Pool Consulting
Expert consulting on project, materials and budget.
Çilek Havuz in Numbers
In a pool, the most expensive mistake is poured together with the concrete; we catch that mistake while it is still on paper.
- 33+
- Years
- 14
- Export
- 500+
- Projects
Pool Consulting — Frames from Our Projects
Frames from Our Projects
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In consulting, our first task is not to open a catalogue but to read the site and the intention: who will use the pool and how often; is it a villa garden, a residential complex's shared area or a hotel; is the priority swimming or cooling off. Two different pools that could be drawn in the same garden mean two different operating loads; asking the right questions at the outset means eliminating the wrong pool at the outset.
At the on-site survey the fall of the land, the impression the ground gives, the distance to the water and electrical infrastructure and the area that can be given over to a plant room are all noted; the zoning and permit position is put through a preliminary check. What we produce is not a brochure but a written survey report — the reference for every decision that follows.
- Intended use and user profile
- Site fall and ground observation
- Distance to the water and electrical infrastructure
- Identifying an area for the plant room
- Preliminary assessment of pool type
- Preliminary zoning and permit check
- Site access and logistics
- Written survey report
Excavation without a design is expensive haste
The picture we meet most often on site is an excavator that has entered the garden with no design in place: the plant room forgotten, the levels wrong, the spoil moved twice. The few days given to the survey and the report wipe out that entire bill.

If you already have an architectural concept or a contractor's drawing, we read it with an engineer's eye: every cubic metre of water is a load of roughly a tonne, and we look for whether the structural design to carry that load and the hydraulic calculation to move the water exist behind the visual. We have reviewed many files with impressive 3D visuals and no structural calculation; we give you the list of what is missing in writing.
System decisions are settled at this stage too: reinforced concrete or prefabricated, skimmer or overflow, and where the balance tank will fit if an infinity edge is wanted. We set each option against your own site, your budget and the way you will use the pool; the decision is delivered not in marketing language but in a comparison table.
- Review of the existing design and drawings
- Presence and scope of the structural design
- Check of the hydraulic calculation
- Reinforced concrete / prefabricated comparison
- Skimmer / overflow system decision
- Balance tank and plant room layout
- Fit between depth, form and use
- Written preliminary design opinion
The balance tank does not appear in the visual
In overflow and infinity pools the collection channel, the balance tank and the plant room do not feature in the visual, yet they demand space in the budget and on the site. If no room has been made for these volumes in the preliminary design, what you hold is not a design but a promise.

Any quotation that reduces a pool budget to a single price per m² is leaving something out; most often the waterproofing, the automation, the heating and the ground improvement. We break the budget into items and tabulate what is included and excluded under each; we show from the outset where the apparently cheap option turns expensive.
The second look is taken at the operating period: the pump's energy consumption, chemical usage, water top-up and seasonal opening and closing make up the cost of living with the pool. We make sure you take your decision not on the construction price alone but on total cost of ownership spread over several years.
- Itemised budget breakdown
- Included / excluded scope table
- Allowance for ground improvement and drainage
- Equipment grade and energy consumption
- Operating cost projection
- Total cost of ownership analysis
- Payment plan and progress payment structure
- Written feasibility opinion
The lowest quote is usually the most incomplete quote
The secret of an unusually cheap quote is generally hidden in the scope: the shell is included, the rest is to be discussed later. For a sound comparison, every quote has to price the same scope at the same quality grade; we are the ones who establish that parity.

The specification is your pool's contract language: concrete grade and reinforcement, the waterproofing system and the order of its layers, pump and filter capacity, finish grade and the level of automation are each written down. The equipment section is not a list of brands but a list of criteria: flow rate, energy consumption, spare parts and the service network available in Türkiye. We take no commission from any manufacturer; the alternatives are set side by side in front of you against those criteria.
On the contractor side we collect quotes against the same specification and compare them in a levelled table; where possible we arrange for you to see reference projects on site. We do not recommend signing before the works programme, the payment schedule and the warranty clauses are tied into the contract — the antidote to every later dispute is a scope written at the outset.
- Technical specification for the construction items
- Waterproofing system and layer detail
- Equipment capacity and efficiency criteria
- Brand-independent list of alternatives
- Levelled quotation comparison table
- Checking the contractor's references
- Contract, warranty and progress payment clauses
- Works programme and milestones
A pump is chosen from the calculation, not the catalogue
The quiet mistake we see most often on site is a wrongly sized pump chosen on price: too small and it cannot move the water, too large and it burns electricity for nothing; either way the bill comes to you. The flow calculation in the specification prevents that mistake at the moment of purchase.

A pool's most critical work is the work that becomes invisible once it is finished: reinforcement, waterproofing, buried pipe runs. We build our supervision schedule around the moments those elements are closed up rather than around the contractor's calendar; every critical stage is recorded in a photographic report, and a leak test is carried out before the finish goes on.
Not every departure from the design is bad faith; but an undeclared departure is always a risk. We report the differences we find on site in writing and agree with the contractor how and when they will be put right. Progress payments are recommended for approval only once the work has been verified as conforming to the scope of the contract.
- Check before reinforcement and concrete
- Supervision of waterproofing before it is closed up
- Leak test before the finish
- Record of buried service routes
- Tracking material deliveries and approvals
- Supervision of equipment installation
- Report on departures from the design
- Approval of the work before payment
The error left beneath the tiling
Waterproofing that is not inspected before it is closed up speaks not in the first summer but a few seasons later: a leak, a lifting finish, a falling water level. At that point the solution is to strip it out and start again, and the price bears no comparison with the price of supervision.

At commissioning the system is tested under real conditions: circulation working from every point, filtration pressure, automation scenarios and water balance are checked together. We also review the handover file: we do not recommend final approval until the structural and hydraulic design, the equipment warranty documents and the maintenance and user manual are in your hands.
What follows is operation: will you run the maintenance yourselves or take a service; how will winterisation be planned; and in a residential-complex or hotel pool, how will water analysis and record-keeping be set up. We stay with you through the first season and make the fine adjustments together, according to the pool's real usage data.
- Attendance at the commissioning tests
- Circulation and filtration check
- Verification of the automation scenarios
- Check of the water balance readings
- Handover of the design and warranty file
- Maintenance and user training
- Winterisation and season plan
- First-season performance assessment
A pool without documents is a pool without an owner
A pool with no design file and no warranty documents becomes, at the first fault, a structure nobody recognises; even a service engineer cannot tell where to begin. Closing out the document list at handover is one of consulting's cheapest but most enduring services.
In their own words,their own stories
From corporate facilities to villa projects — short story videos from the names who trusted us.
Company & Contact
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Legal Name
Çilek Havuz
Founded
1998 · Istanbul
Head Office
Çilek Plaza, Eyüp Sultan Mah. Yakacık Cd. Feshane Cd. No: 2 D:4 D:1, 34885 Sancaktepe / İstanbul
Service Area
All of Türkiye · exports to 14 countries
Portfolio ·
A selection of pool and spa projects we have brought to life all across Türkiye.
Frequently Asked Questions
Every question on your mind; answered clearly.
Çilek Havuz Technical Team
Pool & Wellness Engineering
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If the answer you are looking for is not here, send your question directly to us and our team will reply as soon as possible.
Book a free site surveyThe fee is set by the scale of the project, the scope of the service you take and the stage at which we join the process. A design review and second opinion on their own and a full-scope engagement running from site survey to the first season are not the same budget. For that reason, instead of a fixed tariff, we set out the scope and the fee in writing, item by item, after a needs meeting.
Çilek Havuz Technical Team
Yes, our consulting service can be taken entirely independently of the build. You can take the site survey, the preliminary design opinion, the feasibility study and the specification from us and run the construction with whichever contractor you choose; if you wish, we also take on site supervision and follow the work to see the design executed exactly as drawn. Having us build it as well is a separate model, preferred by investors who want a single point of contact.
Çilek Havuz Technical Team
Yes, an independent second opinion on an existing design and the quotes received is one of the consulting requests we are asked for most often. We examine whether the structural and hydraulic calculations exist, the waterproofing details, the equipment sizing and the scope of the quote, and set out the gaps and the risks in a written report. The aim is not to disparage the design but to make clear what you are buying before you sign.
Çilek Havuz Technical Team
You can work with your own contractor; our consulting is tied to no firm. Our job is to write the specification, make the quotes comparable on the same scope, and check that the contractor you choose builds in accordance with the design. If you ask, we will also bring the teams we work with into the assessment; the decision is yours in every case.
Çilek Havuz Technical Team
The ideal moment is before excavation begins and before the design is finalised, because at that stage the location and type of the pool and the plant room can be corrected at almost no cost. Even so, we can come in at any stage: while quotes are being collected, while the site is running, even after a problem has surfaced. We will say only this: the most expensive consulting is the kind requested after the tiling has gone on.
Çilek Havuz Technical Team
No, we take no commission from any manufacturer or brand; we earn our fee solely from the service we provide to you. Our equipment recommendations come not as a list of brands but as a written specification covering flow rate, energy consumption, spare parts and the service network available in Türkiye. We compare the alternatives against those criteria and take the final decision together with you.
Çilek Havuz Technical Team
Yes, a significant part of the consulting runs independently of location. Design and quote reviews, feasibility work and specification writing are carried out remotely from the documents, and meetings are scheduled online. Steps that have to happen on site, such as the survey and construction supervision, are handled through planned site visits timed to the critical moments in the build programme, and every visit is documented with a photographic report.
Çilek Havuz Technical Team
Yes, we join a running site with an assessment of the current position. The first task is to compare the design, the contract and the work built to date, and to set up testing for work already closed up — a leak test, for example — and a supervision plan for what is still open. We cannot see everything retrospectively, and we say so plainly; but putting everything from that point on into the record changes the course of the work on most projects.
Çilek Havuz Technical Team



















