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Your Pool Cabana: To Plumb or Not to Plumb?

Catalina: This Cabana on Long Island is plumbed for a kitchenette and bathroom.

Few things engender as much debate in the backyard as the purpose of your pool cabana. Is it a reception area for special guests, or a place to whip up a quick snack when you're too wet to pop back into the house? Is it a change room and bathroom with shower, or simply storage space for pool supplies and future yard sale materials?

Or is it all of the above?

After talking with many customers, we've concluded that the only consensus regarding pool houses is that they belong beside your pool. And one of the hottest topics? Whether to install plumbing.

On One Hand, Plumbing's Pretty Handy

Sonoma: Beneath the overhanging roof, you can see Walter and Melinda's shower stall and change rooms.

Howard and Alyson of Long Island did plumb their Catalina style pool house. They definitely fall into the multi-taskers' camp.

The hotly debated issue of a cabana's purpose surfaced in our discussion. Alyson seemed almost surprised when asked how they use their Catalina. "Well, we use it as a cabana," she replied as if talking to a child. To Alyson and Howard, that means everything from changing facilities to a place to prepare meals, to a bathroom and storage space. Their plumbing job included a 2-piece bathroom, plus a kitchenette, complete with a sink and large pantry.

But they also use their cabana to file away the many accessories that pools demand. "We store all those toys and pool tools and things," says Alyson.

In the Other Hand, There's Your Towel!

Sonoma: A closer view of this Californian Sonoma. (Sprawling retriever not included.)

Walter and Melinda H of California chose not to plumb their Sonoma. For starters they already had what many others believe is a pool house's raison d'etre: "Just a short walk, ten steps away, we have two changing rooms and an outdoor shower," says Walter.

So if they already have these essentials, why build the cabana, many on the other side of the debate would ask? Their Sonoma, "is more of a gathering place," Walter says.

This is a major theme we've detected at Summerwood. More people are building pool cabanas as a place to socialize and host friends and family. It becomes their little getaway, an oasis as it were, on their own property.

Your Outdoor Living Room or Kitchen/Bar?

Windsor: Sabine uses their cabana as an outside living room. People don't plumb their living room.

A gathering place is certainly how Sabine B and family of New Jersey view their Windsor pool house. She considers it, "More of an outside living room." When they decided to build, they wanted a special destination, one which brings every visit its own sense of occasion.

However they experienced the plumbing debate too. "I didn't want it," says Sabine. "But we were debating back and forth especially because the bar." In the end they chose not to plumb – as you can see in the photo below, it's a dry bar.

Look around for wasted space. Is there a sliver between the studs for shelves? Or a few inches above the pool heater for a rack to dry towels on? Can you build some sliding drawers to maximize the space in cupboards?

When swimmers need a bathroom or to wash a piece of fruit, "the house is close enough to go back and forth," says Sabine. She was also unsure about the increased labor costs plumbing would entail. "This way it was much easier.

Speaking of easier, Brian and Denniz W, also of California, built their Sonoma pool cabana to be an outdoor living room but they did not experience the debate over plumbing as others do. So why not discuss a place to towel off and store pool supplies? Well, they already had a pool cabana on their property when they bought the house.

We can only assume they found the Summerwood Sonoma irresistible!

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