Swimming Pools

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Choosing

Choosing a Swimming Pool Professional

Signing the Contract with the Builder

Guide to Swimming Pool Construction

Swimming Pool Site Preparation and Excavation

Swimming Pool on Problem Soils

Swimming Pool Special Soil Conditions

Swimming Pool on Fill and Rock

How a Contractor Build a Swimming Pool

Swimming Pool Finishes and Trims

Swimming Pool Accessories

Choosing a Swimming Pool Professional

Choosing your Swimming Pool Builder

Next to your home, and sending your children to college, your swimming pool may well represent the biggest investment you'll make – reason enough to use great care in choosing the contractor who will build your swimming pool.

It's best to get recommendations from pool-owning friends and neighbors who will build your swimming pool.

It's best to get recommendations from swimming pool-owning friends and neighbors who are satisfied with their swimming pools and the people who built them. But even with the most glowing recommendations, it's important to check out all prospective builders. This will take time, as there are many ways to evaluate them. These are the principal ones:

Visit the showrooms and offices of swimming pool builders to get a feel for the business.
If you're working with a landscape architect, ask for the names of several swimming pool builders..
Ask the companies you're considering for names and phone numbers of their customers. Five aren't enough, but 10 will be of some help, and 25 should give you a good sampling. If you can get 25 names, telephone 10 selected at random. Ask them how they feel about the builder, and if they're willing, look at their swimming pools.
Verify that the salesperson who calls on you actually work for the company he or she represents.
Avoid companies whose sales staff pressures you to sign a contract. Any reputable company will give you adequate time to consider the proposed contract. Better not delay too long, though – you probably can't expect to make the same agreement 2 months after receiving the bid.
Find out whether the company uses it own men and equipment or hires subcontractors to do the work. You may get better service and fewer delays if the former is the case, since the company has complete control over the work and the schedule. But don't eliminate companies that subcontract much of their work for that reason alone; many small companies operate very efficiently this way.

Once you've considered all the information you've obtained, select three or four companies and ask them to submit bids on the pool you want. Unless you have definite opinions on the type of construction you want, choose these companies for their reputation, rather than for the type of swimming pool they build.

Because of the many variables involved, try to have each builder you're considering bid on the exact same package. Then, if the companies are equally proficient, you'll be able to make a final choice on the basis of the bids they submit and the convenience of their construction schedules. But take your time, particularly if the bids vary widely.

If, on the other hand, the proponents, you'll have to take the differences into account when comparing bids. Study the proposals closely, and make sure you understand clearly what each builder is offering – and excluding. One basis for comparison is the price per square meter of swimming pool surface. Another is the quality and capacity of the support equipment. Sometimes a low price may cover just the basis pool, with extra costs for features that the bid for a higher-priced swimming pool includes.

Neither automatically accept nor reject a bid that is unusually low. Instead, find out why. If the bidder forgot that you had mentioned boulders at the pool site, and you signed the contract knowing this, he or she could probably recover the added costs in court if you did not pay.