Do You Think New Pool Construction Today Is Scary and Fraught with Risk?

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kbuhagiar

kbuhagiar

Silver Supporter
Jul 29, 2022
46
Escondido, CA
Pool Size
13000
Surface
Plaster
Hello folks,

Bought a house last year and inherited a 23-year-old swimming pool & spa (details in my sig). Spent a few weeks doing some repairs (both cosmetic and operational) and my wife and I now have an attractive, fully functioning, crystal-clear source of fun and exercise. :cool: (y)

I think we were fortunate to buy a house with an established well-built pool/spa that just needed some TLC to bring back to life, mostly with the help of the experts here on TFP. And after reading some of the horror stories here I am REALLY grateful for what we have. There is NO WAY we could go through the process of swimming pool construction. It's hard enough to decide what sort of pool to spend over $100K on, much less worry that the company you hired my just take a walk on you.

Which leads me to my question...has the swimming pool construction process always been this scary to negotiate? I live in San Diego County CA, and it seems that every week I hear of a NEW pool construction horror story, either of a pool contractor who has abandoned the job, or is obviously incompetent and not up to the task, or at the very least unresponsive and uncooperative during or after construction. Has the industry become de-regulated? Or is it just too easy for unscrupulous individuals to get into the business?

Hoping to hear that I am way off base and that my concerns are mostly unfounded.
 
I think it is the nature of construction in general and always have been. There are a plethora of great craftsman that are horrible business people and vise versa. Construction requires that you either be great at both side or have a partnership with someone that fills your gaps. A great many contractors got their license for the increased earning potential or working for yourself but completely lack in the business and finance side. With a big job like a pool, they have to be able to balance the income and expenses so that they can live while also shelling out for material and labor. When times are fat it works great but when it slows down, most contractors books resemble a pyramid scheme and start to collapse.
 
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You hear scary stories because success stories are rarely publicized. Like online reviews, it’s only when someone is ticked off that they’re motivated to make their complaints known. This is why, with contractors that do a good job, I always ask if they’d like me to post an online review. Most gratefully accept the offer. I just posted a 5 ⭐️ review for the guy that did my asphalt driveway sealing. He did a great job.

The key to a pool build NOT being a nightmare scary story is to do your homework AND to request references from the builder. My pool builder (10 years ago) handed me a folder with over 100 names and contact info as references from pools that he built 15 years prior all the way up to as recently as a month before my build. I called about a half dozen of the the old ones and visited three of the most recent builds. It wasn’t 100% positive reviews from every single one but I got enough of a feel for his work product that I felt comfortable giving him the job. Sadly, a lot of people will simply go with the first quote they get thinking that it must be all the same and how bad could it be as long as I’m paying the guy … seriously bad mistake.

DO. YOUR. HOMEWORK. Is the the mantra I will tell anyone. If you do, then the chance of you having a nightmare pool build will be substantially reduced.

And you learned a valuable lesson in your life - the cheapest pool you’ll ever own is the one that comes with the house you buy!! If you build a pool nowadays, the cost of it is at 95% loss … you will never recover the amount of money you put into it. Most appraisers, if they’re honest, will tell you that a pool maybe adds a few thousand bucks to the sales price of the home and even less if the area has homes with lots of pools. So if you ever do build a pool, accept that you putting that money into a hole (literally) and you’re never getting it back.
 
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I think, like many other things, quality has gone down the toilet in the last couple of decades (but especially since COVID). I agree that you hear more about bad experiences than good experiences but I'm sure there's more to it than that. Given that a pool adds little to the cost of a resale home, I would never think of building one myself any more and you lucked out buying a house with a "free" pool!
 
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JamesW said:
I would require a performance bond for a pool build.
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And no pool builder would ever bid for your job .... :p

Sadly, one would think that the traditional rules of project management and construction sciences would apply to pool builders too and their industry would have strict standards and licensing requirements - after all, they have to pull permits and get engineering drawings done, etc, etc. But very few pools builders engage at that level and construction companies that do serious projects like home developments or commercial real estate, consider the pool business to just be an appendage of the overall construction world filled with novices, hacks, grifters, and charlatans. It's akin to people that do kitchen remodels, bathrooms, etc, and it is sort of the backwaters of the construction world.

So, this leaves the consumer with the very difficult task of sorting through all the BS that is out there and be very conscientious about finding the right contractor. At the end of the day, there's no guarantees and you have to be able to work with the builder and communicate well. Even then, bad things happen.

As the old Latin saying goes - caveat emptor!
 
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The customer can buy one on their own.

The bond company will also do a due diligence investigation on the contractor to price the bond, which will be helpful in assessing the contractor.

In my opinion, the risk is too high to not have some sort of insurance policy that ensures successful completion in a timely manner.
 
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JamesW said:
The customer can buy one on their own.

The bond company will also do a due diligence investigation on the contractor to price the bond, which will be helpful in assessing the contractor.

In my opinion, the risk is too high to not have some sort of insurance policy that ensures successful completion in a timely manner.
Click to expand...

Who defines what successful completion in a timely manner is?

You know of bond companies who issue bonds on pool builds?
 
JamesW said:
The customer and contractor need to write the details into the contract including quality, time to complete each step and what happens for any default, complaint or issue.
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Which is very different then the contracts Pool Builders present to prospective customers.

And the Pool Builder needs to be willing to play along and cooperate with the entire bonding process from contract development through presenting their corporate and financial condition to the bonding company.

I think most Pool Builders will just move along to the next prospect when all that is requested.

Which is why you end up with the popularity of Owner Builds.
 
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In AZ contractors that are licensed through the ROC have to be bonded but it’s pretty weak sauce. There are strict recoverable limits based on project size and trade AND, like any surety company, the AZROC will do everything it possibly can to NOT pay out on a bond. So the state level stuff is usually just window dressing.
 
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The entities around here that get surety/performance bonds are big real estate developers, commercial developers, and the State. The State contracts (roads, infrastructure, schools, etc) all have performance clauses in them such that the individual contractors and developers will not receive payment if key metrics and deadlines aren’t met. The dollar amounts in play are very large and so the contractors don’t mess around or else they can lose a lot with no recourse. I know a civil engineer that works for a major construction outfit in this area and he says the State contracts are the most draconian in their terms with little or no wiggle room at all. But they love their state contracts because they pay more than any other project. State work is prioritized above all else.
 
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