I'm brand new to TFP and have spent much of yesterday and today reading through the site. What a wealth of information and so many wonderful people helping each other. I hope someone might be able to give me some guidance. We are in the final stage of having a small (13 x 26') kidney shaped pool built for us.
We chose the company who is building the pool because of their creativity, reputation and quality. Every pool we saw was beautiful and no one ever had a complaint. They have been in business for 15 years. We signed the contract on December 17, 2012. They chalk lined the dimensions on Jan 7 and started excavation on Jan 21. We were told that the pool would be complete in 10-12 weeks. It seemed like a long amount of time to me, but never having built a pool before, we relied on the company owner's explanation of the timeline.
As the project progressed, we began to realize the real reason for the length of time was that there were long gaps between anything getting done. Sometimes a week or two would elapse between anyone showing up. Granted, we have had an unusually rainy Spring, even by Middle Tennessee standards. However, even on sunny days, nothing would happen.
As the job progressed I had to the opportunity to speak with the each person who worked on the pool. They were all very experienced in pool building, two of them who did most of the work, had over 60 years experience between them. We feel very fortunate to have had them work on our pool. They were excellent and have done a fantastic job.
The problem is the owner of the company. As we've come to find out, he is the only employee and outsources every aspect of the construction. This is something that was misrepresented to us. Had we known this, especially in light of the problem we now have, I doubt that we would have gone with him. He is the salesperson/designer, which he is very good at, and the project manager/client contact, which, from our perspective, not very good at. There have been more than a few instances in which we've been surprised by construction details. We're pretty easy going and initially chalked it up to our lack of experience in building a pool. There have just been too many of these "miscommunications" for me to believe it is all our fault. We have had to make substantial adjustments to compensate for these issues, mostly through shifts in the landscaping. Communication about schedules has been much more troublesome.
The problem we are facing now is that the company that he contracted for the Shotcrete, and who was supposed to come back to do the Hydrazzo, is nowhere to be found. For the last week and a half, we have been told by the pool company owner that repeated, daily calls to the Hydrazzo company are going unanswered, so he has no idea when they will be here to complete the pool. I asked why he would do business with a company like this and he said that this is the way it always goes. He always has a problem tracking them down and sometimes this can go on for weeks. He said they treat everyone like this and unfortunately, they are the only ones in the whole state of Tennessee that he trusts to do the job, especially since they did the Shotcrete.
I'm really stuck. This project is entering week 17 and I now have no idea when it might be complete. I never would have thought in January we'd still be building this pool in May. Money wise were even. He has been paid for all the work to date, but we still owe him for the Hydrazzo. I don't know how to bring this job to completion. What recourse to I have to get the pool builder to complete the job? Should I start looking for someone to do the Hydrazzo, and accept the risks involved in doing that? What would you do?
We chose the company who is building the pool because of their creativity, reputation and quality. Every pool we saw was beautiful and no one ever had a complaint. They have been in business for 15 years. We signed the contract on December 17, 2012. They chalk lined the dimensions on Jan 7 and started excavation on Jan 21. We were told that the pool would be complete in 10-12 weeks. It seemed like a long amount of time to me, but never having built a pool before, we relied on the company owner's explanation of the timeline.
As the project progressed, we began to realize the real reason for the length of time was that there were long gaps between anything getting done. Sometimes a week or two would elapse between anyone showing up. Granted, we have had an unusually rainy Spring, even by Middle Tennessee standards. However, even on sunny days, nothing would happen.
As the job progressed I had to the opportunity to speak with the each person who worked on the pool. They were all very experienced in pool building, two of them who did most of the work, had over 60 years experience between them. We feel very fortunate to have had them work on our pool. They were excellent and have done a fantastic job.
The problem is the owner of the company. As we've come to find out, he is the only employee and outsources every aspect of the construction. This is something that was misrepresented to us. Had we known this, especially in light of the problem we now have, I doubt that we would have gone with him. He is the salesperson/designer, which he is very good at, and the project manager/client contact, which, from our perspective, not very good at. There have been more than a few instances in which we've been surprised by construction details. We're pretty easy going and initially chalked it up to our lack of experience in building a pool. There have just been too many of these "miscommunications" for me to believe it is all our fault. We have had to make substantial adjustments to compensate for these issues, mostly through shifts in the landscaping. Communication about schedules has been much more troublesome.
The problem we are facing now is that the company that he contracted for the Shotcrete, and who was supposed to come back to do the Hydrazzo, is nowhere to be found. For the last week and a half, we have been told by the pool company owner that repeated, daily calls to the Hydrazzo company are going unanswered, so he has no idea when they will be here to complete the pool. I asked why he would do business with a company like this and he said that this is the way it always goes. He always has a problem tracking them down and sometimes this can go on for weeks. He said they treat everyone like this and unfortunately, they are the only ones in the whole state of Tennessee that he trusts to do the job, especially since they did the Shotcrete.
I'm really stuck. This project is entering week 17 and I now have no idea when it might be complete. I never would have thought in January we'd still be building this pool in May. Money wise were even. He has been paid for all the work to date, but we still owe him for the Hydrazzo. I don't know how to bring this job to completion. What recourse to I have to get the pool builder to complete the job? Should I start looking for someone to do the Hydrazzo, and accept the risks involved in doing that? What would you do?
