so after i got my stone replaced had a guy come clean my pool. he recommended spraying bleach on hot tub overflow area about once a week. concur?
So my pool had the same guy working on it forever then he up and quit. Now a new one has come in and within the first month told me i needed to replace my timer on my pump, which I did, and now he’s saying I need to either rebuild ($500) or replace (more than $500) my Polaris. The last guy said the Polaris needed work but never anything like this. Should I do it or start shopping for a new company?
Rebuild kits replace essentially all the moving parts on a Polaris. You can replace parts individually or buy the kit which is a far better value vs. replacing parts individually. I do rebuild kits on 280 models for $498 and sub for companies that charge as much as $764. If it is just a tune-up kit, I charge $371 and other companies charge $570. keep in mind that if your hose is also deteriorating, buying the complete hose kit is also another $500. So if it is starting to get stiff and floats are deteriorating, possibly time for another cleaner. For reference, I sell those for $828 with companies I work for marking them up to $1111. Internet is cheaper but also basically 0 warranty for online purchases. I am not sure this warrants a new company yet. Does he clean your pool as well?
Thanks, this is great info. I’ll probably go ahead and do it because it seems I should hang onto the polaris unless you think otherwise. Regarding cleaning, there has been a rotating cast of guys since my regular left. Each one says they’re the new guy then someone else shows up the next week, which is concerning.
Having a company keeping you informed of the equipment issues and letting you decide what you do and do not want to address is very important. That way you are responsible for the overall condition of your equipment/pool. So that is a plus. One of my biggest grievances with cleaning companies is when they do not report equipment issues as “that is not our job, we just clean the pool.” Well no shit, but any good company is going to help the client look after their interests. Also, any cleaning company worth a shit is going to do its best to have all its customer’s equipment operating optimally as then they become pool “maintainers” as the pool will keep itself clean for the most part except during heavy foliage dropping seasons.
Yeah, I’m wondering if the last guy had just gotten tired of telling the last owner (he had been working on the pool longer than I’ve owned the house) that it was time to fix your shit so now it’s just coming home to roost.
Very possible. I deal with companies that will stop working for customer’s that either do not keep equipment up or are unwilling to pay more if equipment is not complete functional. If the company is rotating through cleaners, which is common in our business, it would only be a concern to me if the pool is not staying clean or if they are not keeping you aware of equipment issues.
really cool owning a pool in the summer and it's too fucking hot to swim after yardwork at 9pm water was 92/93 degrees, fuck you texas heat
I can get that to about 80 with a modest purchase of a chiller and then ongoing electrical consumption of about $15 per month. Just say when!
I’ve been a guest on their podcast so AMA. Seriously though, they do a great Instagram live weekly show talking about issues of supply in the industry
Seriously though, some pool owners are the worst. Here is my day. 8am: arrive at job. Set up canopy and commercial grade air mover. Set cooler full of ice water at equipment pad. 8:15am-1pm: replace complete equipment pad with new equipment that finally arrived (February freeze damage). All while absolutely broiling in what topped out as 108 degree heat index. Day started at 91 degree heat index. Keep in mind that I was working with a fan the whole time and crushing a 12oz bottle of water every 30 minutes. 1pm-1:11pm: sit in van to cool off with ac blasting. The following takes place from 1:11pm to 3pm. Do you think he is open to suggestions on where he can put that glass of water he was going to sit out for me?
It is like, I have been doing this work outside in Texas for 20 years now. I know how to not die. You are asking me to go ahead and possibly die.
My question is why does he need to be home in order for you to get his heater set up? Also, he text me and said he's open to any suggestions as long as you come install his heater today.
so we're under contract for a house with a salt water set-up. Maintained my mom's chlorine pool for years. What do i need to know? Also what should I look for in a pool inspection?
"Look a here fella, Ive drank 150oz of water today and I havent pissed once. Unless your glass of water contains several extra hundred dollar bills, Im going the fuck home."
Normally when I receive an unsolicited butthole picture, I feel pretty good about myself. But today's events have me wondering
long story… i originally tried to install it on the 16th, site unseen as a company called me and asked if I could get it installed before the weekend. I said not really as was leaving for vacation mid Friday. They begged, I said yes so long as I had cash in hand before I left for vacation. Arrive at job to this. What you are looking at is the gas line to the pool heater. But, at some point the homeowner decided he wanted a gas range in the kitchen. The company that he hired to do such piggy-backed off of the pool heater line by disconnecting the heater, removing the 90 that went to the heater and installing a T instead. Which would have been fine from a functionality standpoint IFFFFFF they would have put a disconnection union to the left of the T. But they didn’t. They built the gas line all the way to the kitchen. With zero means of disconnecting the heater from the gas line unless you wanted to try to spin the heater gas valve off of the gas pipe. So I told him to have a licensed plumber resolve the issue as my bonding, license, and insurance only covers disconnect/reconnects of appliances. He called me on Saturday, while still on vacation, and asked if I could be there at 8am Monday to meet with the plumber. I told him I could not but the plumber could call me, facetime me, or text me and I will tell him anything he needs to know. I offered to do that while on vacation as well. I also told him to tell the plumber that the gas valve and gas line inlet for the new heater is in the exact spot as the old heater so whatever means he uses to rework the line, I had to have the exact same location as the existing line to be used to connect the heater so the line going to the house was the one that needed moved if not adding unions. Well, he sends me this picture of the plumbing work last night, asked if I could come today and if I could install the heater. I told him that I would try to work it in today but had a big job this morning that might not make it possible. So yeah, no way to hook new heater up as they used the current gas line location to run to house. Meaning that there is no real estate to run gas line to new heater as it would have to go directly through the “new” line. So to answer the question, either to get heater out of garage or because he is tired of all the delays. I told him that if he was able to move the heater out of his garage into the backyard there would not need to be anyone at home and the plumber can comeback whenever to connect the heater as I could at lease disconnect and remove the old one now. Idk. Whatever.
This is pretty right thinking but today, I don’t think I could have even managed. godamnit, I guess we will truly find out if TMB has aged. Edited pic now…
Also, yellow flex line on an outdoor pool heater, wtf. What “plumber” did he find in a Lowes parking lot to do that shit.
So this wasn't even your customer? I know a company who shits on people's walls if you need a reference
Not technically but the company that sent me out there is. I still have to talk professionally and keep that company in the loop. The owner of the company is on my side though. The bottom line is, even if I did make it by today to install the heater, it will not work until the plumber comes back and the plumber was not scheduled to return today or tomorrow either.
It sounds like the same BS you hear from 90+% of contractors who over schedule and get themselves in a bind. Unfortunately, even when you do have an issue, most people don't really care because they've already heard some variation of that same story from 12 different contractors at some point.
Counterpoint, customers only hear what they want to hear. This guy jumped the line on my work load by about 3 months and then assumed Tuesday afternoon was written in stone when I only said it was a possibility and never confirmed Tuesday afternoon was happening at any point. I love when people that work in air-conditioned offices their whole life think that you can just bootstrap it and work through heat advisories. Customers put themselves in these positions more times than the contractors do because they think they are special and their problem is the only problem. Get in line bub. This time of year I only set an appointment for 8am and tell the customer a “tentative” schedule. If a job goes long or the heat gets to me, I can not guarantee I can get to any job but the first job.
I’m not saying you were or weren’t at fault. Frankly, I don’t even really care. I was just giving you another perspective. I work with contractors a fair amount, if any of them do at least 90% of what they said they were going to within a few days of showing up when they said they were going to - they’d all be millionaires. Guys that have come up swinging a hammer see greener grass thinking they can run the company. With little knowledge of how to do so, and no one looking over their shoulder - what you described above is a pretty frequent occurrence.
You should probably vet your contractors a little more thoroughly imo. Might mean you have to pay them more if they are dependable and reliable but whatever. I deal with companies that want you to do everything at the drop of a hat but then want to pay your like an employee and not a business. I don’t really care though, you do you.
Unfortunately over the past 10 years of dealing with contractors, it's typically the same old story. There are a few that defy the odds, but they're definitely a standard deviation or two outside of the bell curve. I imagine it'll be much of the same story for the next 15 or 20. It is just a reality of the business, like it or not.
When I did show up on Tuesday at 10am, the only time I promised the guy I could be there, he was a completely different guy than I was dealing with over the phone and via text. I don’t know whether he is a tough guy via phone or if he actually stepped outside at some point in the previous afternoon or evening and realized that yes, people can not work in those conditions for an extended period of time. Either way, when I showed up, he was trying to help me move the heater and all sorts of crap. Complete change of tune from the prior afternoon. I got the heater done exactly when I said I would, once it was discovered that a licensed plumber would have to come out and lay some ground work before I could complete the install. Whatever deviation from the bell curve that is, that is where I am.
My dad has been this deviation most of his life (I don’t need to provide facts, I just know this is the case) and I can frankly tell you that the general public is a bunch of asshats. If you are dealing with people over promising and under delivering it’s mostly a result of people in general. I know people who have died on the job and this is more of an American ‘give me what I want now’ problem than anything else. I have to explain this shit to my wife and a lot of this is on you if you are subcontracting to those that overbid in limited time-frame. I’m willing to bet those companies lost money or time to appease you up front with the hopes to make it back down the road and charge significant more, and they should, and you should honor that shit.
My post wasn't a knock on you. I'm sure you're great at your job, seriously. It was simply to provide perspective that most people hear the same kind of sob stories/excuses all the time from contractors (car broke down, flat tire, another job, couldn't get material, another job ran over, it rained, it was cold, it was icy, it was hot etc.). Unfortunately, the good ones get lumped in with the bad ones, especially when it comes to legitimate reasons a job can't be completed when/how they committed to.
One of the best things I’ve ever heard out of my pops is when he has said in recent years that his company is at a point where they can bid with higher numbers and ‘if we get it we get it. I’m not going to undercharge because I know our work and the quality isn’t worth fucking ourselves.’ I would advise you to think about that a little bit on your end. Likely you won’t because you are, or probably answering to somebody, that the bottom line is all about money. Corporate America in a nutshell.
I'm not following your entire talk track here. 1. I agree, the general public are asshats. 2. Why would I subcontract to anyone that overbid, ever? That simply results from poor planning and if you're in the business to make money, which most are, you have to avoid these critical errors. 3. If they were trying to appease me, they would underbid the job, only to try to charge more on the next one. I wouldn't honor that because I don't want them to underbid, or overbid. I simply want want them to do the job at market terms where they're being fairly compensated for their time/effort/labor/tools/expertise, and I am also compensating them appropriately for the aforementioned. Anyway, I'm sure your dad is also in the same boat as a.tramp - it wasn't a knock on anyone specifically but if you guys don't think the industry is plagued (80+%) of what I described, I don't know what to tell you.
I wonder if the glass of water comment was a poorly timed bit of sarcasm after he realized you weren't probably coming Sounds like my kind of poorly timed humor, especially if via text
I am legitimately happy he has reached that point of his career. That is what everyone is ultimately striving for and few actually get there. Unfortunately, there will be a time, regardless of your work, when that won't be the case for the majority of companies (see 2008). You'll see folks either retiring and getting out of the business (your dad), working for pennies on the dollar (most) or unfortunately folding (many).