An old interior design trick to make the room larger is to use mirrors to visually expand the room, fooling the eye.
In the same way, an infinity pool is the mirror for your backyard.
Favoured by smart landscape architects and pool designers, the no-edge pool merges the water into the surrounding landscape to expand the views and sense of space.
Infinity Pool boss Tee Ezekiela whose company installs pools from Auckland to Queenstown and Wanaka, and even the Pacific Islands, says infinity pools are not just for cliff-top locations.
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“Any gradient which opens up to the water view or even to a valley with trees – that's an excellent property for the infinity pool.”
But a stunning location can add to the cost of installation if access is limited.
“The ideal property gives a lot of access to the excavator to flatten the area and so the dug out soil can stay on site,” he adds.
That means that the trendy infinity pool can costs anything from $70,000 to half a million dollars. Pool cost can double and triple in price depending on the landscaping and earthworks needed. Ezekiela says dedicated infinity-pool lovers pay about $90,000 for the pool and about extra $130,000 to set up landscape.
A trendy infinity pool can costs anything from $70,000 to half a million dollars to install. Photo / Getty Images
He adds that if your property doesn't have the right landscape the whole section will need to be raised to create have an in-ground pool with the appearance of the infinity edge, even on a flat site.
“Some people have a lot of money and if they wish for something to achieve a certain look they will get there,” he says.
Landscaper Ben Henari says easy access to the property and a big back yard is the key.
“A lot of people want to locate the pool on the back side of their house as they don’t want people looking at them swim, but they don’t often have a big enough backyard.”
Depending on the kind of soils the property is on the project can rise in price again, Henari says.
“The problem is people trying to build on Auckland volcanoes. We hit rocks and instead of a three-day job it turns into two weeks of work digging with a ten-tonner.”
Henari says despite the infinity pool trend there’s no cookie-cutter way to set one up as it is often dictated by the budget.
“Some people chose to have water features like a waterfall come in or cascade out of the pool but that raises the price exponentially. Nine out of ten people can only afford a square swimming pool edged with standard coping stones.”
There are benefits in infinity pools beyond the view. Ezekiela says that water tipping over the edge of a pool makes it more functional, as it eliminates fallen leaves from the water naturally.
“The edge is basically a giant cleaner which performs the utility box function.”
