A cavat for anyone buying a new pool

[slhalufska]

I've got a question I hope someone can answer, like yesterday! I just had a fiberglass pool installed this weekend. I researched the product, including the manufacturer & the pool installer. We elected to DIY in order to save enough to get everything we wanted in the project. After muddling through many, many setbacks - excavators who backed out at the last minute, one after another and a crane that showed up with a boom approx. 15' too short, we finally got the pool in. Only problem is . . . . . it's not level. there's a difference of 3.5" between the shallow & deep ends. I spoke to the 2 installers at length during the final stages, as the level difference became increasingly evident. I insisted on speaking to the owner before relinquishing the final check. They all basically told me the same thing - it's not uncommon for a fiblerglass pool to be off like that. That you can compensate for it by building up a "tile wall" on the "off" end to make up for the difference. The water line tile goes over that & you're not supposed to even notice when done. Only problems I see with that solution are: How much tile do you think THAT's going to add to the project? AND what happens when the shallow end - the one that is 3.5" HIGHer than the deep end - is kept full enough for the spa jets & skimmer? Seems like the deep end will get flooded, which may result in water seeping down between the outer wall of the shell & the earth below the concrete deck! . I'm thinking that this is NOT a good thing. I don't want to jump to any conclusions without the facts. My deck is scheduled for deck & form next week, but I'm really feeling like the pool needs to be drained, lifted & reset in a more level base before finishing the project. Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks

[mbar]

I have a fiberglass pool, and the pool is level. I would go back to the people that excavated it, and find out what went wrong. I never heard of "building a tile wall to compensate" that's rediculous! I would make sure it is fixed before you do anything around it - even if you have to get it raised by a crane again - because if you don't fix it now - you will never be able to fix it, and a good fiberglass pool should last a lifetime. I have mine for 7 years, and it is just as good as the first year I had it put in. Don't let them talk you out of having it fixed. Of course this is my own opinion, I don't know the leagal aspects of what you can do. Best of luck, and stick to your guns!

[waste]

I fully agree with mbars' assesment of the situation, get it right before! the deck goes down. Speaking of which, aren't you rushing the deck? If you pour it next week, without proper settling/ compaction, the 3.5" won't be noticed by anyone trying to get across the cracked and sunken deck I can appreciate that you want the project done NOW, but this is a lifetime investment and getting everything done correctly will save you tons of headaches in the years to come.

Congrats on the new pool!

[Phillbo]

The right contractor is one that is actively involved in all phases of the pool construction....Just my 2 cents!

Amen Sista'

[Luvtlee]

It is amazing to me, the differences two different people can have using the same pool company. We are in the process of having our first pool built and so far it isn't going very well at all. Three weeks in and the only thing that has been done is the excavation and steel. With everything they've been running behind schedule. We did not go into this lightly, did everything a person is supposed to do, ie: get several quotes, check BBB, make sure there's a super, check references, etc. We even checked their contractors license numbers out. The company we went with had glowing recommendations, people were so happy with this pool company they'd use em again....pools were done ahead of schedule and whatnot, never behind schedule. They don't even have any subcontracting, do everything in house. Yet, here we are, waiting and waiting for workers to show. It has been nearly two weeks since they finished the steel and have yet to start the plumbing. Whenever we talk to the lady who handles the office she tells us, "I am sorry but we got held up on another job, but you are next in line." They were nine days late starting the dig, and now they're a week late for plumbing. I can only cross my fingers and hope they show up next week. They are members of Aqua Tech, and we thought that would mean something, we thought we'd be getting quality. But now, we just can't help but wonder if we chose the right company.

Pretty ironic that others had such good experiences with them.

[Simmons99]

Luvtlee,

I don't think your pool company is all that bad - 9 days late to start the dig? That can happen really easily since they don't subcontract. You have a couple of people quit or get sick and it can put a small builder that does everything inhouse back a week and a half.

Personally - I have had friends that the pool builder wouldn't come out to start the plumbing without being paid another 20%, and then they wouldn't come out to do the electrical without another check - it took them 15 months to get done and they never came back to clean-up.

A few weeks late I would expect from any builder - even the best ones. Who knows maybe they ran into something unexpected during a dig for another customer - you wouldn't want them to run from your house if they hit a sewer line because they promised another customer they would be there tomorrow.

[Luvtlee]

This is true, Simmons, it is nice to know that they don't just leave behind their customers to get to the next on time. A few weeks behind schedule won't be bad, compared to the horror stories I've heard from some. We're just concerned that ours is going to turn into one of those horror stories. For instance, our designer highly recommended the Dichlor system and told us that it costs the same as the SWG. We went Dichlor since he so highly recommened it, and he told us that if we changed our minds and wanted to go back to the SWG that it would be no problem at all since they cost the same, approximately $1600. Well, now our super is telling us that if we want to switch to the SWG it's going to cost us an extra $1200. Where is the integrity any more? Why are we being told one thing from one person and something different from another? It's incredibly frustrating.

[Simmons99]

I would talk to the person that you originally got the quote from about switching. Other buyers be aware that construction companies (don't know if this also applies to pool companies) usually charge more for work on a change order than under the original projec. This may be because they have to deliver again to the job site or change the plans and resubmit to the county or they just figure they've got you.

Hope everything works out. We are about 1 1/2 weeks behind. You can see my "neighbors" post in off topic - they have been a pain. The first inspector was late, we had a lot of rain and a cave-in that needed to be repaired.

[Luvtlee]

I don't even know how many weeks behind we are now. Best guess, about 3-4 weeks behind. They dug our pool on June 1st and 2nd, and here it is the 21st of July and we just had our gunite completed. They haven't even started on tile, decking or coping. The contract completion date is July 24th (3 days from now). We aren't even getting a big pool done, it's a rather small "pool only" job. Originally they said that it would be done in 6 weeks, 10 weeks at most, due to it being a small job. Here we are 7 1/2 weeks into the project and no end in site yet. How it normally works with this company on our job is they do one day of work and about 10-14 days of nothing.

Anyway, they're a member of "Aqua Tech", that is one reason we hired them (it sounded good), but we are now wondering just what that means? Does anyone here know anything about them? Anyone that had any personal experiences with a member of Aqua Tech, and anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance from this newbie.