Pools, terraces and renovations in Orihuela Costa

What we usually build here

Orihuela Costa is sixteen kilometres of low, mostly flat coast, and nearly all of it is urbanisations. Along the front in old Cabo Roig and Dehesa de Campoamor the villas sit on big plots, from a few hundred square metres to well over a thousand, and that is where ORIGEN builds 9 by 4 and 10 by 5 metre pools with an overflow edge, an outdoor shower off the terrace and a garden planted with the summer wind in mind. Around the Villamartín golf course it is detached two-storey villas from the seventies onwards, and the usual job is a 7 or 8 by 4 pool, a new non-slip porcelain terrace and a fresh bathroom or kitchen inside. Further inland, in La Regia, Los Dolses and the back streets of La Zenia and Playa Flamenca, the stock is townhouses, quads and bungalows with a private garden of a hundred and something square metres, so a 6 by 3 pool with a raised deck and artificial grass is what fits. In Punta Prima the original single-storey villas usually want a full renovation first and the pool second.

Getting it licensed in Orihuela Costa

Orihuela Costa has no town hall of its own: the licence comes from the Ayuntamiento de Orihuela. The coastal office is at Plaza del Oriol in Playa Flamenca; the main council sits in Orihuela city, about thirty kilometres inland, and the file moves between the two. ORIGEN draws the project, prepares every document and files it, and you get copies of everything submitted. The council sets the pace, not us, and we start digging only once the licence is granted. If your plot falls inside the Sierra Escalona and Dehesa de Campoamor protected landscape, a prior report from the regional Conselleria may be needed; ORIGEN checks that at the visit.

Ground, wind and access in Orihuela Costa

The ground is much the same here: a hard caliche crust on top, red clay and silt under it, soft sandstone below, and groundwater far down, so the hole stays dry and only the crust slows us. It is flat in La Zenia, Cabo Roig and Playa Flamenca and slopes in Lomas de Campoamor and Punta Prima, where we step the pool into the hill. The summer Levante blows from the north-east and the cliff air is salty, so we fit marine stainless steel, salt-resistant fixings and light porcelain that stays cool facing south. In tight quad and bungalow streets we walk the excavator route before quoting, and if it cannot pass we lift a fence panel and refit it.

Villamartín, Los Dolses, Playa Flamenca, Punta Prima, Cabo Roig, La Zenia