Pool Builders in Bossier City

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A pool in Bossier City costs about the same as one across the river — $35,000 or so for vinyl, $50,000 to $65,000 for fiberglass, and from $70,000 for gunite, the figure Bossier City builder Elston Construction publishes for its own work.

What's different in Bossier City is everything around the pool. The permit costs more, the city requires eight separate inspections, the fence rule is specific and enforced, and the groundwater under this parish is shallower than under Caddo. None of that stops a build. All of it belongs in your budget and your contract before anyone starts digging.

What a pool costs here

Elston is the only builder serving this market who publishes a starting price. Bourgeois is a south Louisiana builder near Lafayette, so treat those figures as Louisiana-wide rather than Bossier-exact.

What a pool really costs in Shreveport-Bossier → Add-ons, cost of ownership, and a worked all-in example: $79,000–$93,000 against a $70,000 quote.

Bossier City permits: what to expect

The fee. Bossier City charges $5.00 per $1,000 of construction cost, with a $50 minimum. On a $70,000 pool that's about $350 — slightly more than Shreveport's $4.25 per $1,000.

Zoning first. Pools need MPC and zoning approval for height and setback before the building permit issues. That's a step Shreveport doesn't impose the same way, and it's worth asking your builder to start early.

Timeline. The city puts residential plan review at about a week. Applications run through the city's EnerGov self-service portal. Permits and Inspections is at 620 Benton Road.

The eight required inspections

This is the part that surprises people. Bossier City publishes a pool contractor requirements form listing eight required inspections on a residential pool build:

1. Site preparation

   With the manufacturer's installation requirements kept on site at all times.

2. Electrical bonding and grounding

   Every required metallic part of the pool and equipment, plus any metal object within five feet of the highest water level. No electrical service wiring above the pool. Work must be done by a licensed electrical contractor.

3. Pool steel

   On gunite pools.

4. Waste water and plumbing

   Pool drainage and backwash piped to an approved drainage system where city sewer is used, with backflow prevention on the supply. Licensed plumbing contractor required.

5. Deck steel

   Before the deck is poured.

6. Barrier

   No less than four feet, in place at all times once the pool holds water.

7. Locks, latches and alarms

   With the contractor furnishing a homeowner-signed letter confirming compliance.

8. Final inspections

   Electrical, plumbing and building finals.

The city's form closes by warning that failure to comply "may result in permit privileges revoked and or turned over to the Louisiana State Licensing Board." Bossier City takes this process seriously, which is genuinely good for you as the homeowner — it means an unlicensed operator has a hard time working here.

Outside city limits. Unincorporated Bossier Parish runs permits through Code Inspections Plus, the parish's contracted building official, at 700 Benton Road, with applications through MyGovernmentOnline. One trap worth knowing: if your property sits outside the city but uses Bossier City utilities, you need both a parish permit and a city permit, with the approved parish permit uploaded to the city's system. Confirm which applies to your address before you sign a contract with a completion date in it.

Fees and processes verified August 2026 against city and parish sources. Confirm current figures with the permit office.

The fence rule is clearer here

Bossier City sets a hard minimum: a barrier no less than four feet, in place any time the pool holds water. The city has also adopted the 2021 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, which governs the details:

• Gates must open outward, away from the pool, and be self-closing and self-latching
• Gaps beneath the barrier: no more than two inches over grass or gravel, four inches over solid surfaces like concrete
• No opening in the barrier may pass a four-inch sphere
• A 36-inch clear zone between the outside of the barrier and anything climbable — pumps, filters, heaters
• The barrier must sit at least 20 inches back from the water's edge

Worth knowing if you're comparing the two cities: Shreveport's own pool ordinance requires a "substantial" fence with child-resistant gates but names no height at all. Bossier City's requirement is explicit. Budget $1,500 to $3,500 for compliant fencing.

Groundwater is the local variable

Bossier Parish sits lower and wetter than Caddo, and it shows up in the data.

A USGS monitoring well in Bossier Parish recorded a median depth of about 10 feet across 269 measurements taken between 1978 and 2026, with the shallowest reading at 3.85 feet, and the shallowest readings cluster in spring — pool construction season.

Bossier City says as much itself. The city's flood information page notes that "throughout Bossier City, the land is flat and storm water runoff is extremely slow," and that flat terrain "provides very little gravity drainage."

For your build, shallow groundwater means two things: dewatering during excavation, and a design that accounts for hydrostatic pressure pushing up against the shell. The standard engineering answer is a hydrostatic relief valve or an underdrain system — the CDC's aquatic health code requires exactly that for public pools wherever groundwater can exert uplift on an empty pool. That code governs public facilities, not backyards, but the physics is the same in either.

The soils under Bossier — Wrightsville, Sacul, Gore, and Moreland are the dominant series — include several with high to very high shrink-swell potential. Moreland runs 60% to 90% clay in its subsoil with very slow permeability. For context, a 2021 study of expansive-soil risk across Louisiana ranked Bossier among the state's least vulnerable parishes, so this is a real factor but not an extreme one.

Check the license before you sign

Louisiana requires a state contractor license for residential pool work over $7,500 — far below the $50,000 threshold for general residential construction. Every real inground pool in this state legally needs a licensed contractor, and a Home Improvement registration explicitly does not cover pool installation.

Verify any bidder at lslbc.louisiana.gov before signing. Bossier City's inspection process will catch an unlicensed operator eventually. Catching it yourself first is cheaper.

Frequently asked questions