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Aqua Vitae — Bespoke Swimming Pools
Design, engineering and build of private pools — specified like a building, with hydraulics you can service and a programme you can hold us to.
The commission
13
Week programme
72h
Flood test
04h
Turnover
12
Year shell life
What we do
We design and build private pools: lap pools, infinity pools, natural pools, plunges, indoor water, courtyard mirrors and roof terraces. Each one is a small building with services, so the structure, the water, the hydraulics and the automation are drawn as one set — and built by the engineer who drew them.
Backstory
Aqua Vitae began in 2014 with a single pool in a walled garden outside Cirencester. Three of us dug it, poured it in one afternoon, and finished late because the mosaic went down by hand. We have never found a reason to change the method, only the number.
Forty-one pools later we still build eight a year and no more. That cap is the whole business: it is what lets one engineer stay with a project from the trial pits to the first swim, and it is why we can put a thirteen-week programme in writing and hold to it.
Every pool is drawn before it is dug. Structure, waterproofing, hydraulics and automation are issued as one buildable set, and handed over with a schematic the next owner can service from. Most of our work now comes from gardens we have already built in, and from the architects and garden designers who watched us build them.
The pools we build
Walled gardens · field boundaries
Length before everything else. A lap pool is set hard against a wall so the water disappears into the garden rather than sitting in the middle of it, and the depth is held constant end to end — a swimmer turning does not want a two-metre hole at the far end.
Structure, water, hydraulics and automation are designed together, because a pool is only as good as its weakest joint.
Structure
C35/45Reinforced concrete shell poured as one continuous operation where access allows.
Waterproofing
72-hour testTwo-coat cementitious system plus reinforced membrane, flood-tested before any finish goes on.
Hydraulics
63 mm rigidRigid pipework, dual-speed pumps and individually valved returns, sized for a four-hour turnover.
Automation
Matter-readyHeat pump, cover and lighting under one controller, with a hard-wired override in the plant room.
The programme
Scroll the build and the photographs run in the order they were taken — setting out, the pour, the flood test, the mosaic, the first water.
Ground investigation, levels, drainage runs and machine access confirmed on site. The pool is set out from the survey with profile boards, string lines and a laser datum before a spade goes in.
1:50 set-out · trial pits · laser datum
Hydraulic calculations, structural drawings and a finish schedule, issued as one buildable set. Planning and party-wall consents go in wherever the site needs them.
6 h turnover · 1.5 m depth · C35/45
Spoil leaves the garden by machine and barrow, with the ground held at level from the first pass. The sides are shored and battered wherever the soil asks for it.
Spoil removed · walls battered 1:1
Reinforcement is inspected against the schedule and photographed before the pour. Concrete is placed as one continuous operation wherever access allows, then vibrated and finished by hand.
A393 mesh · 250 mm walls · single pour
The shell cures under sheeting for seven days while the levels are checked corner to corner. Any honeycombing is cut back and made good before the tank goes near water.
7-day cure · levels to ±3 mm
Two coats of cementitious waterproofing, reinforced at every corner, pipe penetration and light niche, then a bonded membrane across the whole tank.
2-coat system · 1.5 mm cured
The tank stands full for three days with the level marked and photographed. Nothing is tiled until the water holds and that reading is signed off.
72 h standing test · under 2 mm loss
Hand-laid glass mosaic on mesh, set in adhesive with full coverage and cut tight at the waterline, at every skimmer, step and light fitting.
20 mm glass mosaic · epoxy grout
Stone coping bedded level to the waterline, with the deck falls set away from the pool so nothing runs back in. Expansion joints line up with the paving grid.
30 mm coping · deck falls 1:80
Rigid pipework, glass media filtration, UV secondary and a heat pump, all labelled and balanced to the design turnover. The schematic stays with the pool.
6 h turnover · UV secondary
Flow rates, chemistry, heating curve and lighting scenes are set and recorded, then the controller is handed over with every schedule saved to it.
Balanced · scenes set · logged
Water treated and tested, cover and lighting on one controller, then a full walkthrough with chemical training, certification and a 25-year structural warranty.
Handover pack · 25-year warranty
Aqua Vitae — 14 m infinity pool, Cotswolds
Pool · Cotswolds · 2025
The Cotswolds · Surrey2025The plant room
Every pump, valve and filter is accessible without draining the pool. The specification is written as a document you keep, because the person servicing it will not be us.
The company
We build eight pools a year. That is the number that lets one engineer stay on every project from excavation to handover.
08
Pools a year
13
Week build
01
Engineer per job
12
Year guarantee
In their words
“A pool is not a hole with water in it. It is a small building, with services, and it should be drawn like one.”
Technical director, Aqua Vitae
The library
Every one is built, photographed on handover, and still in the water. Open a plate to walk through it.
8 builds · Cotswolds & Surrey
Configure
Photographed surfaces · Live hydraulics · Priced from the sheet
A vanishing edge that hands the water over to the view, with a catch trough hidden in the terrace.
Drag a rail · the model and the sheet follow
12.0 × 4.5 × 1.70 m · 78,030 L
Volume at operating level · 85% fill
Infinity · Lagoon · Open cover · Daylight lighting
Size
12.0 × 4.5 × 1.70 m · 78,030 L
Structure
Reinforced concrete, C35/45
Waterline
Full-width infinity weir
Filtration
Glass media + UV secondary
Heating
Air-source, 32 kW
Cover
Open water · no cover
Lighting
Daylight only · no circuit
Build sheet
Every build is hand-written, not templated: a bespoke layout system, custom motion, and content authored for the business it belongs to.
Enquire
Whatever you configure above travels with this enquiry, so the price comes back for this basin rather than a generic one.
Change a choice above and this sheet follows
Have photographs of the space? Add them to the brief and the first price comes back site-specific — access, levels and light read from the frames.
Surveys
Three moves, thirteen days, one document. No deposit is asked for until you have the specification in your hand.
Book a surveyCotswolds, Surrey and the South East
