Cocktail and Plunge Pools in Memphis: Sizes, Costs, and Swimming Year-Round
Above: deck jets and a raised spa wall on a compact gunite pool we built in Bartlett. The whole thing, patio included, fits where a two-car garage would go.
Half the people who call us about a new pool open with the same sentence: “I don’t think my yard is big enough.” Most of the time it is. What they are picturing is the 18-by-36 rectangle their parents had. What fits their lot, and what they will actually use, is smaller. This post is about those smaller pools: what we call them, what they cost in Memphis, and how we build them so you can use them in January as well as July.
Cocktail pool, plunge pool, spool: what the words mean
The industry has three names for small pools, and people use them loosely. Here is how we use them when we quote.
Plunge pool
A deep, compact pool meant for cooling off and sitting in, not swimming laps. Think 8 to 10 feet wide, 14 to 20 feet long, and a flat 4 to 6 feet deep so adults can stand anywhere. Benches along one or both long walls are standard. It is the pool for a yard with a mature oak in the middle.
Cocktail pool
Wider and shallower than a plunge pool: roughly 10 to 14 feet by 20 to 26 feet, 3.5 to 5 feet deep. The point is entertaining. A tanning ledge, a bench, in-pool stools at a raised patio edge, and enough room for six people to stand with a drink and talk. It is the pool most of our Germantown and East Memphis clients end up choosing once they see the plan on their lot.
Spool
A spa-pool hybrid: cocktail-pool footprint, spa jets and a heater sized to run it as a hot tub in winter. We build a few a year. It is the right call for a couple who want a hot soak in December more than a swim in June.
All three are built the same way we build a full-size pool: a gunite shell, or a fiberglass shell on a lot with good truck access, finished with the same plaster, tile and coping options as any pool on our pool builder page. Small does not mean cheap construction. It means less of it.
What a small pool costs in Memphis
We quote every small pool from a site visit, and the number is a real one from the last year of signed contracts, not a national average. The national articles are useless here. Memphis has clay soil, a high water table in parts of the county, and a permit process that differs between the city, Shelby County and the suburbs. Those move the price more than the pool’s length does.
Three honest notes on what drives the number.
- A small pool is not half the price of a big one. Excavation, plumbing runs, the equipment pad, electrical, permits and the deck cost about the same whether the hole is 16 feet long or 32. The shell and the finish scale down; the rest does not. Expect a plunge pool to cost well more than half of what a full-size pool would, not 50 percent.
- Decking is where small-pool budgets get away from people. The pool shrinks, the patio around it usually does not, because the patio is where the living happens. Decide the deck before the pool.
- Access can add real money. If our excavator cannot get through the side yard, we bring smaller equipment and move dirt by hand, and that is labor. We tell you that at the site visit, not at the invoice.
Most of our small-pool clients finance part of the build. Current terms are on our pool financing page, and the monthly number on a plunge pool surprises people in a good way.
Sizes that fit a Memphis lot
Two rules decide what fits before anyone talks about shape.
Setbacks. The City of Memphis and the suburbs each set how close a pool can sit to the property line, the house and any easement. On a lot that is 40 to 50 feet wide, which is most of Midtown, Cooper-Young and the older parts of East Memphis, that typically leaves a buildable strip 20 to 28 feet wide. A 10-by-20 plunge pool fits with deck on both sides. An 18-by-36 does not. We pull the setback numbers for your address before the first drawing.
Equipment and access. The pump, filter and heater need a pad about 4 by 8 feet, ideally on the side of the house away from bedrooms and your neighbor’s patio. And the shell has to get to the hole: a fiberglass shell arrives on a truck and needs a crane path, so on tight city lots we build gunite, which is pumped in through a hose.
If you want to see how a small pool sits in a real yard, the gallery has a lap pool and two courtyard pools we built on lots under a quarter acre.
Swimming in January: how we build small pools for year-round use
This is the part people do not expect. A plunge pool holds roughly a quarter of the water of a full-size pool, and that changes the economics of heating it completely.
Heating
We size a gas heater to raise the water from a Memphis January low to the mid-90s in a few hours, then hold it. On a plunge pool that is a much smaller unit than the 400,000 BTU heater a big pool needs, and the gas bill for a weekend soak is a fraction of a full-size pool’s. A heat pump works for a cocktail pool you want at 85 from April to October and costs less to run; it will not keep up in a hard freeze. We fit a lot of our small pools with both.
Covers
Heat you buy, you want to keep. An automatic cover on a rectangular plunge or cocktail pool holds the temperature overnight, keeps leaves out in November, and is the thing that makes a heated small pool affordable to run rather than a novelty. A cover rated to ASTM F1346 is a safety barrier when it is closed, which matters with grandchildren.
Winter chemistry and freezes
A pool you use in winter is not winterized; it runs. We set the automation to circulate when the temperature drops below 36 so the lines do not freeze, and we service it on the same weekly route as a summer pool, with the chemistry adjusted for cold water. The water volume is small, so the chemical cost is small too.
Who a small pool is wrong for
I would rather tell you now. If you want to swim laps, a plunge pool will frustrate you within a month; look at a 10-by-40 lap pool instead, which fits many of the same lots. If you have three kids under twelve, they will want room to play, and a cocktail pool with a 5-foot deep end is the minimum. And if your lot has room for a full-size pool and you can afford it, the resale math usually favors building it: the deck and equipment cost the same either way.
Questions we get
How long does a plunge pool take to build?
Shorter than a full-size pool, but not by as much as you would think: the permit, the shell cure and the deck take the same time at any size. We give a dated schedule with the quote. We book up in spring; fall is the best season to start.
Can a plunge pool have a tanning ledge?
Yes, and most do. On a 10-by-20 we usually take 4 feet of the length for a 9-inch-deep ledge with two loungers, and keep the rest at a flat 5 feet.
Gunite or fiberglass for a small pool?
Gunite if the lot is tight or you want a custom shape or a raised wall with bar stools. Fiberglass if a crane can reach the hole and you want the shell set in a day. Our gunite, vinyl and fiberglass comparison covers the trade-offs; they are the same at any size.
Does a small pool add value to a Memphis house?
Less than a full-size pool, but it costs less too, and on a city lot a well-built courtyard pool is a feature buyers remember. Do not build any pool for resale. Build it because you will use it, then the value question takes care of itself.
See what fits your yard
A site visit takes about an hour. We measure, check the setbacks and access, and come back with a drawn plan and a real number. No charge, no pressure. Call (901) 755-3000 or book a free consultation.