To anyone frustrated with pool process - read this!

16 years ago

We had our pool dug the first week of April. As you know, this is now September. The interior finish, a pebble finish, was messed up from the beginning and needed to be redone so we waited until August, the week we would be on vacation. It was drained, chipped out only 10" below the waterline, and replastered/pebbled. I never saw the results of that, but heard it was terrible. It was completely chipped out this time and redone again. This time was worse than the original finish. For the 4th time, we have switched pebble products to the one we originally wanted anyway (pool builder talked us into a new "better" one.) The problem was our black pool was about 1/2 grey where the pebbles had washed away. The company who did the pebble jobs the first 3 times chipped it out again. Our beautiful glass tile is also mostly chipped, something we will have to live with for a lot of them (the worst are marked with the blue tape.) Our plants are sitting out of the way, some of the ones behind the wall are dying and covered in white from all of the mess, and being trampled although I have no idea why they were back there and if they had to be back there, why they didn't use the stone walkway!. Even worse are the plants along the side of the driveway and one of the front beds, neither of these areas anywhere near the pool but the idiots working chose to pour their dirty white water with who-knows-what chemicals on the plants in these places. The plants are now white, some are looking sick, and a terra cotta pot is literally covered in what is now like cement. To add to it, they dumped the white stuff in our neighbor's yard as well. Also washed our river rocks on part of a walkay down the driveway away, and even uprooted a plant. They took two hose sprayers as well as a brass Y connector from our backyard - the thing that makes one faucet able to accommodate two hoses. And they used our muriatic acid to acid wash the pool. We are now waiting for the other company to come out and redo the steps and much of the walls because they are such a mess (huge chunks of the steps were jackhammered out and the walls have to be built back out), the tile guy needs to replace tiles and regrout the entire waterline since the old pebble product goes up the grout lines, then the pebblesheen will come. The new company will not allow the toe tiles though, and I am bummed about that. And they were supposed to be out last week, promised we would be swimming by the weekend, and we've got nothing but some rainwater from the end of last week.

As far as our deck and coping, the guy who made it (it is cast stone) has disappeared. They used 3 different colors of grout, made terrible cuts along the garage wall when they replaced the stones where the water was standing - would have rather had standing water than these cuts that are off anywhere from 1/3" to an inch, and grouted with a grey about 3 shades darker than the surrounding grout. Now the stones are starting to come loose - they have that hollow sound. We have 3 spare pieces.

We swam for a month, and much of that time it rained but at least we could enjoy our yard. It has been empty since 8-13. We can't even enjoy sitting out there - too depressing! The the back part of the yard, that we worked so hard on ourselves, has been messed up but we won't do any work until the workers are finally here and finished! I am so tired of workers. It is not pleasant to look at a concrete hole in the ground, but I feel better venting a little and maybe it will help other people just be thankful that they aren't having these issues!

I don't remember how to do the photobucket but here is a link to a web album, showing what was, and is now. I've posted before about the problems with the pebbles not being consistent so I'll spare you those pictures, as well as our now white side yard.

http://picasaweb.google.com/meowracer1/200709CurrentPool?authkey=-s5E0hHgiuw

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Comments (8)

gk5040
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
What a shame, I feel awful for you! What does your pool company say about all this, are they going to make it right? I remember your posts when you had the first pebble finish done. I am sure the new pebblesheen will be beautiful to go with that gorgeous tile. Actually, despite what you wrote it still looks great....we cant see the dead plaster covered plants.
kajones2
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Sorry to hear about all your troubles. I hope that all this is resolved shortly so you can start enjoying your pool.
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Good idea. Also, take pictures, every day. Make sure you get where the pipes run, where the rebar is, etc..., those are priceless when you have to dig again. You might consider making a map of the plumbing as well. BTW, I do that with all sprinkler installations - makes things so much easier later on. Take 'before' pictures, too. Make sure you get the driveway - showing that it's not cracked! Our PB cracked the driveway. We're not upset about it, though - it's the corner of a slab, and the ground was so saturated that it was bound to happen. I couldn't hold them responsible for that - it wouldn't be right. In fact, they did a great job of just getting it dug considering all the mud. Also, if you've got a camcorder, you might be able to set it up to take 'stop action' videos of the entire day. You'll want to make sure the plug is protected, my PB's work crews unplugged it every day for their equipment so I only got the first couple hours (grrrr....). It's neat to have, though. I've got great video of the dig. You might consider leaving this on a neighbor's porch or in their house depending on the size of the yard and logistics.
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livinwell
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Wow that is an awful experience. This is definitely a great place to vent. Some have been there and many are just very supportive. Hang in there. Your pool will be beautiful. I love the design. You'll have to post more pics to let us know when you get things completed.
meowracer
Original Author
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks for the support, guys! My husband asked why I did the post and I told him it just felt better to get it off my chest! I felt like I was whining but it is so incredibly frustrating to be in the 6th month now and no water! And on top of it all, to have parts of our yard that we should be able to still enjoy also damaged.

Our pool builder is excellent in standing by us and making it right. Cheers to them for that. It has just been several rounds of bad luck for us. I will keep you posted! Meanwhile, I'll keep looking at the posts of the amazing pools on this site :) . . . live vicariously through other people and their beautiful pools for a while!
banana_fanna
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
cyber hug to you. I can't even fathom the frustration, and surely anger, I'd be feeling.

But when it gets done, and it will get done, you'll have a gorgeous pool. I love the simplicity, the tile, the planters. Somewhere in this mess there will be a lesson learned and a laugh - far, far in the future to be sure - but it'll happen. I hope you're swimming soon.
simpledreamers
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I know why you posted the info - misery loves company. We were luckier than you - we only had the pool plastered twice, the deck poured twice and the tile grouted twice. They ran over the automatic pool cover and reordered parts - wrong ones came in (but they tried to use them anyway!). Now the $$$ Coverstar cover has broken off screws and they hand cut the lip of one piece (in the middle!) - oh and it doesn't move 2" without getting stuck... We had to have our pool acid washed too (it took 8 days to get the pump working). The water is still not clear after two weeks of them messing with it. The light niche put in the gunite was the wrong one for the lights so we are living with holes in the wall and lights hanging until they can find the right parts to fix the problem. Oh, and the spa leaks - they are calling it a "nuisance leak" - but it causes the automatic filler (which was initially plumbed backwards!) to run constantly...

The pool company is still plugging along fixing one problem only to create a couple more with each weekly visit. We have been trying to be as patient as we can - yet being firm on what must be replaced - in fear the company will just walk off the job. We signed our contract March 3rd! Mmmm. Happy 6 month anniversary to us.

I feel your pain! It is a constant sick feeling in your gut. I wonder what the value of a nice summer of swimming would be?

Thanks for the opportunity to vent.
pmmhkim
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Meowracer,
I know how you feel, it took us 1 year to finish our pool. We started April 2006 and finished in April '07. We love our pool now that it is done and I've pretty much forgotten about all the trouble we've had. Kids just love the pool and after all that, it was totally worth it.
meowracer
Original Author
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
pmmhkin - Ohhhhh, 1 year?! How terrible. I shall now quite my complaining! Glad it is finished for you. It was finished just as ours was starting.

simpledreamers - sounds like we have the same sort of luck. Keep up the pressure on the company. I know a couple of people who have used our pool builder and they have all had the same sort of issues as myself, and yours as well. Just idiotic things, and it is exactly true- as soon as they fix one thing (if they even do it right), they break at least two others.

banana fanna - thanks for the compliments and hug! Maybe one day, when I'm actually swimming, I will look back and laugh. At least my husband and I know that our marriage can withstand 6 months of stress! We both like things in order and expect to work with people who have brains :), and having a yard torn up for that long, and incompetence coming at us at every turn has not been easy but we do have a lot of material to go on about on long car rides . . .

Thanks again to everyone for the support!

To anyone frustrated with pool process - read this!

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To anyone frustrated with pool process - read this!

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gk5040

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