Kerry Martin Pools (KMP) provided a good design but the operational execution of our 2025 pool…read morebuild was poor, causing months of avoidable disruption and extra expense. For a six-figure project, we expected significantly better-quality control and communication. What went wrong: * Utility damage handled negligently: During trenching, sprinkler lines were broken. Instead of temporarily capping/taping and repairing while exposed, crews backfilled over the damaged lines. That decision contaminated the irrigation with sand and buried the break, forcing us to locate and repair the line later at additional cost and time. Broken sprinkler are unavoidable during a pool construction but backfilling the trench with sand before repairs are made is a 100% preventable action. * Pool finish (marcite/plaster) was substandard: Initial plaster work showed uneven corners, rough surfaces, and irregular coloring. After plastering, the pool was filled and turned over as "complete" without the proper representative present to inspect and/or get homeowner sign-off. After extensive complaining, KMP agreed to redo the finish -- the pool was drained and refinished, but discoloration remained in one area and required a second drain/refinish. Multiple re-dos created unnecessary delays and inconvenience. Lawn was extensively damaged from acid wash dump. * Communication & scheduling failures: Crews often arrived without notice, and we received little or no scheduling updates. Homeowners should not have to wonder who will be in their yard or when work will occur. * Project timeline and value: The build stretched many months due to rework and preventable mistakes. For $100K+, the workmanship, oversight, and customer care were substandard. What they did right: * Sales/design team created a good design based on what we wanted. If KMP only provided designs, we would have rated them much higher. What KMP should improve: * Implement on-site protocols to protect, flag, and temporarily isolate damaged utilities during excavation. * Require mandatory quality inspections and homeowner sign-off prior to completing work and filling a pool. * Improve scheduling proactive communications for all activities (including the many subcontractors involved). Set expectations for what will be done and when. * Strengthen plaster/finish quality control and oversight of subcontractors. Bottom line: We would not hire Kerry Martin Pools again based on our experience. While the sales and design team performed well, the operational shortcomings -- preventable utility damage left unrepaired, sloppy plaster work requiring multiple re-dos, and inconsistent communication -- turned what should have been an exciting home upgrade into months of disruption and expense. There are reputable pool builders available in northeast Florida; we recommend researching alternatives carefully.

Kerry Martin Pools did a great job pu0tting in our pools. Mike Schwind was very professional and…read morepatient as he guided us through selection of the pool size, shape, pavers, tile, etc. We are ecstatic with the way out pool came out and very grateful to Mike for all his help, He was always available and answered out questions thoroughly and timely. Kudos also to Donna , the project manager who was very helpful throughout the process. This was an excellent experience for us. Thank you, Kerry Martin pools and especially to Mike Schwind.

I hired Aqua Luxe to re surface my pool as the pool was built in 1998-ish and it was due. Blake…read morecame out and gave me a quote and a timeline. Once he was hired he stayed on schedule, kept me updated on progress with photos as I was not living in the home yet and was 4 hours away. He worked with my screened in enclosure replacement guy to make sure that everything went smoothly. He even suggested things to do for my pool and kept my pool looking good until I was able to make the final move. I would not hesitate to hire him again or refer him. Great work, Fair pricing, and excellent customer service keeping me informed through out the process. A company that goes above and beyond for sure!

Pools and pool repair are expensive but they don't have to be painful....these guys do great work…read morewith no hassles . They show up and produce results in a timely manner. Hopefully I won't need them for a long time but if you need pool repair they are top notch.

I bought my home almost 3 years ago and it came with an in ground pool, admittedly I wasn't…read morethrilled since I envisioned lots of money and hours spent maintaining it. I have to say I've been pleasantly surprised since it was a salt water pool it hasn't been near as bad as I thought. Due to a leaking sand filter I let the pool sit too long before replacing it with a cartridge filter and it got pretty nasty. I initially hired another pool company to install the new filter and clean the pool. They did fine on the install but the pool cleaning was inconsistent and they left out some details when quoting me a price. I decided I'd hire someone else to finish the job and get my pool looking like new again so I requested a quote from Tropical Sunshine Pools through yelp. I got a reply within 15 minutes and after a few messages back and forth Zach told me he'd be over between 5-7 to give me an estimate after looking at the pool. He ended up texting me around 1:30 and said he was ahead of schedule and could come by in the next 15 minutes so if I was available. I told him that was fine and he arrived right on time as promised. From the first few minutes we discussed everything I knew the pool was in good hands. He very patiently explained things to me and gave me some good tips that I wasn't aware of for future maintenance of my pool. He even showed me the ins and outs of my new cartridge system which the installer did not do. His final price was within the initial quote range and I'm very pleased with the final product. I now feel I have a reliable pool company to call should I need to do so again in the future. If you're in need of quality dependable pool service I highly recommend Tropical Sunshine Pools.

Our 25-year-old pool and Lani were showing signs of age, so we decided that this was the year for a…read moremakeover. I remembered a co-worker had his pool resurfaced, so I asked him who had done it and he told me John Castleman, and he said he was very happy with his work. John came out to assess the job and give an estimate. He was very down to earth, listened to what we wanted and made some suggestions which were very helpful. We had a row of tile across the top of our pool that we were going to either replace or just get rid of, but John said they were in real good shape and suggested we just have him regrout it, which would save us money. He gave us a very competitive quote for the work. We went with this option, and it came out looking brand new! I had mentioned that I thought the pool might have a leak. John identified two leaks, one by the skimmer and one by the pool light that hadn't worked in the last 20 plus years. No wonder it didn't work. Not only were we resurfacing the pool, but we were rescreening our Lani, as we lost a couple screen panels with the hurricane last year. I pressure washed my Lani at least once a year, but there are areas I cannot reach. Our Lani structure is white, but after 25 years, the mold in those areas looks disgusting. So, before any work got started, I called Pressure Washing Alternatives to clean the Lani structure. In a couple hours, they made the structure look brand new. Cost $225. This has nothing to do with John Castleman Pools, but I thought it might help others in my situation. Our Lani was rescreened by Jacksonville Screen Inc, another fantastic company. John worked with me to make sure the pool resurfacing was done before the Lani was rescreened. This worked out really well. We added a heat pump to our pool. John coordinated the electrician to come out to add the service to handle this and took care of all of the plumbing changes to tie in the new heat pump with our system. He also installed a working pool light and a railing by our steps, (we are getting old). The whole project took about two months from the time we first spoke to John. It would have been faster, but we had to wait on the delivery of the heat pump. I was just hoping it could get scheduled by mid-summer, so I was pretty pleased with how fast it went. John suggested even though I have a heat pump, that I get a solar cover. He said it would cut down on the evaporation but also cut down on the amount of chemicals we'd have to use. Since I put the cover on the pool, I have not had to add any water, and have only had to add one Clorine tablet a week. John was good about cleaning up, never leaving a mess. He also checks back with me from time to time, and always answers my texts when I have questions. Our pool and Lani are now better than new. We were truly blessed to have John do this job for us.

I got 3 estimates for a pool resurfacing. Castlemans was the 4th. John informed me that I didn't…read moreneed to have the pool resurfaced because it still had 3-5 years left. He told me I could have the pool acid washed to make it look nicer but it was not a necessity. I asked for quotes on a refinish and an acid wash. The quote for a refinish was less than the other 3 quotes. We went with an acid wash and also installed a salt chlorinator and a new led pool light. Work was completed early, quality of work was superior. John patiently, professionally and kindly answered all questions. My interaction with John absolutely outstanding. If you're looking for quality work from an HONEST craftsman, call John. We will be using Castlemans pool when we resurface and will probably have him redo our cool deck.

We had an issue with our pool equipment that this company was able to help us with. They were here…read morewithin one business day and made short work of a somewhat "interesting" issue. Alex was so incredibly qualified that the new part was seamlessly addressed and taken care of within less than thirty minutes. We are so grateful to everyone at this company for doing exactly what they said they would do at a very fair price. This is the standard of excellence all pool owners should experience. They are our forever company for any and all pool issues. Will definitely not deal with any other pool contractors. Take it from me, I guarantee that you will be more than happy with this amazing company. Diane S.

We had our 12 year old pool resurfaced and added a hand rail. Case Handy and his people were…read moreoutstanding! They discovered some additional issues and worked with us to solve them. We highly recommend Paragon Pools!

If you're looking to have a pool built I HIGHLY recommend Breakwater Construction when looking for…read morea builder, I did my homework. In so doing, all I heard were complaints about most of the possible companies (specifically wait times & cleanliness.) Breakwater was THE ONLY company that I heard good things about. I gave them a call expecting the same answers that I had been getting from every other place I contacted. Man, was I surprised when I was quoted 6 weeks wait time as opposed to 12-18 months from other companies. After initial visit... it was literally 2 weeks and we were already picking colors, tiles, and pavers. Joe, the owner, made the entire process fun, not at all the headache I suspected! He was so down to earth! So REAL! Honest! Absolutely NO false promises! He kept his word with EVERY aspect of the process. His contractors were ALL just as courteous, through, and timely as Joe was! The yard was cleaned up each day that work occurred! Communication was great every step of the way!!! Even pool school was fun! We couldn't be happier with our pool! Grandkids will definitely put it to good use!!! Call Breakwater your your next pool, patio, fire pit or hot tub! You absolutely won't regret it and end up with a great new friend in the process!!!

Outstanding service & quality! They are above the Rest and would highly recommend them for any new…read morepool or spa design!!

This company was hired to take care of our pool on a weekly basis. That was to include handling…read moreand upkeep of the motor. The employee who serviced our pool, clearly, did not check the pool equipment on a regular basis and by the looks of things, did not check the pool equipment at all. We were the ones who noticed that the pool was not running and brought it to their attention. Looking at the pool motor at that time it was obvious that the motor had been broken for some time. This was the responsibility of this company to bring this to our attention, not the other way around. This company is downright negligent. We then receive a text message that they do not want to service our pool any longer because the pool motor is not working. Baffling! I would NOT recommend this company to anyone. They do not do the work they are hired to do!

I have never seen our pool cleaner!! James turned out pool from a green algae filled pond to a…read morebeautiful sparking oasis!! The company is up to date on payment options which makes it easy and convenient to pay. If you need your pool cleaned I highly recommend Watermark!!!!

I would like to add he used top quality equipment for our pool. Even the salt cell he got a little…read morebit larger than the size needed so it would last longer. He's passionate about what he does, and he's truly happy when the job is complete and you're happy.

If you are considering hiring Thomas, please first take a moment to review our experience with him…read more We signed our agreement with him on September 6, 2023. Due to waiting for HOA approval, permit, etc. he was not able to start working right away. Then we had a lot of rain in November and December so he didn't actually start doing anything until January. He came quite a bit at first, then his visits started to dwindle in February. Every time we asked him when the pool would be completed, his response was "2 months". He finally poured the pool on March 1st and that's when the real trouble started. The pool forms weren't completely ready, so Thomas rushed to get it done. This led to a much higher pour in one corner of the pool near the deep end. Thomas assured us that he would cut this down. However, he did not do this, and instead proceeded to lay the waterline tile way too high. This resulted in our tanning ledge being about 3" deeper than we agreed on, as well as uneven (one side is deeper than the other). Moreover, this is now causing the surrounding pavers to not line up with our existing pavers - it's about 6" too high and looks ridiculous. We asked Thomas to fix it but he refused - going as far as to say it's "not his problem". Thomas then approached us with a change order on April 15, for the cost of making the pool an extra 2' longer than originally agreed upon. However, this additional work had already been accounted for in an amendment signed 2/24/24, prior to the pool being poured. He has since held us hostage for the past month +, refusing to finish the job unless we pay him up front for materials that we already paid for, but that he never ordered. At this point, he has 80% of our money. We now have no choice but to move on to another contractor to complete the project. This will affect our warranty (we essentially won't have one), and is going to cost us way more money than originally expected. And that process has been difficult since several of the companies we had come out for a quote refused to finish the job stating that the work was subpar. More than one even told us we would need to tear out the shell and completely start over. On top of all of this, Thomas has called us names and been extremely unprofessional in his conversations with us, despite us giving him many opportunities to make this right. We have been extremely patient, given the length of time this has taken (and still isn't even complete), and very forgiving of his quality issues, even though it will negatively affect the look of our yard forever. Thomas is mainly a "one man show", but he sometimes does bring a helper. One day, the two of them got into an argument, yelling profanities loud enough for our neighbors to hear, and we had to ask them repeatedly to tone it down. Thank goodness our daughter was at school at the time. Please be aware that when you give Thomas your money, you may not get your dream pool in return. We are filing a complaint with the St John's county licensing board and hope to recover some of our money, either through that process or in small claims court, but our chances are glim. Buyer beware!