Yet another Texas pool build!

Ok so yesterday was crazy. I wasn't able to get photos because I stopped by the pool office to see what is going on. They were supposed to be back today to at least discuss the wall and how to fix it but no one showed. My wife had enough and went down to the pool office and asked to talk to the owner of the company. He asked her how the build was going and she responded with "horrible". She vented on him for quite awhile.

I then stopped on my way home to talk to the construction manager and he apologized and is supposedly going to have a long talk with the head of the subs they have been using for my pool. I gave him all the issues we have had so far and he said it was unacceptable and would work on it. I told him I want a plan of when stuff will be done. I also told him what I told my girlfriend that if you need to do it wrong to do it right then do it as fast as you can so you can do it right. He said it shouldn't be that way. I told him they are spread too thin and no one can give attention where it is needed. Hopefully I'll hear something on Monday. We live really close to the office of the PB. I drive by it every day on the way home from work. I am sure my wife will go down there every day if she has to. I know it makes them uncomfortable because they have clients in there all the time buying pools and doing initial color choices. It isn't good when you have unhappy customers in your showroom. Maybe they won't pick up any customers that live within 2 miles of their office from this point on.

Anyway here are the photos of the walls:

Problem 1: This is the side of the wall that will be backfilled with dirt that we won't see.
RecentPool - 1.jpg

This is the side of the wall that we will see.
RecentPool - 2.jpg

Problem 2: Compact dirt
This is the wall that needs the geogrid. It should be filled with dirt every 2 courses and then compacted. Then there has to be a grid layed down that holds the wall in place. The problem is they have to clear the rocks/dirt out of there and bring in better fill dirt. They started the wall before they did that and it moves pretty easy.
RecentPool - 3.jpg

Problem 3: Wall is supposed to go past the deep end step. There will be a deck on this wall and a railing that goes into the coping. That railing should be past the step so kids can't get on the step and go on the coping where there is a large drop off.
RecentPool - 4.jpg
 
Here are some pictures of the bond beam. I really like how it turned out. It shouldn't have cracked stone in it but it does...
RecentPool - 5.jpg

Cracked stones...
RecentPool - 6.jpg
RecentPool - 7.jpg

Unfinished concrete forms for the upper parts of our deck. No real complaints about this so far except the fact that they only worked on it for 2 hours and could have finished it but they hit the water line and haven't been back since.
RecentPool - 8.jpg

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And to top it off either the plumber or stone guys stole my Stihl chainsaw and weedeater.

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That would really upset me. All my valuable stuff that usually is in the backyard is locked up in the garage during the build.
 
Here are some pictures of the bond beam. I really like how it turned out. It shouldn't have cracked stone in it but it does...
View attachment 41710

Cracked stones...
View attachment 41711
View attachment 41712

Unfinished concrete forms for the upper parts of our deck. No real complaints about this so far except the fact that they only worked on it for 2 hours and could have finished it but they hit the water line and haven't been back since.
View attachment 41713

- - - Updated - - -



That would really upset me. All my valuable stuff that usually is in the backyard is locked up in the garage during the build.
My son left the shop door open while he was in the house and I was at work.

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I have to say with all you've been through on your pool build, you're doing a great job keeping to the facts when you post. That's not easy when dealing with so much frustration!! After so long, all the problems can feel like it's become personal against us deserving personal attacks. I salute you, my friend! :salut:

You're also a great example to others who come to the site with PB problems looking for advice. We need to know things don't always go smoothly when building a pool. You keep sharing all your different approaches for survival during this difficult build. I also appreciate how you share your honest feelings. People need to hear that side, too. That way, if we get to a similar low spot, we know it's normal, and we aren't ready to go to that special place with the lovely green grass, white benches, and staff all in white coats!!! We also learn from you that you can come back up and will survive!!! I'm sorry you had to be our example, but thanks for handling yourself with integrity and honesty.

I think that's a great idea for your wife to pay visits to the office. THAT should get their attention. Keep on hangin' on!
Suz.
 
My son left the shop door open while he was in the house and I was at work.

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Wow that is too bad! Stuff happens like forgetting to shut the door. I would have been all over the pool company for that!

I have to say with all you've been through on your pool build, you're doing a great job keeping to the facts when you post. That's not easy when dealing with so much frustration!! After so long, all the problems can feel like it's become personal against us deserving personal attacks. I salute you, my friend! :salut:

You're also a great example to others who come to the site with PB problems looking for advice. We need to know things don't always go smoothly when building a pool. You keep sharing all your different approaches for survival during this difficult build. I also appreciate how you share your honest feelings. People need to hear that side, too. That way, if we get to a similar low spot, we know it's normal, and we aren't ready to go to that special place with the lovely green grass, white benches, and staff all in white coats!!! We also learn from you that you can come back up and will survive!!! I'm sorry you had to be our example, but thanks for handling yourself with integrity and honesty.

I think that's a great idea for your wife to pay visits to the office. THAT should get their attention. Keep on hangin' on!
Suz.

Thanks for the compliment. We really try to be understanding. I wonder sometimes if that is why we are having so much trouble because we aren't going all crazy on them.

It has been really hard to not publicly bash them on their facebook page, yelp, etc... I am really trying to give them the opportunity to fix things. I have also been tempted to ask for a large sum of money back so I can hire someone else to complete the job but I think that probably would be more difficult than to just let them complete it eventually. We have completely given up on the idea that we'll be swimming this year.
 
Nope no heater. The gas line alone was 2400 dollars so we dropped that idea. One thing they agreed to that I haven't mentioned is that on our plans the skimmer is outside the deck closest to the house. They have agreed to give us a little more deck and extend it so the skimmer isn't hanging out by itself. It might be 20 sq ft of deck.
 

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Here are some pictures of the bond beam. I really like how it turned out. It shouldn't have cracked stone in it but it does...
View attachment 41710

Cracked stones...
View attachment 41711
View attachment 41712

Unfinished concrete forms for the upper parts of our deck. No real complaints about this so far except the fact that they only worked on it for 2 hours and could have finished it but they hit the water line and haven't been back since.
View attachment 41713

- - - Updated - - -



That would really upset me. All my valuable stuff that usually is in the backyard is locked up in the garage during the build.

We lost an expensive water hose, but they reimbursed us. We had a cracked stone in our coping. Supposedly they are going to send someone out. I'm not holding my breath. The pebble tech plaster chunking hasn't been resolved yet either.
I think it's a lot better that you are finding these issues now and resolving them than waiting until the pool is finished and regretting it. By the way, it is going to be amazing. I can't wait to see it in all its glory when it is completed!!


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Tell him you want the extra deck in travertine :)

haha I wish. I would love for the entire thing and the coping to all be done in travertine.

We lost an expensive water hose, but they reimbursed us. We had a cracked stone in our coping. Supposedly they are going to send someone out. I'm not holding my breath. The pebble tech plaster chunking hasn't been resolved yet either.
I think it's a lot better that you are finding these issues now and resolving them than waiting until the pool is finished and regretting it. By the way, it is going to be amazing. I can't wait to see it in all its glory when it is completed!!

Thanks! I hope you get all your issues resolved. That is honestly why we chose this company is because they have a very nice office 2 miles from our house. It is really easy to drop in and raise a stink if stuff doesn't get done. And since they like to have all their customers come in to see their designs at the office many times there are prospective customers there too when we drop in.
 
We just hardly complained. But it seems as always the squeaky wheel gets the grease. [emoji3]


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Yeah in this case I think it is majorly causing me issues. I want my pool done right and at this point the subs my pool is using are completely incapable of doing what they are told and doing it correctly.

So the latest updates...

Saturday after posting on here I just decided I would document everything and email the owner, construction manager, and my girlfriend my thoughts on the pool. I listed out all the issues but boiled it down to them using unprofessional subs on my pool. I said I wasn't happy with their professionalism (not showing up when they said they would) and the shoddy work they are doing on our pool. I also stated that they need to start working on our pool more than 2 hours per week in order to get our pool done in a reasonable amount of time.

So Monday it looked promising that people were at our job pretty early. My girlfriend showed up around 11 to explain how to correctly build our wall. The idea is you put down one row of blocks, then fill with dirt, and then compact. Then the next row same thing. Once you have done 3 rows after you compact you put a mesh down and pin it into the wall. The mesh when covered with dirt holds the wall upright. It should be laying flat across the dirt and the blocks. No slack or it won't do it's job.

My wife was down at her mom's house and didn't get home until yesterday afternoon. She saw they had done quite a bit of wall so she sent me some photos because I had a meeting and couldn't get home until after dark. Initially I thought the wall looked ok. Then after about 20 minutes I realized it wasn't. I saw this:
WallBefore.jpg

You'll notice the dirt doesn't look compacted up to the level of the blocks. You'll also notice that the grid material isn't flat it actually goes down the sides of the block. It looks completely wrong to me. I also noticed they didn't hook up our overflow line before starting the wall which is on the back of the skimmer. When I saw this I called my girlfriend and told him it looked incorrect. I explained what I saw and said he would try to get out there. He was unable to but the construction manager agreed to come out and check out the wall. We were both busy and I wasn't home but my wife took this photo after she got home and he was gone...
WallAfter.jpg

We were guessing he wasn't happy because part of the wall is knocked down. I ended up talking to my girlfriend this morning and he said his brother was upset with the sub because it was obvious it wasn't compacted but the sub lied and said they compacted it. Then they were doing the grid wrong so my wall wasn't being built like they had told him to build it the previous day. I basically don't feel like I can trust this sub. This wall has to be right. It is holding up 1/3 of my deck and it will have a hand rail that people will lean up against. It has to be solid. I can't trust this sub to do the job right unless someone from the pool company is there to watch everything they do. He said that they would meet with the sub today at 9:30 and my answer was that how could they know he would do it right after he already met with him yesterday and they still did it wrong. I told my girlfriend I don't want this sub on my pool any more. I said I can't trust him and will be nervous for the entire ownership of my pool that it was built correctly. I told him I would rather wait a week or two while they find someone competent than spending a week or two watching them build, tear down, and build again. He said he would get back to me.

So basically he called me back and told me that he was removing the sub from my job. He doesn't have anyone else that can do blocks but they asked Belgard for recommendations and they have some and are contacting them to see if they can come do my job. I am in limbo now and my pool will just sit until they can find someone.

With all this said I am usually not someone to ask for any type of compensation. Usually I am just happy to eventually get the work done and am pretty patient. Would you ask for something? What do you think is appropriate on a 70k pool that has been botched so badly? I am at 5 months into my build and no obvious sign of completion.
 
Yet another update.

My girlfriend showed up and removed the workers from my pool. They have officially fired the guy I think. He told me that there were several other jobs he has lied on so they are lining up new subs. Supposedly tomorrow he meets with a potential sub to look at my pool. He doesn't know how quickly this sub can get my work scheduled but he should hopefully know by tomorrow.
 
Yikes!!! What a nightmare! So sorry for you.

Thanks hopefully it improves at this point.

I can not believe she **** you're going through with this.
Yes you absolutely deserve some compensation. Have no clue how much though. Make a list of all issues

I have a list of all the issues. I included that in my email I sent on Saturday. I haven't figured out what I want. My wife mentioned for them to throw in a heater for our pool but in reality that would require the City of Austin to get involved for the gas line. I really don't want to open that can of worms. Other things that have popped into my head is maybe an upgrade to a better pool finish or upgrade my controller to more channels and give me servos to turn on and off the bubbler with the remote.

I would start a journal/diary with what happened when. Might need it for court one day.

I have the email I sent with a list plus all the posts I have made on here. I have logged pretty much everything. I am hoping I never have to go to court over this. I just want it done right and the pool company is trying. I haven't given up on them yet but I am hoping with new subs it will turn things around.

Wow, that really suck - but because of YOUR diligence, other pools will be built correctly.

Good job!

I am hoping so. I really do love the PB and the people who work for them. They are trying and if they can pull through this then hopefully it doesn't happen anymore. I will have lots of respect if we get through this build to completion.
 

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