Picking a Builder | Weston Pools Llc

Picking a builder:

Designing a pool should be a fun experience.It’s the builders designers that you should be spending your time researching. Designers usually have a specific style of pool they personally prefer so they naturally end up designing a similar style time after time. Do you want a natural pool with organic curves and radiuses? Do you want a modern pool with clean straight lines and ninety degree angles? Try "Reverse Engineering" the interviewing process. Ask the receptionist who her favorite designer is and then ask her why. You will be pleasantly surprised at her insight. Going as far as to talk to a veteran superintendent and then selecting your designer could be helpful too. The superintendents are all too familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of the sales staff. The designer is the figurative foundation of the process. Make sure this person is a good match for you. Designers schooled through the Builders Program taught by the Pool and Hot Tub Alliance are a huge plus. Here in North Texas we have complex yards in the eyes of elevation. You want your designer to capture these precious inches in your design. Retaining walls, drainage, raised walls, & many more variables can be missed by the untrained designer. This leads to surprise costs after signing the contract. The most subtle grade change in a yard means thousands of dollars in adjustments to get things right. You do not want the superintendent of the job hitting you up with a four-five figure addendum on the day of excavation on account of a rookie designer and poor company management. Pick a builder with a proven staff.

I suggest meeting with three builders. Please don’t line up your appointments back to back with one company following another. The designer is in very high demand and the shifty salesman in our industry is nearly a thing of the past. I've heard many from the sales force tell me "The customer had us parked in the street waiting for the next sales guy to leave". These men and women are highly trained and invest their lives keeping up to date on the latest materials and technology. They will lose their desire to please if they feel taken advantage of just like anyone would.

Many people are choosing to invest in their backyards as our world has become more uncertain beyond the comfort of our own homes. Along with this increased demand has come an exponential increase in materials and labor. The average pool in the late nineties was between $18,000.00 - $35,000.00. Not to mention they were purchased with a loan. Today customers are largely paying cash. The consumer base has grown more cash rich. Some builders will tell you their starting price is $60,000.00. This is the crazy truth. Thankfully this investment is now valued by home appraisers & increase the value of your property. Historically this was not the case. Labor and materials are growing shorter by the day. A builders real power is within the relationship between them and their labor force. More and more of the successful builders have invested in bringing phases of the build in-house. This is a huge plus to both the consumer and builder. The builders that pays their work force in a timely fashion & treats their people with respect are the ones able to produce pools. Many builders sit on sales and are never able to get them to start them because of their lack of respect from the sub-contractors. You want the labor force to love the builder you pick. Ask for referrals and actually pick up the phone and call them. Its also See how their experience went.

Things you can do now:

Grab your cell phone and dial 811. This is a free service that you already pay for in your utility bills. Tell them to mark the back and side yards. It is state law that a contractor call this number before digging. You want to know if any utilities run through your yard prior to finding out later. Builders do not take responsibility for underground utilities. You can call 811 as many times as you want. Keep in mind that just because a phone or cable line is marked does not mean the crew will not hit it. It makes no difference to them. They will cut right through it if it is in the path of their trench. This is no judgment on to the character of the crew. They are expected to take the shortest path and that cable or phone line is just in their way and becomes a casualty. Have a look at the Texas811.org website & familiarize yourself with the color coding of the flags. Even though they list sewers I assure you they are not marked.
Notes regarding your sewer line: You want to talk to friends, family, maybe a neighbor and get a general idea where your sewer line runs. The City only knows where the primary is. Yours is called a secondary and it runs into the primary. Some run diagonal right through the middle of the backyard. It can cost several thousand dollars and a long delay if the sewer is hit at excavation. If you suspect it does pay a Code Plumber to give his professional opinion. Your builder is not going to pay if the sewer line is hit.
Budget for landscaping. You don’t want to spend all of your money on the pool and be left with just dirt outside of your newly built pool. Call a landscaper and get a number in mind before you decide on your top price for the pool.
Budget for sprinkler re-routes.
Make sure your builder caps the lines prior to the dig. I’ve worked for builders where I had to tell my customers they were responsible for the busted up sprinklers after the pool was dug. Remember that your contract simply says “Builder not responsible for underground utilities”.
Be sure 811 marks your power line. I am out of date with Dallas and would appreciate someone’s input on this. In Fort Worth Oncor is required to review your pool plan and give it their stamp of approval before the builder brings it to the City. This review ensures that your scope of work is outside of the power line. In Houston the power company has lobbied for legislation to remove them from liability from this process. Houston does not require the plan be stamped by the power company. I am not sure about Collin or Grayson County & implore you to inquire.
Find out if you are within the City limits or if you are considered in the county. Do not rely on the builder to figure this out as ultimately the responsibility will fall on to you.

Minimum Builder Criteria:

Has at least $1,000.000.00 worth of General Liability Insurance
Is willing to give lien waivers from the sub-contractors as each phase is completed. Note during the build that you want a lien release for your pool Equipment. This will be required as a receipt for the payment of your individual pieces of equipment. Every one. The equipment can become a nasty point of contention when dealing with the most seedy of pool builders. This policy protects you from false repossession.
Is willing to give you a Structural Warranty Agreement from the gunite company. If your builder goes out of business you will want to have the ability to fall back on the gunite company. Gunite companies are pressuring builders not to offer lifetime structural warranties anymore. I would be interested if you find a builder that cannot offer a lifetime structural warranty.
Be sure your builder has a posted physical address, not just a PO box.
Be sure your builder is a paid member of the Better Business Bureau.
Check the google rating of your builder. Read the reviews. Request referrals.
Be sure your builder does not require your last draw prior to plaster. Many do so this might be a point of contention. It is reasonable to hold firm to changing the contract to “Final draw due day of plaster” or “At Plaster” instead of “Prior to plaster”. This can be a contentious point and I wish it wasn’t. Do not pay the final draw until you are happy with your pool. It is much easier to do this before the pool is full of water. This holds both you as the customer and the builder accountable to completion at plaster. Punch lists after plaster will drag on and on. Be sure you have no punch list items before allowing the pool to be plastered. You DO NOT want to deal with replacing coping, tile, or decking after your pool is plastered.
Ground movement - I do not know of any pool company that warrants the decking. The only guarantee on the decking is that IT IS GOING TO CRACK. We in North Texas have very expansive soil. With the extreme time periods of drought and rain our ground will only crack more and more as the years go on. Be sure your builder, at the least, uses this free public tool to evaluate your soil. Soil injection may sound gimmicky but I feel they help. By injecting the soil we change the chemical composition (positive & negative polar fields) of the soil and prevent the soil from absorbing water. This protects against ground movement and future structural damage. Helical piers bored to bedrock are most effective. A builder with a PE (Professional Engineer) on staff is definitely a company doing something right. Keep in mind our state does not require a license to build your pool. Do your homework to ensure you are familiar with your areas soil composition.
Bigger builders will have warranty deals with their pool equipment for three years. Find one of these. One year is not enough. My opinion on Equipment brands? Fluidra AKA Jandy, Pentair, & Hayward are the industries top manufactures . You are fine with any of them.
Defects in materials and workmanship should be in contract for the plaster, plumbing, electrical and masonry work for one year.

Recommended Options and Upgrades

1. In-Floor cleaning systems are expensive but well worth the investment. The top to bottom circulation is optimized all the while keeping your pool about 90% spotless. You will have three or four dirt piles around the perimeter of the pool and thats it. Sometimes less. The next best option is the Polaris 9450. Polaris has been our industries leader for decades because of their engineers. This new cle aner is on a few of my pool routes and does a spectacular job capturing small pollen and even scrubs the walls all the way to the tile line. This is Polaris's finest innovation since the three wheeled 280 that we are all familiar with. I would not let the cool factor of an electric "Robotic" cleaner win you over. They are not supposed to be submerged at all times and require a charging cart or a cord. This requires a chore on your part and storage when not in use. Hydro powered cleaning systems simply coincide with the "water" nature of a pool.

2. Get an Auto-Fill. Going on vacation takes enough planning with pets but having to worry about your pools water level should not be a thing. This feature is a must have investment. Imagine finishing your six figure investment and draping a water hose across your decking to fill the pool every couple of weeks. You have plenty of other things to do than worry with filling your pool.

3. Glass beed is the best plaster finish. It has the durability of pebble and the texture of smooth glass. The complaint of pebble through the years is how rough it is to the feet. Glass beed is more reflective, has more play of color, and wins in the comfort column. The best of the best.

During the Build

The men in the field will leave trash. I have personally bought lunch for crews only to have my customer call to report the lunch I bought strewn all across the yard followed by ants and coke cans. I really don’t know what to comment here. I wish us men would think more about this kind of thing. The guys can do the most beautiful work and leave your property disrespected with trash. I always understood and tolerated construction debris but never stomached food trash. It will happen & I have no excuse for them.
The two phases that take the longest are (A) waiting to dig the pool and (B) Waiting for Tile and Coping.

(A) The process of digging the pool is usually just one day. The reason it takes so long to dig is because of the back log of digs (engineering, loan closings, in-house reviews, company procedures, reroutes, permitting, rain, access , excavator availability, & HOA's are all factors). This particular phase is the driving force of our entire business. It is the “Alpha” production unit the build. There is pressure on the builders throughout the nation to produce digs. This is the most competitive phase of all. Imagine a board of directors sitting around the conference table bickering about not hitting their dig projections and you have a snap-shot of the corporate pool world.

(B) Tile and coping is the most intricate & detailed. The work force is in desperate need for skilled masons that can handle our Texas heat. You will feel a huge gap between gunite and T&C. The biggest builders in the nation struggle with supply and demand here. Many times the customer will be very frustrated by the time this crew arrives. That’s really too bad because these men are the most talented, gifted craftsmen of the build. Their disposition & mood will show in their work. They are not to be rushed just as an artist is not to be rushed. Be sure you approve of the material they deliver before installing. This can save a lot of teeth pulling between you and your builder. If they install the material and you don’t like it there’s that matter of “Who pays for it?” that arises. I see many complaints that make the local news that can fit into this very category. Make sure you like the material on site before it goes on the pool. Naturally mined stone varies from excavation site to excavation site. What's being pulled out of the ground at one depth may be much darker or lighter three more feet down. Many times it will not look like what you saw in the showroom. You are the only one in control of this. Insist that you approve the tile and the stone before it is installed.

Prior to Plaster

Create a punch list and complete the punch list. Once the pool is plastered the builder has all of your money. The incentive to finish the details lyes in your having the power of the purse at this juncture. Do not give this power over by plastering the pool and then reminding your builder for months to finish what should have already. Accountability is the theme for this stage of the build. Write on your punch list "Punch list to be complete within X days".

After Plaster

1) After the plaster has cured break down and clean your cartridges or backwash depending on filter type.

2) Have Calcium laser tested. Add as suggested. This margin is commonly ignored and the first your builder will refer to on a warranty claim. Water wants to be between 200-400 PPM in calcium. Too little calcium and the water will dig into your plaster to quench its thirst. This softens the plaster and calcifies veneered materials (stone, brick, and tile)

3) Maintain weekly water tests. Make sure they include calcium tests. In the event of a warranty claim for workmanship and materials your builder will require you to produce this data.