How do I start this? Maybe with "buyer beware"?
Deposit 08/2020. They went radio silent until April of 2021. The first of so many red flags along the way. On 4/17/21 they dug my pool. On 4/25/21 they put the pool walls up (without the turnbuckles). On 5/14/21 they ran the bonding wire and electrical conduit for the pool light. This would start a string of events of 1-3 guys coming to my house for 2-3 hours at a time maybe once or twice a week if I was lucky. I would not be exaggerating if I said they were at my house less than 8 hours in week for at least the next 6-8 weeks. It was very painful to watch. On 5/30/21, they finally admit they are missing the turnbuckle. Once they finally get them, we think we are getting somewhere. Someone came to level the pool and their equipment was broken... man, we can't catch a break. They do apparently get it working and supposedly level the pool (it wasn't). Footer comes next, but wait... there is supposed to be a pre-footer inspection. It was never done. Seems like a red flag. Footer is poured and I raise concerns about the pool walls being out of plumb. The answer I got was "don't worry, we can fix that with the turnbuckles and it will look perfect. On 6/11/21 they back-filled the pool. I can say at this point in the build, we were already 12 weeks into a pool that was supposed to take 8 weeks and we are nowhere close to finishing and we are losing patience. We have 4 kids and really wanted to get them swimming. We planned two at home vacations to use this pool and it was starting to seem like we never would get swimming. I had a meeting with both the owner Jay and Melisa shortly after 6/11/21 and raised concerns about the pool walls that were not plumb (like 2" out of plumb) and also that I was not happy about the timing of things and it was looking like an 8 week project was going to take at least 16 weeks. They both told me they understood and they went about their business. They both reassured me this pool would look perfect when we were all done. Another red flag and no admission of wrong doing or poor craftsmanship.
How are they going to fix this pool wall that is 2" out of plumb and another pool wall 1" out of plumb? You can't get to the turnbuckles once the pool is back-filled. Still showing up 1 or 2 times a week for a few hours at a time. Not understanding we need this done. Very frustrated at this point.
Finally got someone and this is when the onion really started to peel back. These are just the major issues my 2nd (and 3rd) opinion gave me:
1. baseline minimum for a new pool is "level and plumb"! Anything outside 1/8" out of level or plumb is NOT acceptable. I have 12' of wall out by 2" of plumb and another 12' of wall out by 1".
2. Flex pipe should NEVER be used underground
3. Equipment pad is not balanced, heater too close to house, not the right pumps
4. Coping is going to pop off, because it dips towards the pool
How do you fix the walls? Clearly we can't go further before the plumbing is redone. They admitted at this point, their normal digger isn't who dug my pool and messed it up. Thus they ran flex pipe instead of all the hard pipe (that was sitting at my house the whole time) because they didn't build the pool correctly (or were lazy). At this point, into late July and we have come full stop. Takes until mid-August for me to agree with owner to give me a good portion of money back and walk away. It sucks to end this way and Roundbird never admitted wrongdoing, but if they're returning any money, they know they messed up.
We were excited to have a pool for the summer of 2021, but now we have a huge hole in the backyard and can only hope to have a pool in summer of 2023. We have since hired a new company, done our homework and have hired a 2nd company to make sure this 2nd build goes as it should. We feel fortunate to get out of this the way we did because we had a lot of money in this. We didn't get all our money back, but a good enough portion to just tell them to "never come back". It truly has been a painful process to accept. read more