If maintaining regular backyard pools is all you know, entering the high-end luxury segment may seem risky. As pools get more complex, margins for error get smaller and the cost of mistakes heads skyward. The good news is, any person or team competent in the fundamentals can learn to service even the most complicated and…
It seems water-testing systems come down to two choices: Time-tested visual methods that rely on the human eye’s ability to discern changes in color, and sophisticated electronic instruments that do all the work for you. When choosing water-testing supplies for your own applications, you’ll have to consider factors like the level of precision you require,…
The spillover edges, waterfalls and other goodies that lend luxury to infinity pools and other exotic builds wouldn’t be possible without powerful and precise hydraulic systems. Those systems — like everything else — require maintenance and service, but they’re complex, expensive and potentially intimidating. When you remove the mystique, however, it doesn’t take much for…
For homeowners, pools are the ultimate backyard retreat. For the men and women who build and service them, however, the job runs the risk of injury. A well-planned safety policy can help prevent that. If you have employees, one of the first things you should give them is a comprehensive safety manual designed to protect…
A few years ago, Lin Boyd, owner of Splash Pool Service in Kyle, Texas, found himself in a situation that might have been comical had it not been so serious. Alone in a remote area of Cedar Creek, Texas, Boyd was preparing to clean a 12-foot-deep pool when he slipped and fell into it —…
It’s not an exaggeration to say great pools demand a lot from their finishes. Pumps and plumbing have to work well but don’t have to look good. Aesthetic amenities have to look good — and not much else. Features like glass tiles and acrylic panels, on the other hand, are asked to endure the intense…
Pool pros use portable vacs to battle leaves, sand and just about everything else that can get into a pool At least half a dozen manufacturers now make portable vacuums, and there seems to be one on every service truck. The companies that make and market them have long pushed portable vacuums as tools of…
Steve Kenny says you can only achieve and maintain luxury water if you treat every pool as an individual. “I’m working on a pool right now in Montauk,” Kenny says of the famous shore town on the easternmost tip of Long Island, N.Y., where his company, SRK Pools, is located. “The customer’s desired water temperature…
The pool retail world is a fairly informal industry — the central product, after all, is leisure. But formality is subjective, and in a country that in two generations went from three-piece suits at baseball games to sneakers at weddings, written dress codes are beginning to feel like workplace relics from a bygone era. Appearance…
For David Riley, founding partner at business-improvement firm Gemini Effect, inventory management would be a piece of cake — if reality didn’t keep getting in the way. “If you had the world the way you wanted it and you could manage things perfectly, you could operate a business without ever having to invest in inventory,”…
Paolo Benedetti knows that today’s high-end automation equipment is far too complicated for pool service providers to maintain on their own. “It’s getting so bloody complex that even the builders are relying on a series of dedicated experts to provide the support we need,” Benedetti says. The founder of Aquatic Technology Pool & Spa and…
For Tyler Rasmussen and Greg Villafana of Brothers Pool Service and Repair in Scottsdale, Arizona, the company’s love affair with Jobber began with an invoice they received as customers. “A long time ago we had somebody put a vinyl decal on our window,” Villafana says. “The guy who put the decal on sent the invoice…