You wanted me to take a look at your posting on the contract issues.

Are there any other pool contractors in your area other than those two? The reason I ask - is because when we started looking at pool builders we found six that were either recommended by someone or had a good reputation. Then we called all of them - only four returned our calls.

We set-up appoinmentments with each of them and then told them what we wanted in a pool and waited to see what each of them recommeneded and why. We were able to guage the ability of each builder at this point. Then we got prices - it was very clear at this point that two of the remaining builders did not want to install our pool - one was about $20K higher than everyone else and the other didn't want to quote "custom" items - just wanted to do "standard" pools.

Now we were down to two - one was priced at 48K and the other at 52K for the same scope of work - then we started looking at the contracts. Here are some "red" flags we found that you should avoid.
  1. Do not put more than 10% down for them to start pulling permits. Our pool builder actually only required 10% of the pool price (without all the extras) to pull the permit.
  2. Also, you shouldn't pay them completely before they are complete to your satisfaction. One of the builders had the last payment of 10% due before start-up. This was unacceptable. The builder we chose has the last 10% upon final acceptance, and we don't pay for the pavers or the screen enclosure at all until we are happy with those items.
  3. Beware of contractors that want progressive payments PRIOR to performing the work. The contract should say 20% AFTER the dig is complete (not just BEFORE).
  4. My contract is standard with the "does not cover damage to sidewalks, bushes, irrigation systems, etc."