Recommendations for saltwater pool builder North of San Antonio

I agree with Pat that Dec/Jan isn't a great time to start in Texas. But I'm surprised they are all so unresponsive. What are you asking them to do? They may not think you are really serious or your pool may be way out of their "wheelhouse" so they know it's not likely to be very profitable Vs their other clients. First step for you should be to figure out what you want in enough detail that you can find bidders that "fit" and communicate it to them in a way that they are attracted. One of the best sources of bidders is from satisfied pool owners in your area that have similar pools at least in size and features. Doesn't need to be exact defined design. Size, shape, type and major features are OK at this point.

One of the worst things you can do is end up with a pool builder that really doesn't see your job as attractive for them compared to other clients. Sometimes they take this kind of work as "filler" to keep their best crews working. But it doesn't usually work out well for the buyer. So hang in there, keep on searching. Find the right builder for you and I am quite sure he's out there. I would also talk in-person to the builders to get their perspective. Keep it professional and non-confrontational. You're just trying to understand. Questions should be something like this:

• What is the kind of pool you like to build?
• How many pools in my area have you built and what were the specs?
• What about my pool is so unattractive to you that you don't seem to prioritize my project?

You're not asking them so you can "convince" them to bid your work. They clearly don't want it and therefore you shouldn't use them. But you can try to confirm why all 3 are so unresponsive and figure out if there's anything you can/should do about it or were they just not the right bidders for your pool? This may or may not help you in communicating with additional bidders.

I hope this helps.

Chris

I live in the San Antonio area. We schedule with four PB's around mid December of 2018. Three showed up, and we got designs from two of them. The PB was able to break ground 2/13/19 and took 8 weeks to finish. The PB we went with does not do saltwater, so I installed a chlorine injection.

Having the spa, there is the option to heat the pool with the Jandy NG Heater. It will take one hour to increase the pool temp by 1 degree. But having the spa there is no reason for me to try to heat the pool. I was in the spa last night, it took 45min for the spa water temp to go from 58 to 100 degrees. If you don't go with a spa, i wouldn't get the heater to heat the pool.

We have a gas heater and solar even down in S Florida. But we swim a LOT even in winter. About 9 months all we use the gas for is the spa. In winter we use it for both... we see it on the gas bill then but only need to run a couple hours even for the pool since we swim so often. I guess it's hotter in S Florida but we're still glad we added the gas heater.