We selected Blue Haven Pools out of the three companies that we received bids from and we are so…read morehappy that we did! From the sales experience with Pete C to the construction PMs, Nate and Ryan, as well as Jamie in the office, every person with whom we interacted was professional, caring, and great at their jobs. But let me start from the beginning.
We did not plan this for years, think out every feature we wanted, and meticulously go through the process. Instead, we decided in late February, "hey, let's get a pool" and reached out to 3 local companies (one is a BIG national company, the other a small local company, and the third was Blue Haven--locally owned, but with the big national name). From the beginning, Pete C, Blue Haven's sales person was the MOST responsive, most available, and easiest to communicate with of all the salespeople. He came out within a day of our call to walk the property (nobody else was that fast!), shared ideas, listened to us (even though we didn't really know what we wanted, except NOT the most expensive pool ever!), and worked with our budget. Our yard isn't large..just over a quarter acre, and my goal was "most swimming space possible" so we went with a 14' by 30' rectangle, no sun shelf, 3.5-6 feet deep, sheer descent at the far end and all standard selections except the plaster (Quartzscapes Aruba Sky). Everything was selected at contract time, but if I had to do it again, I would take more time with those selections and make sure I had samples in my hand for a few days to compare. We signed our contract on March 8th, permits were requested on March 11 and weren't received from our county until April 22 (!!).
With permits in hand on April 22, Blue Haven's team (and I mean team! The VP, Tyler, the PMs, Nate and Ryan, and Sales Guy, Pete,) all arrived three days later to walk the property, confirm the design done at the Blue Haven offices, and rope off the pool space. They were fast, confidence-inspiring, fun and friendly...that's one thing about Blue Haven, we genuinely LIKED every person with whom we came in contact from the company.
Construction started 4/29 with the big dig--no rocks were found, so we won the lottery on that front! Things progressed quickly after that: steel on 5/2-3, plumbing on 5/7, Gunite on 5/13, equipment delivered and installed on 5/20, electrical complete on 5/21, tile and coping on 5/28, patio built 6/11-13, and plaster and fill on 6/27. Sixty (60!) days dig to fill!
We are now almost a month in and have been swimming for a few days--we love it! Pool school was last week and the service team has been fantastic--again all incredibly likable, knowledgeable, fun people--especially Tony who did our pool school! We have a few issues with our plaster, likely due to the underlying gunite, but Blue Haven has been 100% responsive and forward-leaning on solving the problem and we should have that taken care of by the end of August.
In summary, if you're on the fence between pool companies we would highly encourage you to go with Blue Haven. From the construction team, office staff, and leadership to the service and operations department, we could not be more pleased with the outcome. Now, the next big step--getting a Loop Loc winter cover! Sadly, we have to winterize in N. Virginia! Best of luck to those considering a pool.