Advice from the board

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dykes26

dykes26

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Aug 17, 2009
186
Our contract states that the pool will be completed in 90 days. We will be at 90 days the day after thanksgiving. At the 90 day mark we will have just finished Shotcrete, plumbing and the wood support will be in place for our poured in place concrete coping. We have documented 12 working days of "downtime" days where nobody was working on our pool. We have also have several "1/2 days" an hour or two of work. They do not work on Sat. or Sun.

We still need drains, masonry work, tile, ledgerstone, banding, decking, electric, pool equip. the rebuilding of a wall, sprinkers, lighting and pebble to be installed.

We had 1 day of rain and lost a day as we hit water.

I want to be fair and reasonable with our PB as he is doing a quality, but slow job building our pool.

How should I address this and what should I expect? Should I start docking him from the ballon payment at the end of the build?

Love to hear both side consumer and people in the industry. Thanks!
 
Do not pay anymore money. What are the payment schedules? Unfortunately we had a great PB that only required 1k up front in order to pull permits. Most of the rest of the money was given to him a couple of weeks after we were swimming, of course we had our pool completed in 21 days however the contract stated 30days. I guess we were fortunate. :-D
 
Here's the consumer side, as I see it.

Unless schedule is of higher importance to you than cost or scope (completed features, quality of materials and installation) I would urge you to exercise the most flexibility in this area. You will drive yourself crazy with frustration if you dwell on this. During my build two years ago I was often so angry I could spit -- and this emotional stress occasionally leaked out in the form of e-mails and phone calls (to a secretary, of course--real construction folks don't return calls) that were yet more exasperating and, in total, were not effective in moving up the completion date even one day.

I wasn't as fortunate as Brent. The builder stipulated a completion deadline of 4 weeks, with a 2 week extension (if necessary due to unforeseen and extraordinary circumstances beyond their control....) Ha! Every day the unforeseen was seen. We were able to swim in just under 4 months after permit approval. I certainly know a little of what you're feeling, as do many others. If it makes you feel any better, start a diary and detail every time a sub doesn't show up or a pipe goes in wrong and the outrageous indifference evidenced by the general contractor and his/her cronies.... you get the picture. It won't help your build as much as being on site with questions and design plans firmly in hand.

Not many customers actually end up in litigation; most items are eventually redressed by the contractor, after a thousand or so phone calls. Even if you're feeling angry, don't show it. You'll get better results if you're cool, cool, cool... and determined.

Good luck to you. I'm sure you'll find lots of sympathy and some good advice from the members here. Hang in there!
 
Polyvue makes a great point. If your PB is a great person you might be able to talk him into some upgrades or freebees. Perhaps a SWG thrown in or upgrades in lighting. This might calm down some of your fustration. I was very anxious and wanted things done to a T, however all turned out for the better. We always just had another drink and looked forward to the day we would be swimming. :cheers:
 
Whether it's the weekend project or our work for which we get paid, how many of us have things always go as planned?

If your PB is doing a good job and you are happy with the quality of the work and you have an open line of communication with him, you can change all that very quickly by bringing pressure on him to hurry up or badgering him for something you haven't paid for.

If you can get good work and good communication right to the end, you will be ahead of a high percentage of people who have pools built.

(BTW, the stupid contractor took 2 1/2 years for our pool.......he was just so charming the wife never complained) :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:
 
You have received good advice... I would add that since the season is over and you are not in a hurry to get swimming (unless you live in Australia) and if the builder is doing good work, I would not rock the boat. Sometimes with a slower process, you end up with a better end product, than if you try to rush things along!
 
Thank you so much for your advice. Let me add a little more detail.

Our PBer only subs out the steel, shotcrete and pebble. No other subs. His small crew does everything else.

When researching builders his references all said the same thing that he has trouble with meeting deadlines but builds a beautiful and high quality pool. We loved his work and his prices are very good for things that the others charged a great deal more for like poured in place coping, banding, masonry work etc.

He also had the best payment schedule of all the builders. 14 payments with a decent chunk at the end.

When we met I discussed this with him and asked for a worst case time frame to be included in the contract. He agreed and put the 90 days on the contract.

I agree wtih both sides of what everyone has said-

We are not in swim season- so don't push it

He is a nice guy that doesnt communicate well as his guys just kind of show up or do not show up, but I like the guy.

I guess I am hung up on the fact that his worst case scenario has come and gone but we seem so far from finishing. Why have the deadline in the contract.
 
Don't worry, you will be quite surprised what can get done in a couple of weeks provided you have great weather. Hang in there and you will be relaxing soon. :cheers:
 

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What exact penalties are enumerated in the contract if he exceeds the 90 days? If there aren't any specific penalties like "$XXX deducted from final payment", or " something like that... the only thing you are entitled to is to exit the contract as he is not living up to it.

If you accept without comment his exceeding the contract deadline you accept defacto that its ok. You should notify him, in writing, that he is breaking the contract and you will allow him to continue to work under the other terms of the contract, but reserve the right to exercise your exit from the contract at a later date if you continue to be dissatisfied with his progress. Then rationally talk to him, and tell him you are just protecting your rights, but so far you are otherwise pleased with his work. Be pleasant about it even.

If things go farther downhill you want to be able to cut him off and get him unentangled from you.

Just protect your rights under the contract, or you risk losing them.
 
We are a month in on our pool build and we love our contractor. We understand that things out of their control happen. It is not swim season so we are not worried about the time frame. What is more important is the quality of work they do and we were told our project from start to finish will take 4 months or more. This is including landscaping front and back.

My sister in Texas was shocked that we did not have our pool built in a week. It has taken a week for plumbing including working through the weekend and they are not slacking. I'm actually glad it is moving at this pace so I can have more time to change things as they progress and learn from this site. We have already added another pump from the recommendation of one of the members on this site and a few days ago I asked them to add another fiber optic light in the grotto.

If they are doing a great job I would suggest just to hang in there. You will be swimming before you know it :lol:
 
Thanks to all for the advice.

update-

Per advice from this board we took a deep breath and expressed our concerns to the pool builder. He told us he screwed up on his time frame and said he was sorry. We asked for a new schedule. The one he gave us we can live with. Thanks to everyone for your advice!
 
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