number that looks good until the foundation goes in.
How to Get a Price for Your Own Pool House
The fastest way to see where your project might land is our investment guide at eagleeyebuildergroup.com/investment-guide. Answer a few questions about what you’re planning, add your name, phone and email, and a completed report is sent to you and to us. Keep in mind that the report is an estimate, not a fixed price. Your yard, your plans and the city’s requirements all affect the final number.
From there, we can talk through your property, how you want to use the pool house, and what the city is likely to require, and turn that into a detailed estimate you can plan around.
Eagle Eye Builder Group was founded in 2019, and our experience goes back further than that. Before starting Eagle Eye, our founder worked as a licensed Certified General Contractor in Florida, and before that, he ran his own remodeling company for five years. Over that time, we’ve learned that the most valuable thing we can give a homeowner early on is an honest number.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does such a small building cost so much? A pool house needs most of the same parts as a larger building: a foundation, a concrete slab, framing, a roof, and power, often plus water, drains and gas. Being small doesn’t remove those pieces. It just spreads their cost over fewer square feet.
Does the $150,000 to $200,000 range include a finished interior? No. That range covers the building. Interior finish is additional. On our recent 400-square-foot pool house, we estimated interior finish at about $20,000.
Will building a pool house tear up my yard? Part of it, for a while. We need a laydown area for materials and a path for equipment to get in and out. We’ll walk you through what that looks like on your property before work starts.
Should I plan my pool house and pool at the same time? It helps. On our recent project, the utilities had to be routed around where the pool was going to be installed. Knowing where everything will go early makes it easier to plan the foundation, utilities and access.
How do city requirements affect my project? They can add both cost and time. On our most recent pool house, the city required a specific foundation height and a particular utility route, which added roughly $16,000, and permitting took longer than usual. We plan for that possibility from the start so it doesn’t catch you off guard.
