When you wind up renovating a pool you originally built, you’ve probably been in the business for a long time. Hank Thompson, the 67-year-old owner of Cascade Custom Pools in Bee Cave, Texas, has been in the business since 1981, and one of his most recent renovation projects was the pool at his own ranch in Dripping Springs.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of somebody doing something like this,” Thompson says about his two-yearlong, do-it-yourself project. “Pool builders are younger these days. I’ve outlasted most of my contemporaries.”
From creating a duck pond at age 12 to building complicated, high-end pools that have landed his company countless awards, Thompson has lived the life he always dreamed about. Which is why, when the Coronavirus
pandemic began in 2020, he decided
to finally expand the 37-year-old pool
on his own property that was among
the first projects he ever completed.
When you wind up renovating a pool you originally built, you’ve probably been in the business for a long time. Hank Thompson, the 67-year-old owner of Cascade Custom Pools in Bee Cave, Texas, has been in the business since 1981, and one of his most recent renovation projects was the pool at his own ranch in Dripping Springs.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of somebody doing something like this,” Thompson says about his two-yearlong, do-it-yourself project. “Pool builders are younger these days. I’ve outlasted most of my contemporaries.”
From creating a duck pond at age 12 to building complicated, high-end pools that have landed his company countless awards, Thompson has lived the life he always dreamed about. Which is why, when the Coronavirus
pandemic began in 2020, he decided
to finally expand the 37-year-old pool
on his own property that was among
the first projects he ever completed.
The result? A freeform, lagoon-style,
multi-tier oasis that resembles
the original pool — only on steroids.
The project required a wide variety
of materials to create a rustic look
with more than 150 tons of boulders
imported from Oklahoma, spectacular
waterfalls and a 300-square-foot deck
built over the equipment room. The
project also required supplemental
support engineering for a grotto, which
necessitated drilling nearly 20 feet into
limestone.
Crews also needed to work around
decades-old palm trees while adding
new plumbing, electrical, automation
and lighting equipment. And the boulders needed to be transported up
a steep hillside to the jobsite, requiring
dangerous treks in a skid-steer loader.
“I realized the old pool needed a
facelift for the last several years, and I
just kind of put it off because we were
so busy,” Thompson says. “Then when
COVID hit, I thought, ‘We’re not going
to have anything to do — which we
all know went the opposite way — so
I started tearing out the pool so I
could keep my crews busy. The next
thing I know, the phone’s ringing,
and everybody’s wanting a swimming
pool.”
As things turned out, Thompson’s
crews were plenty busy without having
to worry about renovating the boss’s
pool. So he hired subcontractors
who’d worked on previous projects
for Cascade Custom Pools. Unlike his
other builds, this one didn’t include
an elaborate set of plans; rather,
Thompson would share his vision with
the workers and help them engineer
the project as it evolved.
“I drew something out on a piece of
sketch paper, but it wasn’t a real plan.
It was just something to kind of go off
of,” he says. “You have to remember,
this was the first pool I have ever built.
I didn’t have a lot of money — and I
didn’t have the experience that I have
now.”
courtesy Cascade Custom Pools
courtesy Jimi Smith Photography
TWO BIG CHALLENGES
A renovation this massive was bound
to bring complications, but none of
them were quite as challenging as the
ones Thompson and his crews faced at
the project’s outset and then again as
it neared completion.
Before shots of the extensive renovation: “You have to remember, this was the first pool I have ever built. I didn’t have a lot of money — and I didn’t have the experience that I have now.” —HTPhotos above courtesy Cascade Custom Pools
Given the number of buildings on
the property — Thompson refers to
the ranch as “more of a compound”
— all construction materials needed
to be staged approximately 150 feet
below the pool site, at the bottom of
a hill with a 45-degree incline. That’s
why Thompson decided to purchase
“the most powerful skid-steer on tracks
that I could find,” he says. “I couldn’t
have built this without it, and I rented
a big forklift crane that could extend
40 feet to move boulders. For anything
outside of 40 feet, we had to use pallet
jacks and set some of those rocks with
block and tackle.”
Thompson operated the skid-steer,
transporting giant boulders up the
hillside one at a time and smaller ones in groups of four or five. That led to
some tense moments, he recalls. “The
skid-steer had a warning device that let
me know, ‘Hey, you’re fixing to tip over.’
It went off about a dozen times. Most
of the guys on the crew wouldn’t drive
it; it was just too steep of an incline.”
That extreme effort to deliver
materials to the site took a while and
slowed down the project’s timeline.
Similarly, when the pool shell itself was
complete, Thompson took one look
at the equipment housed below the
pool’s grade and decided more work
was necessary — thereby delaying the
project’s completion date even further.
“I didn’t want to look down from
my deck on equipment. So I said,
‘Well, you know, I guess I’ll turn it into
an equipment room,” he says, adding
that he used concrete masonry units
and poured concrete, rather than the
usual gunite or shotcrete because his
subcontractors for this project were
masons. “One thing led to another,
and I thought I would add some space
on top of the room, too.”
That space is now a cantilevered
rooftop deck, set off from the pool but
overlooking the expansive countryside
that surrounds Thompson’s 17-acre
property. Building the room and deck
added about four or five months to the
project, he says, and its straight lines
mimic those of the ranch’s main home,
guest house and cantina — presenting
a dichotomy with the freeform bodies
of water.
The gorgeous update comes to fruition. All told, the renovation cost about $500,000. Regardless of cost, remodeling your own pool offers the kind of freedom many pool builders unfortunately rarely have the opportunity to experience.Photos above courtesy Cascade Custom Pools
Photo above courtesy Jimi Smith Photography
As a final touch to the pool —
where some areas plunge as deep as
10 feet — Thompson used a product
he applies to all of his projects:
PebbleSheen textured finish from
Pebble Technology. But his son, TJ
(Cascade’s vice president of sales and
operations) had to convince him that
the PebbleSheen color Desert Gold, a
natural tone that mimics the color of
beach sand and produces a greenish
water color, would be perfect for this
project.
“I thought about it, and that’s what
we eventually put in,” Thompson says,
adding he initially wasn’t convinced
the color would fit the surroundings.
“It worked perfectly with the boulders.
I wanted that natural look, and Desert
Gold gives you that — rather than a
deep blue or white like so many other
pools have.”
Photo courtesy Jimi Smith Photography
‘THE MOST FUN’
All told, this renovation cost about
$500,000. In fact, it is labeled
“Showpool” on the company’s website.
“If I can find somebody who wants
a freeform pool these days, I have
them come look at mine. And if they
have the budget, they’re going to get
one,” Thompson says. “It may not
be as expensive as mine, because a
lot of that half-a-million dollars is in
boulders.”
Regardless of cost, remodeling your
own pool offers the kind of freedom
many pool builders unfortunately rarely
have the opportunity to experience.
“I wasn’t in a big hurry,” Thompson
says. “I didn’t have any boundaries,
and I could do exactly what I wanted
to do. This project was something that
I was enjoying. I wasn’t going to get
stressed out. Every once in a while,
my wife would ask me, ‘When do you
think you will be finished?’ and I’d give
her a target date. And three months
later, she would ask me again. But she
would notice that every day something
was changing.”
“I wasn’t in a big hurry. I didn’t have any boundaries, and I could do exactly what I wanted to do. This project was something that I was enjoying. I wasn’t going to get stressed out. Every once in a while, my wife would ask me, ‘When do you think you will be finished?’ and I’d give her a target date. And three months later, she would ask me again.” —HTPhoto courtesy Cascade Custom Pools
When you build pools for a living,
each project takes on a life of its own.
But for Thompson, this one stands out
even more.
“I’ve built a lot of swimming pools
for some pretty famous and wealthy
people, and I had fun building all of
them,” he says. “But this was the most
fun I’ve ever had.”
And, if feasible, he recommends
other builders find a way to renovate
their own pools, too: “My advice is to
do it — and have the time of your
life.”