Lisa Johnson's House and Home - Articles on Home, Family, and Living

Lisa Johnson on Buying a New Swimming Pool

Chapter 2: Finding a Swimming Pool Contractor

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October 1, 2003

The toughest part of getting a swimming pool is finding the best contractor.

We started out by picking up a magazine on swimming pools and going through the classifieds and advertisements. You can find these magazines at places like Home Depot or Lowes.  Some contractors were one-man businesses, while others were large companies with branch offices throughout the country.  Some of the companies were privately held, while others were publicly held.

Steve did not want to deal with any publicly held companies, believing that public-run companies pay too much attention to their profits and losses rather than building quality products.  So that right there eliminated companies like Anthony & Sylvan.  Anthony & Sylvan, by the way, seemed to attract a lot of unhappy customers, as we learned after reviewing complaints posted on some Internet message boards.

If you don't know whether a company is privately owned or publicly owned, just visit that company's website, and review their "About Us" or "Company Profile" section.  If a company does not have a website, then bother with them.  There are plenty of others.  Independent contractors, that is, one-man businesses, are all privately owned businesses.

Trade Organizations

What helped us the most in finding a good contractor are trade organizations.  The National Spa and Pool Institute appears to be the most well known trade organization in the swimming pool industry.   They have a website with the membership directory on it.  We did a search for all members in California.

Another organization that seems to enjoy a lot of prestige throughout the industry is the Master Pools Guild.  They too have their membership online.  In order for a contractor to gain acceptance to the Guild, they must meet certain high standard of qualifications.   As a result, there are much fewer contractors in the Master Pools Guild than compared to the National Spa and Pool Institute.

What Steve did was get a list of California member contractors from the National Spa and Pool Institute and a similar list from the Master Pools Guild, and find which contractors were present on both lists.   It turned out that there were only a couple on both lists that served our area.   We figured this was a good way to identify the best contractors, being that membership in both organizations meant they took their industry very seriously, they're experienced and well qualifed, and they're in the business for the long haul.

Steve visited the website for California's contractors license board, and did a lookup on the two contractors he found from both organizations.  Both companies were licensed, bonded and insured.  

Researching the Internet

He then researched both companies on the "Usenet", which is a message board of sorts you can find on the Internet.  Google hosts an excellent interface for the Usenet. Go to Google.com, and click on "Groups".  Then input the name of a company, and a list of messages will be displayed containing that name.  Doing that, Steve was able to read several messages and was able to find out which of the two companies received the most complaints.  Some complaints seemed ridiculous, while many others seemed quite well documented and justified.

In the end, we ended up calling Mission Pools.  

Now, don't get us wrong about using our methods to find a good contractor.  That is, I'm not saying this is the best way to find a contractor.  We felt that we ended with one of the best pool contractors in Southern California.  However we did meet with other contractors, but found that they did not measure up to Mission Pools.

When Mission Pools sent one of its contractors to visit us, he gave us the impression that he knew the craft of pool building very well and knew all the issues.  We asked him question after question, and he was able to answer them all intelligently.  We could tell that he had dealt with every customer imagineable and knew exactly how to respond.  Moreover, he presented himself professionally, was well mannered, and allowed us to speak.   Quite different from all the other contractors we dealt with.  He also had his contractor's license with him, unlike some other contractors.

Mission Pools is not the cheapest contractor, they're actually one of the more expensive ones.  It didn't matter to us. What mattered was that Mission Pools was serious about their work, serious about building quality pools, and serious about providing solid customer support.   An in-ground swimming pool is permanent.  You can't just get a refund.  

So, don't just settle with the cheapest, always stick with the best.

Next > Chapter 3 - Interviewing the Swimming Pool Contractor

Suggested Links

·  National Swimming Pool Foundation

·  Swimming Pool Energy Costs

·  PoolSpa WebCenter

·  Leslie's Swimming Pool Supplies

·  Swimming Pool Buyer Beware