Supply shortages

[klanel]

Our pool construction which was a 12 week build is now closing in on 10 months. I've seen some posts here about supply shortages causing delays. In our case, none of the delays so far have been due to supply shortages.

But it looks like things are beginning to get closer to completion and with that in mind, I began to consider some finishing touches like LED Luminars. My builder uses Hayward and today I decided to see if the Hayward Colorlogic Luminars were available so I contacted a Hayward dealer and was told they were on backorder and it could be mid season before they received any.

So it looks like the supply chain issue (I have another name for it) will end up affecting our build before things are done. I think the Laminars would be a nice effect but after all the time we've waited, pressed and stressed trying to get things completed, I would not consider halting having the deck completed in order to wait for Laminars to come in. One option I have wondered about would be if the housings were available and the internals could be put in down the road. From a reliability standpoint, not getting them may be a blessing.

Any of you having delays that you can say were directly tied to lack of materials?

 

[Newdude]

The liner, pvc, skimmers, plastic/acryillic stairs...... all of it. And the PB told me at signing that the cement companies constantly blew him off for bigger projects like McMansion foundations. They were getting the most return from their short supply.

He wouldn't even put specific equipment on the quote and said there was no promises as to what would be available when everything else was ready. He reluctantly agreed to install the equiptment if i found it myself. Of course the quote didn't go down by an equal amount of his cost for the equipment. Not even close, but he still needs to get X amount of profit regardless that i purchased my own equipment. So in reality he is getting his regular markup for installing equipment he didnt sell. I don't fault him here, but it still kinda stings on principle.

We were scheduled for late July / early August and now its too cold here so its offially a spring project. PB has a couple of open holes stalled, so i'm thankful that nothing was started as it would have been living in a mess for months and months.

 

[klanel]

I did have the builder tell me a while back that the heat pump was on backorder but we are not to that stage of setting equip and I just told him if it wasn't here by the time the equip was set, to plumb it out and set it later. I also changed the pump on the contract from a single speed 1.85 to a variable speed 2.7 but have no idea if they will be backordered. So, although I am thinking we are getting close to finished, I may be in for surprise. Now that I am thinking about it, that could be a problem down the road.

 

[klanel]

it would have been living in a mess for months and months.

You should see our driveway. I have special shoes I wear when walking near the pool area. They are stained red from all the mud. We can't get our vehicles into our turn around anymore and my wife backs her car out 200 feet to the road because it's become so difficult to turn around.,

 

[markayash]

I did have the builder tell me a while back that the heat pump was on backorder but we are not to that stage of setting equip and I just told him if it wasn't here by the time the equip was set, to plumb it out and set it later. I also changed the pump on the contract from a single speed 1.85 to a variable speed 2.7 but have no idea if they will be backordered. So, although I am thinking we are getting close to finished, I may be in for surprise. Now that I am thinking about it, that could be a problem down the road.

Your in Athens, are you planning on using it over the winter? I have already semi-closed mine down for the year. My water temp was 56 in north Atlanta Good news is we don't have to do a lot of maint this time of year, just add a little CH and leave it alone.

 

[klanel]

are you planning on using it over the winter?

No plans on using it until it warms up so with the heatpump, it won't cause any issues. But if the controller, salt generator, filters, pump, blowers, pool fittings, etc are backordered, then we could be in for a long wait. I had planned on using it this past June. If there are supply issues with critical components then we may be in for a much longer wait.

 

[TampaKathy]

My equipment is Pentair and there's been a lot of discussion about the lack of supply for them so I believe my PB when he said that stuff was back ordered but other stuff I think they are just using that excuse to cover up that they didn't order stuff timely...for example, my bowls, they said were back ordered but really they ordered the wrong ones. They also said the auto fill was back ordered but the very first place I contacted confirmed they had it in stock. Are you set on getting whatever heat pump it is? Maybe you can get a different one...I get an Aqual Cal heat pump (not thru the PB) and it could have been installed like 5 days after I bought it. And today is 8 months for my project although I do have water in the pool and can use it but I'm still counting b/c there's a bunch left to do...this is just soooo much fun.

 

[klanel]

Are you set on getting whatever heat pump it is?

I'm OK with it although I know nothing about how good/reliable it will end up. As long as mine has been going on, they could have ordered everything and had it here. Last March I don't recall ever hearing anything about supply issues. But it would not surprise me if they still haven't ordered anything. Like one of the contractors said about my builder, 'he just sits in front of his computer without visiting the sites and dreams up the way he thinks everything should work'. I can say the builder definitely doesn't come here to see anything. I act as the project manager keeping him informed of what has and has not been done. But he does show up promptly when it's pay day!

 

[Newdude]

Last March I don't recall ever hearing anything about supply issues

Oh it was real bad alright. I don’t remember I’ve linked it already but this was my endeavor at the time. Some things got better, some worse since then.

The equipment struggle is real / 2 steps forward 1 back

Hey all. Hopefully this thread will morph into a build thread but at the moment, I’m not so sure. I told my PB that we wanted to go ahead with a build this year and he said that he could do June/July but he couldn’t garauntee what equipment he could get between now and then. He agreed to...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[TampaKathy]

Yeah, they are definitely not paying me enough to be the PM on my own job.