Dustin Phillips Pools

basically, stay away from Dustin.
he started being really nice, tells you about his grand kids, rattle off names of inspectors at the City, gives you this feel of the "old school" work ethics, etc. 
once you start exhibiting knowledge, he turns nasty, trying to scare you, tells you all the tricks "other" contractors do.  once you start asking specific questions, he calls you an "a**h****"
his prices were much higher than everyone else, and so logically, you will ask why.  don't.  you will insult him. 
stay away from this guy.

I am extremely dissatisfied with the results and it was a disaster.  He didn’t rinse the pool well enough after the acid wash.  So forty percent of the bottom of the pool exfoliated and when it was consumed by brand new filter pump, I haven’t taken the pump apart but I am pretty sure it is only working a fraction of its efficiency due to the acid.  He is a nice guy.  He has a great portfolio about his fancy pools and stuff but in the end, I was convinced that maybe helped on those or maybe he didn’t help at all on them.  It was crazy.  He also took three times longer than he said he was going to take.  I don’t have anything good to say except that he was a nice enough person to talk to.  He did every bit of damage and the way managed everything wasn’t good.  I can’t open the compartment to my sprinkler controller because he put water in front of it and it opens only about ten degrees and he was perfectly happy leaving it like that.  He responded the way I asked he just didn’t do it.  The only positive thing is that he has a nice portfolio and he is a nice person to talk to.  It was a new heater, new filter system, new lights and light fixtures for the pool and acid wash, it was pretty much top of the line products and it didn’t go well.  I wouldn’t recommend him to my enemies.  I need to get another contractor and get a bid to fix these issues, because the pool has to be drained again and it re plastered afterwards.  He created another job that is going to cost much more than what I had him do.  I can hear the crunching noises when the pump is running and it is a brand new pump.  He didn’t put the filter back in the line either.  The other discouraging part is that I chose him based out of reviews on Angie’s List, it was my first experience with Angie’s List and I understand you can’t control what people put in there.

I planned for replacement of a 40 year old deck, and after finding that the city of LA required caissons and grade beams be built for reconstruction of even a deck on hillside, I decided that building a retaining wall and an infinity pool would not be that much more and would expand the back yard sq-ft to over 3000. Dustin offered the best price and seemed most knowledgeable and eager of the six or so contractors I interviewed for this construction project that got underway in June 2011. He originally
provided a fixed priced estimate for the entire job, but later offered to provide management contract for a fee with a promise to beat the cost of hiring contractors, materials procurement, etc.. Throughout the project which was for the most part completed by the end of Jan 2012 he demonstrated that he was honest and committed. Even though he was located far (85 miles one way) from
the project site, he promptly showed up daily by 7:15 am. Dustin did not do much of the work himself although he did drive the skip loader, speak with vendors, and procure materials when needed. Most of the work was performed by specialists whom Dustin knew, and he seems to have an extensive list of contractors in his call list. When I say specialists, I mean they are contractors with particular specialties for hillside development. There are very few contractors with much hillside construction experience particularly for building using caissons and pools. Dustin seemed knowledgeable and very comfortable planning for and making arrangements for the sizeable excavation of dirt required, drilling of large caissons and building the associated steel rebar cages, and grade beams. I was happy with most of what he did and in the end when finished looks great. The cons are that he had his way of doing things and could be argumentative. He had issues with geological engineer and the grading inspector, and I was forced to replace the geo engineer. He was not happy that I hired my own geo and structural engineers in the first place. He made several oversights in building the grade beam system and catch basin. He spent several weeks correcting same to pass inspections, and I spent several thousand unplanned dollars fixing the catch basin, other structural grade beam issues, and fixing issues with decking, pool plumbing and the pool equipmet install. He became upset because I used another contractor to do paver work that we had tentatively talked about him doing. The overall costs came out to be 15% to 20% higher than he had estimated, and fortunately everything worked out for me to be able to fund and complete everything. I think Dustin is capable for this large-scale residential project as he seems to have extensive construction experience and has a lot of the right connections in the business ? there are not many contractors with the confidence to do such demanding hillside projects. I also ended up with several thousand dollars of unplanned expenses to haul away dirt drilling spoils, replace pots and lawn furniture that was damaged by some of the workers.

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