One other thing should be noted about having a set of plans. It shows the contractor that you are quite serious, know exactly what you want, and all they need to do is build it. When you don't have a solid plan, you are essentially telling the contractor that (s)he has to invest in an effort at designing the pool which you unwilling to do. That is not a strong pre-qualifier for a viable client (this is confirmed by the fact that 6 contractors have been interviewed and none have been hired). That does not make you a bad person, just naive. Instead of an all out effort to land your job, you get what is essentially an equal effort back from the contractor - a quickie design to see if you bite or a recycled plan from someone elses back yard. It is very rare that a contractor, or a designer for that matter, will be comfortable making a bigger effort, prior to getting paid, at getting the priveledge to work on your project than you will make to have the priveledge of them working for you. I don't charge for initial consultations, but I will not work for people who say "go by the house, look at it, and give me a proposal". If I have to show up, you have to show up. It is not a matter of respect, it is a matter of showing that you are committed. Without that, those contractors know from experience that it is more likely a waste of time - that you might be doing the same with 5 other contractors and no one gets the job ...... and the proof is in the pudding because that is exactly what happened. Take control. Hire a designer, whether it is a landscape architect, a very experienced designer, or a design/build contractor and pay for just the design. Everyone else will take you very seriously and put a lot more effort in landing your job because they know you are committed. No slam on you here. You just did not know what the people you are trying to work with go through, what they learned from experience, and how they protect themselves from wasted effort. Now you know and can take control.

Hi. Thank you for the prompt replay. One leg of the "L" is 1/2" long and lays over the front face of the tile. The other leg of the "L" is 3/8" long with a 1/8" flap that acts like a lock to keep the "L" locked into the very narrow space above the pool wall behind the tile and the under side of the cement deck. The small 1/8" flap at one end of the "L" forms a water seal between the top side of the pool wall and the bottom side of the deck. Imagine an upside down "L" at the front face of the tile and the upper edge of the tile extending between the lower edge of the deck. It appears the tile, which is cemented to the pool wall helps hold the plastic against the lower side of the pool deck. Bill

The original builder is at fault. The original building inspector failed to catch this. The supply line should be running through the center of the bottom plate. The metal protectors are required at all penetrations through studs, top plates and bottom plates, as well as joists, when there is less than 1.25" of wood surrounding the pipe. The fact that this occurred one time before, when the deck contractor screwed into the waste pipe, leads one to believe that the original builder ddidn't simply miss one or two protector plates. He neglected to protect ANY of the pipes with metal plates. The inspector was also lame or absent, because he did not catch this during the original build. Pipe protectors were still required way back in 1991. Now that you know the original builder did very careless plumbing work, make sure that every contractor in the future knows of this problem. Only then can you blame them for penetrating the pipes, and still it won't be their fault unless you have them remove the drywall as part of the job. The deck contractor was not at fault, he just did the repair out of good faith in order to keep you as a happy client. Unfortunately that experience led you to believe that this sort of thing is the new contractor's responsibility, when it's really the original builder's.

Fwiw, here's the status of the tub issue: Americh says it was installed incorrectly, that the framing pushed down on the back flange. The contractor says the tub is defective. I'm - for a change - generally in agreement with the contractor just from the look of it, but, in any case, we're stuck in a "he said, he said" argument between the company and the contractor. Who knows what will come of it. All I know for sure is that it will likely add a month or more to a project already 10x over its estimated month-long schedule. I bet with the back and forth and whatever remediation takes place, if they really give it their all, they can make it stretch out to a full year. :) I'm attaching a picture of the water as it pools along the edge. You have to zoom in to see it as clear water on a white surface is hard to capture on film.