Inground Pool Installation in Stittsville
Around 3,000 people lived in Stittsville in the mid-1970s. By 2013 the Goulbourn Historical Society put it at about 26,000. The big change came once sewer and water arrived, by 1984, when in the society's words "developers moved in". What decides the cost of digging a pool here is not the age of the house, though. It is how far down the rock and the water table are, and three public borehole reports show rock within a metre of the surface on one property and, on another, no hole meeting refusal in the first 5 m.
Three boreholes, three very different digs
When a developer applies to the City for a site plan, the geotechnical report goes on the public file. Three of those reports cover Stittsville properties. The holes were drilled for buildings rather than pools, and each one describes a single site, but together they show why one fixed "excavation" price does not travel from street to street here.
- 6776 Rothbourne Road, east of Highway 7, on the south side of a wetland
- Topsoil and sand with organic layers, then grey limestone, reached anywhere from 0.3 m to 4.3 m down. Water stood 0.6 m to 0.9 m below the surface in the open holes in December 2018. The report places the site on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain, in an area the provincial surficial mapping marks as inferred karst.
- 1412 Stittsville Main Street
- Sand and glacial till. Every auger stopped between 2.18 m and 5.74 m, on what the engineers describe as "large boulders within the glacial till, or possible bedrock". Water sat at 1.8 m to 2.0 m in three holes, and the fourth was dry.
- 1531–1541 Stittsville Main Street
- Silty sand over very dense glacial till, with refusal at 5 m in one hole and 8.2 m in another. Geological mapping puts interbedded limestone and dolomite of the Gull River Formation under 5 to 10 m of overburden here, and the long-term water table was estimated at 3.5 m to 4.5 m.
Reading that as a pool owner
On ground like Rothbourne Road, both rock and water can turn up within the first metre, so breaking rock becomes part of the plan and pumping the hole dry may be too. The unexpected-cost allowance is worth settling before you sign; the contingency a pool build in Ottawa should carry covers how builders handle a rock strike mid-dig. On till like 1412 Main Street the hazard is boulders: they come out, but they slow the machine and fill the truck. At 1531 Main Street nothing stopped the drill in the first 5 m.
You will sometimes read that Stittsville sits on Canadian Shield granite, or on Leda clay. None of these three reports found either one. What they did find is variety, which is the reason a probe or a test pit before the price is final is money well spent in this suburb.
One more number from the 1412 Main Street report: it recommends 1.5 m of earth over the footings of a heated building, and 1.8 m for unheated structures and where snow will be cleared. Pool fence posts and deck footings are unheated, and the patio around a pool usually gets shovelled. Ask your builder what depth they plan, and see how long Ottawa's ground stays frozen before you pick a start date.
From Stitt's Corners to a suburb of 26,000
The place was Stitt's Corners first, after Jackson Stitt, who owned the stopping place. When the post office opened in 1854 he was the postmaster, and the name became Stittsville. After a fire, many villagers rebuilt about a kilometre and a half south beside a new railway line, and by 1910 up to 16 trains a day came through.
It became a police village in 1961, went back into Goulbourn Township in 1974, and joined the City of Ottawa with Goulbourn in 2001. The growth figures tell the rest: about 12,000 people by 2000, about 26,000 by 2013.
Why that history matters for a pool
Going by those population figures, most Stittsville homes went up after 1984, and on any of them the City wants to see how water leaves the yard. An inground pool needs a grading plan with its pool enclosure permit, in rural and urban Ottawa alike, drawn to show both the existing and the proposed drainage.
If your house is on City water, the cost of filling a pool from the City supply is worked through on our Pool IQ page.
Poole Creek, the Goulbourn wetland and the 30-metre line
Poole Creek runs through the middle of Stittsville. Its headwaters are in the Goulbourn Wetland Complex just west of the community, 906 hectares that straddle the Mississippi and Rideau watersheds. The upper creek, west of Stittsville Main Street, is considered a cold or cool water stream. Poole and Feedmill creeks both feed the Carp River, which puts them under the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA). The text of MVCA's 2015 restoration plan for the Carp says floodplain mapping for both creeks had "recently been finalized", although a progress table in the same document still lists that mapping as underway.
When you may need an MVCA permit, under Ontario Regulation 41/24
- within 15 m of a floodplain, slope or meander hazard
- within 30 m of a provincially significant wetland
- within 30 m of any other wetland larger than 0.5 ha
The regulated work includes grading a site and placing or removing material. Digging a pool and spreading the spoil is exactly that.
Ontario Nature reports that 130 hectares of the Goulbourn complex lost their provincially significant designation between 2023 and 2025, after a new Ontario Wetland Evaluation System took effect on January 1, 2023, a change it attributes to that system. Because MVCA's list also covers other wetlands over half a hectare, a change in provincial status is not by itself a reason to skip the check.
What goes on the permit drawing for a Stittsville yard
The City's pool enclosure guide asks for the pool, its equipment and landscaping to be shown against property lines, easements, catch basins, swales, retaining walls, power lines and utilities. A survey plan is not a minimum requirement, but the City calls it highly recommended. Here is what a surveyor charges to confirm the lines.
Electricity here comes from Hydro Ottawa. The local councillor's office reported in 2025 that Stittsville is fed by seven substations and twelve Hydro Ottawa-owned feeders. The same City guide notes that Hydro Ottawa sets the minimum clearance between overhead conductors and a pool, so a service drop crossing the backyard needs a call before the layout is fixed.
Six things to ask a pool builder about a Stittsville lot
- Have you dug on this street? Ask whether they found rock, boulders or water, and at what depth.
- Will you probe before the price is final? Also ask how rock removal is billed if it turns up. Hidden costs on Ottawa pool builds lists the usual extras.
- Is my lot inside MVCA's regulated area? Agree who checks the current hazard mapping and applies if a permit is needed.
- Who prepares the grading plan? Ask whether it will show the swales exactly as they are today.
- Where does the equipment pad go? A long pipe run changes the pump you need; see sizing a pump for a 20×40 pool.
- How exposed is the yard to wind? Wind drives heat loss, and monthly heat pump running costs change with it.
What our directory can and cannot tell you
This site draws on the Ottawa contractor directory. Of its published listings, 137 mention Stittsville and 129 name it as a service area. Only 3 have a Stittsville address: an appliance repairer, a landscaper and a caulking and painting company. None is a pool builder. One electrical contractor that serves Stittsville lists pool installation among its services.
That is why this site works as a matching service here instead of pointing you to a neighbour's firm. Describe the yard, including anything you already know about rock, water or a creek behind you, and we will pass it to pool professionals in the Ottawa area.
Tell us about your Stittsville yardNearby: Kanata · all service areas
Sources for this page
- Paterson Group, Geotechnical Investigation, 1531-1541 Stittsville Main Street, report PG4678-1, Nov. 3, 2018 — City of Ottawa file D07-12-19-0005
- LRL Associates, Geotechnical Investigation, 1412 Stittsville Main Street, file 220610, 2022 (rev. 2025) — City of Ottawa file D07-12-24-0167
- 6776 Rothbourne Road – Geotechnical Report, CP-17-0381-01, fieldwork Dec. 2018 — City of Ottawa file D07-12-19-0125
- Goulbourn Historical Society, Villages – Stittsville
- City of Ottawa, Pool Enclosure Guide (grading plan, drawing contents, survey, Hydro Ottawa clearances)
- Friends of Stittsville Wetlands, Goulbourn Wetland Complex
- MVCA, Carp River Restoration Plan / action plan, May 2015
- MVCA, Regulations and Policies (Ontario Regulation 41/24)
- Ontario Nature, Saving Ontario's Disappearing Wetlands – the Goulbourn Wetland Complex
- Office of the Stittsville councillor, Update: power outages in Stittsville and Jackson Trails, Feb. 25, 2025
- Directory counts: published Ottawa directory listings, counted 2026-09-26.