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I believe supervision of the
construction of your pool by the pool company is one of the
most important principles of professional pool building.
Unfortunately, a lot of builders don't really check on their
sub-contractors after each phase. Volume builders, that is
companies that build hundreds of pools are the worst offenders
of this principle. I know it seems that a big builder must be
a good choice because they are so popular, but if you can find
a builder that has good references and only builds maybe 15-20
pools a year, usually will personally supervise the
construction of your pool and will be easier to contact
regarding questions or problems that you may have. It is way
better that being lost in the shuffle.
There are a handful of pool
companies out there, some of which are NATIONAL VOLUME
BUILDERS, that use unscrupulous tactics to collect installment
checks as the pool construction progresses. Upon completion of
the gunite phase it is general practice to pay the company 40%
of the purchase price. After another phase they will have you
pay 30% more, then another phase at 15% more. That leaves a
final check of 15%. The key word here is FINAL. You would
expect upon completion of the pool and when you are completely
satisfied, that at that time you would pay the FINAL check.
Not so with the companies to which I refer. They use that last
phase, which is the plaster phase, as leverage to collect the
FINAL check. They make you pay the FINAL check BEFORE
plastering the pool, doing the final cleanup, or any other
uncompleted work on your pool. In other words "NO CHECK, NO
PLASTER". I have heard from many upset customers, but they are
at the mercy of the company at this point. Be very clear with
the salesman about how the installments are to be paid.
Some companies will allow a
completion clause in the contract that states that if the pool
is not finished by a certain date, that they will deduct a
specified amount of money for each day past the completion
date. Request this.... the competition for your business just
might be tough enough that they will provide this clause for
you.
Get bids from several different
companies and check references. The permit department keeps
records of the permits pulled by the builders, that is where
you want to get the references, not from the company. You
don't think they would give you a bad reference to check out
do you? |
