The parts of a pool people actually remember.
Pool Features and Add-Ons Across Georgia
Two pools of the same size and shape can feel completely different depending on what is built into them. Water features, shallow shelves and seating change how a pool is used far more than its dimensions do. Aqualis Pools also takes on projects across Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.
Designed Around Your Vision
Features Worth Building Into a Pool
Tanning ledge, or sun shelf.
A shallow shelf, usually a few inches deep, wide enough for a lounger or for small children to sit in. It has become a standard request in modern pools, because it turns a pool into somewhere you can be without swimming. Called a Baja shelf in some parts of the country, and the same thing either way.
Waterfalls.
Sheet, rock or spillway. The reason to have one is usually sound rather than sight: moving water covers road and neighbour noise, which changes how a backyard feels in a way the drawings never convey.
Bubblers and deck jets.
Bubblers sit in the shallow shelf, where children tend to gravitate. Deck jets arc water from the surround into the pool. Both are inexpensive relative to their visual effect, especially when lit.
Spa integration.
A raised spa spilling into the pool shares water and equipment with it. That is a different enough job to have its own page: see spillover spas.
Lighting on all of it.
Features look like sculpture in daylight and disappear at night unless they are lit. Covered on the pool lighting page, and worth deciding at the same time rather than afterwards.
Benches and swim-up seating.
Built-in seating along a wall, sometimes paired with a bar edge on the deck side. Decided at design stage because it is formed into the shell, not added afterwards.
What Can Be Added Later, and What Cannot
Adding custom features and upgrades to your pool significantly enhances both its visual appeal and functionality. Elements like pool lighting and fire features create a dramatic ambiance, allowing you to enjoy your pool day and night. Meanwhile, additions such as spillover spas and hot tubs provide relaxation and therapeutic benefits, turning your backyard into a personal retreat.
Beyond aesthetics, these upgrades also increase property value and usability. Durable surfaces like pool decking improve safety and accessibility, while pool fencing & safety features help protect your loved ones. By combining design, comfort, and safety, pool add-ons create a complete outdoor living experience tailored to your needs.
Our Seamless Upgrade Process
This is the distinction that matters most and the live page never makes it. Features formed into the pool shell, which means tanning ledges, benches, swim-up seating and most integrated spas, are built when the pool is built. Adding them afterwards means cutting into the structure, which is possible during a full pool remodeling project and expensive at any other time.
Features that sit on or beside the structure are far easier to retrofit: bubblers, deck jets, most waterfalls, and lighting. If you are having pool resurfacing done and the pool is already drained, that is the cheapest moment there will ever be to add them.
The practical advice, if you are building new: decide the shell features now even if you defer the rest. A ledge you did not build is a rebuild. A waterfall you did not build is a phone call.
What Features Cost
Cost varies more here than on any other page, because the range runs from a bubbler to a rock waterfall. What is reliable is the ordering: features formed into the shell during construction cost far less than the same features added later, because the expensive part is the structural work rather than the fitting.
Financing is available where features are part of a larger project, explained on our pool financing options page.
Adding Features to an Existing Pool
Most retrofits happen during work that is already planned. During pool resurfacing the pool is empty, which suits waterfalls, bubblers and deck jets. During a full pool remodeling project even shell features become possible, because the structure is being worked on anyway. And if the surround is being replaced, pool tile and coping work is the natural moment to add a spillway or a raised edge.
What Our Clients Say
Aqualis Pools is rated 5.0 on Google, from a small number of reviews, and every one of them can be read on the profile.
Pool Features Across Georgia
We build features into new pools and retrofit them into existing ones for homeowners in Lawrenceville, Buford, Loganville, Athens, Auburn and nearby Georgia communities. The full list is on our service areas page, and finished work is in the gallery.
Frequently Asked Questions
A shallow shelf built into the pool, typically a few inches deep, wide enough to sit or lie in. It is used for lounging in the water, for small children, and for loungers designed to stand in shallow water. You will also see it called a sun shelf or a Baja shelf; they are the same thing.
Some, easily. Bubblers, deck jets, most waterfalls and lighting can be retrofitted, and it is far cheaper while the pool is drained for other work. Features formed into the shell, such as ledges and built-in seating, mean cutting into the structure and are usually only practical during a full remodel.
In our experience the shallow shelf, because it is the part of the pool people use when they are not swimming.
It depends on the feature and on whether the pool is being built or retrofitted. Add-ons to an existing pool generally run from a few days to a few weeks, and you get a schedule during the consultation.
Start Designing Your Features
Two answers shape this conversation: whether the pool exists yet, and how you actually want to use the water, whether that is swimming, sitting in it, or having somewhere the children stay put. Those two decide which features are worth the money.
Call (770) 373-8405 or send us a message.