Your pool and its surround, built as one job
Most pool quotes stop at the shell. One company drops it in, and everything around it — the concrete, the fencing, the retaining, the drainage — becomes yours to chase afterwards. You line up a landscaper, a fencer and a concreter separately, and you inherit every gap between them: mismatched levels, a fence line that fails certification, a drainage fall running the wrong way, and a surround bill that can rival the pool itself.
The levels, falls, setbacks and access that decide how your surround is built are the same ones that decide how the pool is dug and craned in. So we build and price them as a single job — the pool and its pool-scaping together. Every element, from the concrete to the lighting, is engineered with the shell and quoted upfront at real installed prices.
Six elements, priced with the build
Fixed rates are shown in full. Anything that scales with your block — like the surround itself — is measured at your free site visit and confirmed in the same quote as the pool.
Concrete & Paving
Cuts from $50The surround is the surface you actually stand, walk and lounge on — the biggest pool-scaping decision after the pool itself. It’s the coping that caps the shell, the paved or concreted apron around it, and the expansion cuts that stop all of it cracking as the ground moves.
You’ve got two main paths. Poured concrete — plain, exposed aggregate or a decorative overlay — gives a seamless, modern look and is usually the most economical way to cover a large area. Pavers give you more colour and texture and lift easily for repairs. Either way the surround is priced per square metre against your real area, because a compact courtyard and a full entertaining deck are very different jobs. Our guide on decking versus paving walks through the trade-offs.
In South East Queensland’s wet-dry cycle a slab expands and contracts all year, and without properly placed expansion and control joints a beautiful surround cracks within a season or two. The cuts themselves are fixed rates, quoted upfront:
| Concrete cut | Installed price |
|---|---|
| 1/4 Pool | $320 |
| 1/2 Pool | $640 |
| 3/4 Pool | $960 |
| Full Pool | $1,280 |
| Diagonal/Paver Cuts | $50 |
| Expansion Cuts | $500 |
Fixed installed rates, quoted with your pool. Expansion and control cuts protect your concrete surround from cracking as the ground and slab move through Queensland's wet-dry seasons.
The per-square-metre supply-and-lay rate is confirmed with your pool once we measure your surround area, finish and access at the site visit.
Pool Fencing
From $165 / mFencing isn’t optional in Queensland — it’s the law. Every pool has to sit behind a compliant barrier under the Queensland Development Code MP 3.4: at least 1.2m high, no gaps or climbable zones within reach, and self-closing, self-latching gates. Getting the fence line, setbacks and non-climbable zone right is trivial when it’s planned with the pool and painful when it’s bolted on afterwards.
We install two finishes: frameless glass — the premium, near-invisible look that keeps your sightlines to the water open — and flat-top metal, the durable, lower-cost powder-coated option. Here’s what each costs installed, including gates, panels run along a retaining or drop edge, and earthing where the barrier sits close to the waterline:
| Installed price | Frameless glass | Flat-top metal |
|---|---|---|
| Fencing, per metre | $436 | $165 |
| Self-closing gate, per unit | $495 | $297 |
| Panels on a retaining / drop edge, per metre | $220 – $660 | $220 – $385 |
| Earthing (where required) | $40/m | $150 per job |
| Timber post upgrade, per metre | — | $50 |
| Typical pool: 20m fence + 1 gate | $9,215 | $3,597 |
Installed prices, quoted with your pool — glass and metal fencing built to QLD pool-barrier standards as part of the same job.
Get a fencing quote with your poolFor styles, glass-versus-metal and the full compliance picture, read our QLD-compliant pool fencing ideas guide.
Retaining & Drop-Edge Walls
From $500 / m²Very few backyards are dead flat, and how you handle a slope is what separates a pool that belongs from one that looks marooned. A retaining wall holds back higher ground so the pool and surround sit at one usable level. A drop-edge — infinity or knife edge — does the opposite on the downhill side, turning the pool wall into a clean, elevated feature finished in a strip finish or fully clad on the exposed face.
Both are structural, engineered elements, so the price follows your site — the wall height, finish and the load it carries all move it. Here’s the installed rate per square metre of wall face for each finish:
| Wall & finish | Installed, per m² |
|---|---|
| Drop Edge - Strip Finish | $500 |
| Drop Edge - Clad | $700 |
Per square metre of wall face, engineered and built with your pool. Wall area is your average wall height multiplied by its length, so send us your block and levels and the exact figure lands in your quote.
Fencing run along that retained or drop edge is included in the fencing table above, and the wall itself is engineered and priced with the pool once we have your levels.
Water Features
From $3,200A water feature is the difference between a pool you swim in and a backyard you want to sit in long after the swim. Ours come in two sizes — Small (1.6m × 0.8m) and Large (2m × 1m) — sheeting water from a raised wall back into the pool, with optional LED blades that light the water as it falls. Beyond the look, moving water adds a soft sound that softens traffic noise and keeps the surface circulating.
Because features plumb straight into the pool, they’re built during the install rather than retrofitted later. Here’s what each size costs installed:
- Water Feature Small · 1.6m × 0.80m$3,200
- Water Feature Large · 2m × 1m$3,500
Installed prices, plumbed and built during the pool install. Optional LED blades and cladding are costed into your quote with the feature.
Want help choosing? Our guide to choosing the right water feature covers the styles, and we’ll cost the exact feature you want into your quote.
Pool Lighting
Extras from $325Lighting is what makes a pool usable — and beautiful — after dark, which in Queensland is when a lot of the swimming actually happens. Every MFP Easy pool comes with LED lighting included as standard, colour-changing and controllable, wired during the build so there’s no ugly retrofit or trenching later.
Larger pools, or anyone who wants a brighter, more even wash of light, can add extra LED lights at a fixed installed price:
- Additional LED Lights$325
Installed with your pool — extra LED lights are wired in during the build, not chased in afterwards.
For the how and why — colour temperatures, placement and the case for LED over halogen — see our guides on the benefits of LED pool lighting and the types of pool lights worth considering.
Deck Jets
From $1,075Deck jets are the arcing streams of water that shoot from the paved surround into the pool. They deliver a lot of visual and audible impact for the money — a symmetrical set framing the pool reads as genuinely resort-like — and they’re plumbed into the surround during the build rather than chased in afterwards. They come in pairs:
- Deck Jets x 2$1,075
- Deck Jets x 4$1,347
Installed with your pool — deck jets are plumbed into the surround during the build.
Softening the space with plants
Once the hard pool-scaping is in, the soft stuff — plants, turf, screening and garden beds — is what softens the space and gives you privacy. Planting is where MFP’s scope ends and your landscaper’s begins, so here’s what to brief them on around a fibreglass pool.
Choose non-invasive, low-litter species. Keep aggressive-rooted trees away from the shell and paving so nothing lifts or cracks over time, and steer clear of heavy leaf, flower or berry droppers that end up in the water and the skimmer. Palms, ornamental grasses, clumping (non-running) bamboo and tidy natives like lomandra and dwarf agapanthus are popular around SE QLD pools for exactly that reason.
Along the fence line, remember the non-climbable zone — a garden bed or trellis can’t create a foothold that lets a child scale the barrier. Mind your setbacks from the surround so roots don’t lift the paving, and pick salt- and mineral-splash-tolerant plants for the beds closest to the water. Turf right up to the coping looks great but drops clippings in, so many owners run a paved mowing strip between lawn and pool edge.
For plant ideas and layout, our blog covers landscaping around your fibreglass pool and the pros and cons of a grass surround.
Pool-scaping questions, answered
What does pool landscaping include?
Pool landscaping — pool-scaping, as we think of it — is everything that goes in around your pool as part of building it: concrete and paving, glass or metal fencing, drop-edge and retaining walls, water features, pool lighting and deck jets. Because MFP Easy prices all of it with the pool, you get one all-inclusive figure instead of chasing separate landscapers, fencers and concreters once the shell is in the ground.
Why should the landscaping be quoted with the pool, not after?
The area around the pool is where most surprise costs hide. Concrete surrounds, coping, fencing setbacks, retaining and drainage all depend on your slope, soil and access — the same things that determine the excavation. Pricing them together means the levels, falls and fence line are engineered as one job, so you avoid the classic trap of a finished pool sitting in a dirt patch with a five-figure surround bill you never budgeted for.
How much does concrete or paving around a pool cost?
Concrete surrounds and paving are priced per square metre against your actual surround area, plus expansion and control cuts (from $50 per cut, up to $1,280 for a full-pool cut set). The per-square-metre rate depends on finish, area and access, so that part is confirmed with your pool, but the cut rates are fixed and quoted upfront.
Does pool fencing have to meet a standard in Queensland?
Yes. Every pool in Queensland must have a compliant barrier under the Queensland Development Code MP 3.4 — minimum 1.2m height, no climbable zones, and self-closing, self-latching gates. We install frameless glass and flat-top metal fencing to that standard alongside the pool, so it passes certification the first time. Flat-top metal starts at $165 a metre installed and frameless glass at $436.
How much is a retaining or drop-edge wall around a pool?
Drop-edge walls are priced per square metre of wall face — $500 a square metre for a strip finish and $700 fully clad. Wall area is your average wall height multiplied by its length, so the final figure follows your slope — send us your block and levels and it's engineered and priced with the pool.
What do water features, lighting and deck jets add?
Water features come in two sizes — Small (1.6m × 0.8m) at $3,200 installed and Large (2m × 1m) at $3,500 — with optional LED blades that light the falling water. Every MFP Easy pool includes LED lighting as standard; extra LED lights are $325 each, and deck jets — the arcing water jets that shoot from the surround into the pool — start at $1,075 for a pair. They're all wired and plumbed during the build, so there's no retrofitting later.
Get your whole pool-scape priced in one go
Book a free site visit — we'll measure your slope, access and setbacks and quote the pool, concrete, fencing, walls, lighting and water features as a single all-inclusive figure.
Mon-Fri 8am-5pm, Sat 9am-1pm