Royal Pools by Adams designs and builds custom inground swimming pools throughout Palo Alto, from Professorville to the Eichler neighborhoods. We are a Diamond Certified, award-winning pool construction company headquartered in San Jose, about 35 minutes away, and we have been building Bay Area pools since 1969. Our five-step program takes your project from first sketch to first swim.
Palo Alto is flat, which makes grading easy, and wet underneath, which makes planning essential. Shallow groundwater is common enough here that the city runs a formal construction dewatering program (Municipal Code Section 16.28.155 plus Public Works regulations, with a seasonal pumping window and neighbor notification), and an experienced builder scopes that before the first shovel turns. Design context matters just as much. This is one of the country’s great Eichler cities, with nine Eichler neighborhoods protected by single-story overlay zoning and four National Register historic districts, so we match the pool’s geometry and materials to the home, whether that is a Professorville Craftsman or a Greenmeadow Eichler. Permits run through Planning and Development Services on the Accela Citizen Access portal, and our team has been building Bay Area pools since 1969.
Every photo below is from a real Royal Pools by Adams project. See more in our project gallery.
Royal Pools by Adams is part of the Adams Pool Group, a family-run organization that has been building and finishing pools since 1953. Every 28 Palms project is backed by the same leadership team that oversees every Royal pool in the Bay Area.
Owner & CEO, Adams Pool Group
General Manager, Royal Pools by Adams
We design and build pools across Palo Alto’s distinctive neighborhoods:
A National Register historic district where pool projects pass historic review. We design to the era.
National Register Eichler districts where clean mid-century geometry rules the backyard.
Family neighborhoods with classic flat lots suited to full-size pools.
Estate-scale lots and mature gardens we design around, not through.
Just south, with a dedicated page of its own.
Yes. Pool projects go through the City of Palo Alto’s Planning and Development Services department, with applications submitted and tracked in the Accela Citizen Access online portal. We prepare the plans, handle the submittal, and manage inspections through completion.
We plan for it. Shallow groundwater is common enough in Palo Alto that the city regulates construction dewatering under Municipal Code Section 16.28.155: pumping requires a dewatering plan and a permit from Public Works, with a limited seasonal window and neighbor notification. When a project needs it, we coordinate the dewatering permit as part of the build, not as a surprise.
In most cases, yes, with extra review. Palo Alto has four National Register historic districts (Professorville, the Ramona Street Architectural District, Green Gables, and Greenmeadow), and projects on listed or inventoried properties trigger historic review. We know the process and design the pool to complement the home.
Clean geometry and indoor-outdoor flow. Palo Alto is one of the great Eichler cities, with nine Eichler neighborhoods protected by single-story overlay zoning, and the right pool for a mid-century modern home is usually a crisp rectangle with simple decking transitions, clear sightlines from the glass walls, and materials that match the architecture.
City of Palo Alto Utilities. Palo Alto runs its own municipal water utility and purchases its supply from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s regional system, most of it Sierra snowmelt delivered from Hetch Hetchy. Filling a new pool is a routine one-time use we schedule with you.
The flat lots are a real advantage: no hillside retaining and simple grading. The variables that actually matter here are groundwater depth, mature landscaping, and lot coverage, all of which we evaluate during the site visit before any design is drawn.
Prefer to plan your project in person? Our San Jose showroom at 2258 Camden Ave is about 35 minutes from Palo Alto: take US-101 South to Highway 85 South, exit at Camden Avenue, and follow Camden to the showroom. Get directions from Palo Alto →
Neighborhoods and Zip Codes We Serve in Palo Alto
Start with a free design consultation at your home or in our San Jose showroom.
Royal Pools by Adams | 2258 Camden Ave, San Jose, CA 95124 | (408) 371-8000 | Mon-Fri 8am-4pm | CSLB #278052
