Luxury Custom Gunite Pools in Lake Nona, FL

Your Lake Nona pool builder

Lake Nona has become one of Orlando’s most sought-after places to live, with new homes, lakes, trails and a forward-looking community plan. For many families, a custom pool is the finishing touch on a new home. Blue Dream Pools has designed and built custom gunite pools for Central Florida homeowners since 2004, and we are locally owned since 2004, with our office in downtown Winter Garden.

Lake Nona sits in southeast Orlando, in an area of lakes, wetlands and newer development. Soils are generally sandy, and in lower areas the water table can be close to the surface, especially in the summer rainy season. That affects excavation, dewatering and how the shell is engineered. Newer lots are often compact, so placing the pool, deck, equipment and any enclosure takes careful planning to meet setbacks and keep the yard usable. We assess grade, drainage and soil conditions on your lot and design the gunite shell for the site.

Most Lake Nona homes are inside the City of Orlando, so the City of Orlando is the permitting jurisdiction. The city’s residential pool checklist calls for a minimum of three permits: building, electrical and an engineering permit generated by city staff during review, plus plumbing or gas if you add a gas heater or auto-fill. Fences and screen enclosures are separate permits. The city also notes that the Southeast Orlando Sector, which includes Lake Nona, has additional development standards. We review those standards and your zoning, prepare the plans and pull the permits as a Florida certified pool and spa contractor (CPC1460083).

Nearly every Lake Nona neighborhood has an HOA with architectural guidelines. HOA and ARB approval is the homeowner’s step, and we don’t submit it for you. We give you a clear set of plans and the details boards ask about, such as setbacks, equipment location, fencing and enclosure height, so your submittal goes smoothly. Once your approval is in hand, we handle the city permits and construction.

Lake Nona homeowners often want a pool that works hard in a smaller footprint: a sun shelf, a spa, a water feature or two, good lighting and a deck that connects to the lanai. Others with larger lots want a full outdoor living space. Because we build in gunite, the shape and features are completely custom. We finish with quartz plaster or Wet Edge pebble, tile and decking chosen with you, and Hayward equipment with variable-speed pumps, automation and LED lighting.

Every pool we build is custom, so we don’t publish prices. We send an itemized proposal after your consultation. Consultations are by appointment only.

Because Lake Nona is a newer, master-planned area, many homeowners are adding a pool to a recently built home. That timing is an advantage. Yards are often still a blank slate, so the pool, deck, lanai, landscape and lighting can be planned together rather than squeezed in later. We pay close attention to drainage on newer lots, since grading was set when the home was built and the pool and deck need to work with it, not against it. We also plan access for equipment early, because compact lots and neighboring homes can limit how machinery reaches the backyard.

Here is how a Lake Nona project usually runs. It starts with a design consultation, by appointment, where we talk about how you want to use the yard, look at the lot and note anything that affects the build, from slope and drainage to access for equipment. Next we prepare a design and send an itemized proposal. When you are ready, you take the plans to your HOA if you have one, and we prepare the engineered drawings and submit the building permit to the City of Orlando. Construction follows the usual sequence: layout, excavation, steel, plumbing and electrical, gunite, tile and coping, decking, equipment, and finally the interior finish and start-up. Inspections happen at the required stages along the way. When the pool is filled, we walk you through the equipment and how to care for your new finish.

Ready to plan your Lake Nona pool? Connect with a designer and we will start with your lot, your HOA guidelines and your goals.

How we build

Permits handled, design done right. Locally owned since 2004.

• Weekly photo updates on a fixed day each week, so you see progress even when you’re away.
• Milestone check-ins at layout, steel, gunite, tile and decking, and before the finish.
• A joint punch list we walk together, with your sign-off before we call the job done.
• Pool School: a hands-on start-up session on your equipment, water care and your new finish.