Engineered gunite pools for slope lots, with the setback, soils, and retaining work priced up front. Hillside builds in this market run $165,000 and up.
Home Hillside Pools
Scope
Process
Pick Hillside in the calculator. The site line adds $25,000–$55,000 openly, with the reason printed under your result.
Slope, setbacks, and access measured on site. The pool gets drawn where the slope rules allow it, not where the brochure puts it.
Engineered plan set, soils report, and the permit package. Hillside sets take the long end of the 4–8 week permitting window more often than flat lots do.
Site work first, shell second. Construction at the long end of the local 9–16 week range is normal on a slope.
Market ranges
| Tier | What it describes | Planning range |
|---|---|---|
| Hillside site line | Engineering, soils, deeper footings, retaining allowance, slope excavation and access, added to the pool itself | $25,000–$55,000 |
| Hillside & luxury total | Pool plus hillside site work, the tier most Conejo slope builds land in | $165,000+ |
| Standard gunite, flat lot | For comparison: the same pool programme on a flat lot, standard equipment set | $90,000–$125,000 |
Planning ranges for the Conejo Valley market, updated October 2026. The hillside site line comes from the same figures the calculator uses; your soils report and the engineer's design set the real number.
The local rule
Hillside questions
In Thousand Oaks, Municipal Code §1808.7.3 sets the answer: the setback between a pool and a slope is at least half the building footing setback and never less than 5 feet, and a pool wall within 7 feet of the top of a slope must be able to support the water without soil support. Other Conejo jurisdictions run their own slope rules inside the same California code framework, and the permit set for your lot is where the number gets fixed. This is why hillside design starts with the slope, not the shape.
On an engineered hillside build, plan on one. Building departments in this valley require soils and geology input where the slope, the fill history, or the footing design calls for it, and the footing and retaining design follows the report. The report is a cost of building on a hill, and it is cheaper than a retaining failure.
Engineering and structural design, deeper footings, retaining walls, harder and slower excavation, spoil haul-off from a slope, and access work. The range is wide because hillsides are not one thing: a gentle grade with good soil sits at the low end, a steep lot over fill at the high end. The line is priced openly in the calculator instead of surfacing as a change order.
Often, yes. The setback rules reshape where the pool sits, and retaining can manufacture the flat pad the pool needs. What a slope rarely allows is pretending it is not there. The design consultation measures the slope and the setbacks first, then draws the pool the lot can actually hold.
Qualify your project
Pick Hillside under lot type if your yard slopes. Anything you know about retaining walls, fill, or drainage on the lot belongs in the details box.
Tell us about your yard and what you want in it. One local builder partner gets your details, not a list of pros.
Run the ballpark in two minutes, or book the free design consultation and get a 3D design with a line-item estimate for your lot.