What Waterbear says is oh so true. I was fortunate in that the company I used was a small one that I think did about 45 pools a year at the time. The owner was about 60 years old and was the salesman and head construction worker. He operated the backhoe and dug the entire pool himself in about 3 days. The entire project was done in less than 2 weeks for a 20 x 40 IG vinyl pool. This was done in the fall about 8 years ago. They filled the pool and closed it. In the spring they came back and poured the concrete decking around the pool, opened it and showed me how to run everything. It was the best dealing I ever had with a contractor. The told me what and when they would do things and did it better and faster than they said they would.