How often did your pool builder show up? (and contract issues)

[klanel]

We recently went to a showroom to look at samples for tile and pebbletec and the person working there mentioned that our PB might be retiring soon so even if our pool doesn’t work out, leaving him nasty reviews may not do us any good This is all so frustrating.

My builder's son also is involved in the business so I think at least for him, reviews can have some impact going forward. I have emails, transcripts of text, and lots of photos showing poor workmanship. I am particularly fond of the pictures of boot prints stomped down into the concrete to create a pump basin. That kind of picture doesn't show bias, it's not subjective, it just shows things as they are which is poor workmanship. I am looking forward to giving him a detailed review. It should have been his job to see and prevent this kind of work but the oversight of which I don't have the expertise seems to be up to me.

 

[KDee]

K,

This is a great post and thanks for being so candid about your experience. Contracting is a topic that doesn't get a lot of traction on here until it's too late. Sadly, only a few really act on recommendations to make sure you have a fair and complete contract is as important as any of the design specifications. I think the reason for this is just what you say here. They "feel good" about the builder and so good they often just can't believe he would do anything less than keep them happy. After signing more than a few go down the same road as you are right now. They have a contract that is devoid of content important to they buyer because it was prepared by an attorney that he paid. So there's no quality requirements for payment just he tells you completed something is complete and there's not even a measurable milestone definition of what that means. Everything in the contract is this way... extremely one-sided and buy has virtually no recourse other than to stop the job and pay up or go to court in which case he will lose even more. I would urge everybody that's in the process of finding a builder to just step back and objectively assess where they are compared to our best practices wiki. Worst case you verify your builder really is a good one and your contract really is fair and complete. Best case, well you can read a lot of those stories on this forum that you just avoided.

Now as I listen to what I just wrote it sounds like building a pool is a terrible experience and often it's not at all that way. The fact is that you as owner have to do contracting at least as correctly as you select the specifications. There are many, many quality builders that are in business for the long term. I have no idea what percentage of jobs are done by really quality builders and what percentage go bad. All I can say is that my experience in construction indicates the constructors that have been in business for the long haul realize their reputation is everything and they don't operate the way I describe in the first paragraph. And there are even newbie's out there that are destined to become great builders these also have a customer satisfaction driver that you can discern in the selection process. These builders are also never the cheapest cost but they always provide the best value to the buyer. Finding the good ones is not rocket science and it's well worth the effort.

I hope this helps to at least help others avoid the problems you're experiencing now.

Chris

To someone who doesn’t know better, our contract looked reasonable but now see that it should be a lot more detailed. I will start another thread to discuss further. Thanks for all the help.