The site
A sloped lot in backcountry Greenwich on Manhattan Schist — the metamorphic bedrock that runs through the area with surface boulders and shallow ledge. On a site like this, the pool you can build is decided in the excavation, not the rendering.
The challenge
Ledge rock is unpredictable. Hit it shallow across the footprint and you are into mechanical breaking or controlled blasting, with cost that swings tens of thousands depending on extent. We test-pit before contract on suspect sites so the rock conversation happens before the number is set, not as a mid-project change order.
What it took
- Test-pitting and a rock plan before contract — no surprises mid-build
- Controlled rock excavation that protected the surrounding mature landscape, foundations, and septic field
- Engineered structural steel and gunite shell sized to the soil and rock conditions on stamped drawings
- Integrated gunite spa with dedicated heating and hydrotherapy
- Full Greenwich permit package including wetlands coordination, NEC 680.26 bonding, and APSP-7 / VGB suction-entrapment compliance
The result
A pool that sits into the slope as if the lot were always meant to hold it — built on rock, engineered to hold its line through three decades of Connecticut freeze-thaw.
Building on a difficult Greenwich lot?
Ledge, slope, and wetlands are routine here — the work is in planning for them before the contract, not discovering them after. More on ledge-rock and steep-slope engineering.
John C. Gedney III
Owner, Gedney Pools, LLC
(203) 302-9920
[email protected]
Darien, CT
CT HIC.0704131 | CT SPB.0000169
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