Be very suspicious of the 5 star ratings! SOT built a beautiful pool for us--no doubt--but they did…read moreit by undercutting another business, using their original design, and had so many errors along the way that I stopped sleeping altogether. The stress was immense, as I had to become savvy to construction and plumbing work in order to double check their work.
The core crew and their plumber are PHENOMINAL! These guys have an amazing work ethic and do beautiful work when it comes to paving and plumbing, but we were a great experiment when it came to building the pool.
Our pool was the first they'd ever built. They were only subcontractors on prior pools working on the decking only. Fermin, the owner, presents as the most honorable, caring, upright human being, only to bait and switch you on workmanship, materials, etc., until you DON'T get what you think you're paying for. If you use this company, please read your paperwork with a fine tooth comb, making sure that everything you are expecting is there. And, if you make any changes, go through all of the paperwork again to identify everything is there exactly. We had a tiler who didn't know what he was doing, an engineer and equipment expert who didn't ground and bond all of the wiring and also didn't follow the positioning or wiring instructions for the heater (we almost lost our warranty because it was installed poorly), a pool filled with water and debris with no chemicals to start us off and no instructions for curing time or equipment/chemical usage during the 30 day curing time. Worse, Fermin told us he didn't subcontract--the team and equipment were all his. This was a lie, and it resulted in their forklift running into the side of my neighbor's home, puncturing her stucco. Further, we had to stop the construction of an eyesore of a privacy fence that looked nothing like what we agreed upon or the photos that showed precisely what we wanted. Bait and switch. Another $10,000 later and a decking company that knew what it was doing, we got our privacy fence installed.
The contract includes a two-year warranty on the structure, but we have spent thousands of dollars on repairs without reimbursement because this company will generally not respond to warranty calls and we couldn't trust them to wire and properly install the pool equipment. They did, however, respond a few months ago to a repair on our retaining wall, but did a sloppy job that did not actually repair the cracks (photos). We now also have a rusted landscaping light and a loose tile on the step (photo). We have gone to the office, called every week for weeks, to no avail. The owner is ignoring our calls to schedule a warranty repair.
Again, I cannot complain about the workmanship of paving and perhaps landscaping. They did a remarkable job on our pavers and matched our paint like nothing I've ever seen before (paint is very hard to match exactly, but they did it). There are definitely good things to say, but overall, buyer beware! Fermin is NOT what he appears as a businessman, and you may pay dearly for it.