Custom Gunite Pools Starting at $65K

Houston Cool Pools
Pool Service & Maintenance in The Woodlands, TX

Serving The Woodlands, TX · Since 1996

Pool Service & Maintenance in The Woodlands, TX

Custom gunite pools designed and constructed for The Woodlands homeowners. Free in-home quote, financing available, established 1996.

Pool Service & Maintenance in The Woodlands, TX

A pool is a mechanical system with a body of water attached to it. Houston's summer heat, humidity, and pollen load push chemistry and equipment harder than most parts of the country, and the difference between a pool that stays swim-ready and one that fights you all summer usually comes down to service cadence and a few equipment habits. In The Woodlands, that work is pool service and maintenance for a specific yard in Montgomery County, not a city name pasted onto a stock plan. The Woodlands' mature tree canopy and HOA overlays make design review and equipment placement a real part of the build conversation.

Ongoing pool care is really three things layered together: water chemistry, filtration, and equipment health. Chemistry means keeping free chlorine, pH, total alkalinity, calcium hardness, and cyanuric acid in range week to week - and adjusting for the sudden dilution and organic load that comes with a Houston thunderstorm. Filtration means matching pump run-time to bather load and outdoor temperature, cleaning or backwashing the filter on schedule, and skimming or brushing surfaces the vacuum can't reach. Equipment health means listening for the pump behaving differently, watching pressure gauges creep up as a filter loads, and catching a heater ignition issue before it turns into a service call in the middle of a cold snap. We help owners set up an appropriate cadence for their pool - the right run-time schedule, the right cover strategy, and how to handle the algae pressure that shows up in July and August along the Gulf Coast.

What pool service means on this project

Service in this climate is a cadence, not a one-time green-pool rescue. After you know the run time, the filter type, and who checks chlorine after a storm, the pool gets boring. Boring is the goal.

If you are comparing weekly pool service, ask what is included when the phosphate load spikes in August and what happens when the pump trips. A route that only skims is not a maintenance plan.

We would rather set the equipment and the chemistry up so the pool is understandable than leave you with a closet of chemicals and no order of operations. The Pool Owner School videos on this site cover testing, filters, and shutdown. They are for owners, not for swim lessons.

How Houston water, equipment, and chemistry actually behave

A pool is a body of water attached to a machine. Houston summer heat, humidity, pollen, and sudden thunderstorms push both harder than a mild climate does. The pools that stay swimmable are the ones with a run-time schedule, a filter that is actually cleaned, and chemistry that gets checked after rain — not only on a pretty Saturday.

Chemistry means free chlorine, pH, total alkalinity, calcium hardness, and cyanuric acid. A storm dilutes the water and dumps organic load in it. That is when algae starts, usually in July and August along the Gulf Coast, not because the pool “went bad” in the abstract. Brushing the waterline and keeping the pump running long enough for the filter to turn the volume over matters as much as the chemical bottle.

Filtration is the quiet half of maintenance. Cartridge, DE, and sand filters are sized to the pool. Pressure on the gauge creeping up means the filter is loading and needs cleaning or backwashing. A pump that sounds different than it did last month is telling you something before it fails on a holiday weekend. Heaters that short-cycle are often undersized for the surface area, or they are trying to heat a pool with the cover off and the wind up.

Saltwater is still a chlorine pool. A cell on the return line turns dissolved salt into chlorine. Target salt is typically around 3,200 ppm. The cell does not add stabilizer, so cyanuric acid is dosed separately, and pH tends to drift up, which means muriatic acid replaces the old mixed routine. Cells wear out, often somewhere between three and seven years depending on run time and water balance. Some older heater cores and trim metals should be checked before a conversion so the new chemistry does not eat them.

Variable-speed pumps are the upgrade that changes the electric bill. A single-speed pump runs at full speed whenever it is on. A variable-speed pump spends most of its hours slower, moving enough water to filter without the noise and the draw of full RPM. If the automation panel is being replaced at the same time, pump, heater, lights, and salt cell can live on one schedule instead of a row of timers.

We are a builder that also helps owners with equipment, chemistry, and a maintenance plan that fits this climate. If the pool needs a weekly cleaner, say so and we will tell you what that pool actually needs. Urgent water — a green pool, a dead pump — should be marked that way on the form so it is not treated like a design consult.

None of this replaces a new shell. If the plaster is rough, the tile is popping, or the deck has separated from the coping, the fix is a remodel, and it is priced from the pool you have. New-pool ranges published on this site ($65k–$90k through $150k and up) are for new gunite construction.

Call (281) 645-6631 or use the service form. The office is at 21902 Highway 249, Houston, TX 77070.

A useful service visit names the equipment you already have. Write down the pump model, the filter type, the heater brand, and whether a salt cell is installed before we arrive. Those four facts stop a conversation that otherwise starts from scratch. If the cell light is flashing or the pressure gauge sits in the red, photograph it. We can tell a dirty filter from a dying motor faster with that picture than with a paragraph of symptoms.

Owners searching for pool cleaning or weekly pool service in Houston are often trying to stop a cycle: the water goes cloudy, someone shocks it, it clears, and two weeks later it is cloudy again. That cycle is usually runtime, stabilizer, or a filter that never gets cleaned. Shock is not a plan. The plan is a number for free chlorine you can test, a pH you correct on purpose, and a pump schedule that still runs after a storm even if nobody is swimming.

What changes the work in The Woodlands

The Woodlands (Master-planned community north of Houston) is one of the places we build. The notes below are the site conditions that change pool service and maintenance here. They are not a slogan with the city swapped in.

The Woodlands is a master-planned community in Montgomery County with design standards that cover more than the pool contractor’s preference. Covenants can limit location, fencing, and how visible the equipment pad is. Those rules get read before the shape is locked.

Trees are part of the site, not an obstacle to clear without asking. Shade, root zones, and the covenant together decide whether a geometric rectangle or a softer outline belongs in the yard. Equipment screening is planned with the pad, not added after the neighbor complains.

Why Houston Cool Pools

What The Woodlands homeowners get with us

Chemical balancing tailored to Houston's climate and rainfall pattern

Equipment inspection - pump, filter, heater, and automation

Algae prevention and treatment for the humid Gulf Coast season

Guidance on cover use, run-time schedules, and off-season shutdown

Frequently asked

Pool Service in The Woodlands - common questions

Real questions from The Woodlands-area homeowners searching for “custom pool builder the woodlands”.

How much does a custom pool cost in The Woodlands, TX?

New gunite pools we publish sit in ranges: $65k–$90k, $90k–$115k, $115k–$150k, and $150k and up. Size, an attached spa, deck material, interior finish, and how difficult the yard is to access are what move a project between those ranges. A pool service project in The Woodlands is priced from the drawing, not from a citywide average. Remodels and equipment work are quoted from the pool you already have. Financing is available for qualified homeowners.

How long does a pool service project take in The Woodlands?

A new custom gunite pool generally runs 8 to 16 weeks from groundbreaking to the first swim. Weather, inspections, and extra features move that. A straight resurface is much shorter. Anything that cuts the shell and adds gunite — a spa, a sun shelf, a beach entry — goes back on a construction schedule. We name the schedule before work starts in The Woodlands.

Do you take care of pools in The Woodlands, or only build them?

We build them, and we help owners with equipment, salt conversions, and a chemistry plan that fits Gulf Coast heat, pollen, and rain. If you need a weekly route, tell us on the form and we will say what that pool needs. Green water or a dead pump should be marked urgent.

Do you work in The Woodlands, Montgomery County?

Yes. Houston Cool Pools serves The Woodlands from the office at 21902 Highway 249, Houston, TX 77070. Call (281) 645-6631 or send the quote form. We confirm whether your address is permitted by the city or the county before drawings are submitted. The Woodlands' mature tree canopy and HOA overlays make design review and equipment placement a real part of the build conversation.

What should I have ready for the first visit?

A sense of how you want to use the water, any survey you already have, HOA architectural rules if they exist, and photos of the access path from the street to the backyard. If this is a remodel, add photos of the plaster, the tile line, the equipment pad, and any crack. We do not need a mood board to tell you whether the yard can hold the pool.

Start today · The Woodlands, TX

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Houston Cool Pools

“Building our reputation one pool at a time.”

Serving Houston since 1996 · (281) 645-6631