What SPASA NZ Awards tell you about a Pool Builder

When you are choosing someone to install a pool on your property, there is a lot of noise to cut through. The question worth asking is: what has been independently assessed and verified?

SPASA NZ, the Swimming Pool and Spa Association of New Zealand, runs the industry’s most rigorous annual awards programme, judged by independent assessors against defined criteria covering construction quality, client experience, technical compliance, and business standards. Winning requires documented evidence that your work meets the standard.

At the 2026 SPASA NZ Awards, held on 6 June in Auckland, Ultimate Pools won 11 Gold awards across project quality, business excellence, and individual performance categories. This article explains what those awards actually mean, and why they should help inform your choice of pool builder.

The SPASA NZ awards judges assess physical pool installations against documented criteria, including:

• Construction quality and finish
• Compliance with New Zealand building and fencing standards
• Client experience from first contact through to completion
• Business systems including documentation, warranties, and aftercare
• Innovation in approach or product application

Companies that win consistently across multiple categories, year after year, are demonstrating something durable: that their standards and their quality applies across their entire business, not just their best projects.

Ultimate Pools has now accumulated close 100  SPASA NZ awards across multiple years. The 2026 results, detailed below, add 11 Gold wins to that record, which are proud to acheive!

The 2026 SPASA NZ results: What Ultimate Pools won

Prefabricated Pool of the Year: Major Award

The Prefabricated Pool of the Year is a Major Award, meaning it sits above the category winners as a recognition of the standout project across all prefabricated installations entered nationally.

What this means for you: the team that will be working in your backyard has just been judged, by independent assessors, to have produced the best prefabricated pool installation in New Zealand this year. That is the standard of work you are engaging when you choose to work with us at Ultimate Pools.

Best Prefabricated Pool Builder: Business Award

This category assesses the business as a whole: systems, standards, client experience, documentation, warranties, and consistency across multiple installations. Winning Best Prefabricated Pool Builder means independent judges assessed Ultimate Pools’ entire operation and found it to be the best in New Zealand.

The practical implication: from your first enquiry through to your Code Compliance Certificate, the business you are dealing with has been independently verified as operating at the top of the industry.

Five Gold Project Wins

Across five project categories, Ultimate Pools took Gold at this year’s awards:

• Prefabricated Pool over $60,000: Above the Ordinary
• Prefabricated Pool up to $60,000: The Backyard Beach Club
• Fibreglass Pool up to $120,000: Viridian Pavilion Retreat
• Fibreglass Pool up to $60,000: Urban Oasis
• Courtyard / Small Pool over $80,000: Where Courtyard Meets Coast

Winning across five separate project categories demonstrates that the team can consistently take a large open section and deliver a premium result that can work a tight courtyard, a compact section, or a mid-range family pool.

We’re also excited to announced that four members of the Ultimate Pools team won individual SPASA NZ Gold awards in 2026.

Award	Winner	What it means for your project
Pool Sales Representative of the Year	Steve Westlake	The person guiding you through the design and quoting process is independently recognised as the best in New Zealand. Contact Steve
Pool & Spa Barrier Inspector Award	Rainbow Devlin	Fencing and barrier compliance is one of the most important, and most scrutinised, parts of a pool installation. Contact Rainbow
Construction Tradesperson Award	Fabricio Bouvier	The tradespeople on your site have been assessed and recognised for technical excellence.
Rising Star Award	Leah Kuba	We are excited that our up and coming Ultimate Pools’ people are already being recognised at national level.

Ultimate Pools finalist placings

Ultimate Pools was a finalist for Best Fibreglass Pool Builder in 2026. Being a finalist in a competitive national category alongside strong New Zealand pool companies is a result in itself, and it says something about the calibre of the industry in this country.

Ultimate Pools was also a finalist in nine further categories, including for individual team members Joel Stanley, Serena Howard, and Montana Harper, and for the Ultimate Pools retail store. The complete 2026 picture: 11 Gold wins and 10 finalist placings across projects, business, and individual categories.

What this tells you when you are choosing a Pool Builder

Choosing a pool builder is one of the larger decisions you will make for your property. The pool will be there for decades. The quality of the installation, the accuracy of the consent documentation, the reliability of the warranty, and the experience of dealing with the company through the process. All of it counts.

SPASA NZ awards do not guarantee a perfect experience for every client. What they do is provide external, independent evidence that a company operates to a high standard, that its tradespeople are technically excellent, and that its business processes have been assessed and found to be among the best in New Zealand.

That evidence is worth something when you are making a decision of this size.

Starting Your Pool in June can mean swimming by Christmas

If you are reading this in June 2026 and thinking about a pool, the timing works well. From first contact to swimming, a typical Auckland installation takes 16 to 28 weeks, which means starting now puts you in the pool before Christmas.

The consent process, pool shell delivery, and installation schedule all take time. The best way to understand exactly what your timeline looks like is a free site visit, where we assess your section, discuss your options, and give you a realistic picture of when you could be swimming.

We are Auckland’s most awarded pool installer, with over 400 installations across North Shore, West Auckland, Hibiscus Coast, Rodney and Mangawhai.