If you're building a house here in Thailand, chances are that you will be building a swimming pool to go with it. Swimming pools are quite tough to build successfully for a number of reasons. Firstly the (heavily reinforced) concrete is poured quite early in the build process and if you want something a little bit special, you most definitely need to have found the equipment and have it on site so that contractors can work in any sleeves or housing that are used to install the lights, speakers, fountains etc.

The last thing in the world you want to do is change the integrity of a swimming pool once it has been built (cast). Water will work on the weakest part of the pool until it gets through, if you have changed the pool or tried to retro fit something into it, that will be the weakest point.

Pools are really best built into the ground; however, many villas here have pools with rooms below. Rooms under pools always seem to cause problems for the owners, from the obvious leaks to contractors drilling through the ceiling into the pool above. Water is extremely heavy, and with insufficient concrete testing I'd be wary of having a dozen tons of the stuff overhead while I'm watching TV.

The choices for lighting and sound in the swimming pool have expanded quite considerably in the last few years. The growing markets in LED lighting and fibre optics have brought new and energy efficient options to the world of pools, but they're not cheap. There is also quite a selection of pool light accessories for those who have a pool already.

Lighting pools is harder than you might imagine, of course the simple solution and the one that you see in almost every pool here in Phuket is either an enormous light at one or both ends of the pool or some tiny dim bulbs that just stare out into the vastness. Neither looks very nice because both are normally in your line of sight and leave you with glare spots when you blink.

In addition, they only light the water and not the actual pool. Light is diffracted quickly in water, so it is not able to focus as well as it would on land. The trick is to get the lighting close to the floors and walls of the pool so that the tiles are lit, not just the water.

A tip for those who are building one right now, make sure whatever your lighting is, that it is pointing away from the house and towards the view. This will prevent you having to look at light bulbs instead of the scenery.

For the sake of this article, there are two types of pools: those that have yet to be built and those that are built already. We specialise in those that have yet to be built. It is at this design and construction stage that you are able to get the pool you want with no compromises. The opportunity to integrate lighting and sound into your pool is only really available to you at this stage.

Probably the most impressive lighting for pools available today is LED lights and fibre optics. Fibre optic lighting is a great option, because the actual electricity and light source is kept far away from any water. They are both fairly expensive and complex to install, but they are colourful, unique, and look great.

LED fixtures can be single-colour, fixed colour changing, or programmable colour changing. Fibre optics can be a thick side-emitting type for a clean line all the way around your pool, or there can be hundreds of thin individual strands strategically placed in the walls and floors making small points of light.

These can colour change, or simply sparkle. Deep blue hues look classy as does green - though of course this all depends on the colour of your tiles. Fading variations of one colour looks nice, as do colour changes over long periods of time (a few hours). One word of caution: cheap lights that change colour automatically typically look a bit cheesy.

For those with existing pools, you can buy pool lights that you set up for parties or dinner evenings that sit temporarily on the side of the pool. Floating fixtures with rechargeable batteries also look good and add a great touch to a fun night.

Most people think it's funny to have speakers under the water, but I can assure they are a great feature. Sound waves travel better underwater because it is denser than air. AVC uses special underwater speakers that are built for synchronised swimming; they have good sound quality and are very durable. They are also rated for both standard pools and saltchlorinated systems.

One last possibility for pools, especially if you have kids, is wave or splash-sensing equipment that will sound an alarm when someone falls in. There are many different types and ways this is achieved and there are plenty of portable ones available if your pool is built already. Just look for "pool alarm" in Google.

Like anything to do with building a house the quicker you look into the options, the cheaper and easier it will be to get it right the first time around. With a swimming pool you really don't want to make any mistakes, or you'll have to keep topping it up for the rest of your life, and you make it even worse by trying to fix it.

Robin Plant runs AV Creations Phuket. If you have any questions for the Smart Homes column, please email info@avcphuket.com