Puryear Custom Pools

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We were working on another bid with another company. We are trying to keep our price around $70,000. I'm not sure who I am going to use, I'm still getting bids. If we can get the price down I'd like to work with them.

This pool and extended patio project was a disaster from the beginning, and continued to make our lives miserable even after the Company's carelessness caused a major flood in our new house where we had only lived for six weeks, which required all the walls and part of the ceilings in our Master Bedroom, Living Room and Dining Room (one entire side of the house) to be compleripped to the studs. We had to have new insulation, new sheetrock, have that mudded and taped, retextured, repainted, all the windows and doors had to have new sills and framing and the crown moulding had to be replaced and all the new carpeting and padding in the master bedroom had to be replaced. We have had to have our new Graber roman shades replaced when they were water soaked, have our security system disconnected for several weeks and then reconnected after the wall and windows were replaced. In addition, the ceiling of the existing covered patio had to be completely replaced as it was not designed to get wet and it was soaked, stained and sagging after the rain. All of that damage was the result of a failure to tarp or cover the roof of the house which was left exposed after they tore off existing shingles and tarpaper to place a new patio cover on it. They did not finish the work that day, left at 5:00 PM, and that night (or actually at 4:15 AM the next morning) we received nearly 3 inches of rain from a thunderstorm that poured through the unsheltered roof of the house and completely soaked the walls, ceiling, fireplace, windows, window frames and sills of the 3 large rooms mentioned. We had so much rain pouring in through ceiling AC vents and ceiling speakers that we ran out of pots and containers and towels to try to contain even some of it. We were unable to use any of those primary living, sleeping and eating rooms during the repair time (nearly 3 weeks) and the dirt, dust, smell and activity every day of the many strangers working in our fully furnished home, at all hours of the day without any sort of schedule being adhered to, was a constant indignity and major stressor to our entire family and our inside pet. We were unable to leave the house due to hundreds of thousands of dollars of antiques, art, furniture etc., that would have been left unsupervised and unsecured in our absence. We also both have businesses that we run from our home office. During the repair, a Tiffany-style lamp, a crystal candleholder, a wineglass, a crystal cut vase and a wine bottle were all dropped to the floor and either destroyed or damaged irreparably, when a tarp, which had been attached to the lamp instead of the wall or a cabinet by Puryear's employee, was pulled off of a table, dragging all the objects to the groung. We also had subsequent damage (chips and cracks) to a lovely Travertine tile floor when heavy furniture was piled on it to remove and replace soaked carpeting and pad. Failure to communicate between the different factions of the main contracting pool company (uryear) with all its subcontractors was a huge factor, with one contractor damaging or destroying what the first one had just completed, requiring it to be repaired or redone (see below). Lack of supervision on the job site led to constant and repeated mistakes by the mostly non-English speaking work teams, who often arrived with out any instructions or plans, and who then came to us to see if we had any drawings of "what it was supposed to look like", since there was no supervisor on site. When a supervisor did rarely show up, it was for only a few minutes, and he spent most of that time away from the pool area talking on the phone and smoking. He would then leave without ever speaking to us. Corporate management of the employees from the top down appeared to be non-existant, with the self-professed "owner" (who is a "Vice President") taking no active part in determining whether work is done or not, and whether it is satisfactorily performed, relying instead on the claims and reports of the very employees who are negligent and/or failed to do what was promised in the first place and/or actually caused the damage. They made mistakes on the size of the spa; the size of the patio; the size and number of steps down to the pool area; the forms for the concrete; the type of extended patio and deck (the subcontractors were sent with the plans and materials to construct a 4 post pergula instead of the correct plans for an extended Arbor to be attached to and over the existing deck and roof); cut all the way through to the inside of the dining room wall with an electric saw when working on the extended patio (and didn't mention it to us); laid the gas line outside our property line and it had to be moved; put in the wrong size of the tequila table in the pool, as well as having to be reminded repeatedly to affix the new one permanently to its stand; the type of plaster (they couldn't find the original order for that and the tile and coping - some sort of "filing problem"); they ran a tractor into the side of the house damaging bricks and foundation concrete, and another tractor was driven into the back of the retaining wall of the pool 3 times, rquiring more rock work to be redone; they dragged a heavy saw over new flagstone rock work on the spa causing substantial repair work; after heavy rains had to be repeatedly aske and either drain the deep end of the pool or put shock treatment in the several feet of dirty water which collected and remained there for several weeks, which was attracting mosquitoes during a "West Nile Virus" outbreak; failed or forgot to put acid in the pool during its initial "acid bath" period (this is supposed to occur immediately after the plaster is added and water is put in the pool, according to them) which wasn't discovered for 9 days, until the startup was scheduled, and then the chemicals had to be finally added and another acid bath period had to be completed before the pool could finally be started (another wait of 5 days); Then when we could finally get in the pool (after eleven weeks from first dig), we found our feet and hands (and any other body part that touched the sides or bottom of the pool or spa were turning blue, and every place in the pool that was touched by either our bodies or by the vacuun was "smudged" and showed our prints and the tracks of the vacuum and the plasterer's had to be recontacted and we have reason to suspect they put way too much acid in when they finally added it to try to make up for the 9 days that were lost. We were told we would hav to continue to vigorously sweep thol 2 - 3 times a day for at least another month to try to get rid of the blue stain and marks on the pool. No good news for folks in their mid to late 60's with multiple back surgeries (which was why we wanted the pool in the first place - for doctor recommended therapy). to continiue, they also cut a speaker wire underneath a rock retaining wall in spite of a large, visible pole and flag identifying it and being told each time they worked in that area to be careful of it, requiring a new trench to be dug from the house to the far end of the pool and a wire to be worked underneath the stone retaining wall. The wrought iron fence (separate company they contract with) was nice, but the contractors on that were not given proper dimensions for the gates (which had to allow for a riding mower to pass through) and some of the fence posts had to be changed, necessitating additional tiome to pull up some posts that were set in concrete and reconstruct new ones. In addition, when the rain guttering and french drains were reconnected, or at some time shortly thereafter, they tore a large hole in the french drain pipe, causing water to bubble up forcefully in the flower bed instead of where it was supposed to run off, and a long drain pipe had to be replaced before we could complete the landscape (another 3 - 4 hour unnecessary job). They missed theiri promised start up date by nearly a month, and we still do not have all the actuators for the remote control of the pool waterfall, vacuum, and other equipment; They had to repeatedly (3 - 4 times) send painters out to touch up and repair paint and/or stain on the deck and patio, because they either missed areas entirely, or damaged existing doors, frames, etc. and didn't repair at the time (VERY visible damage that they should have repaired). As of this writing, we are still waiting for all that and more on the punch list to be done. The messes they made, including their daily debris from plastic water bottles, waste paper, cigarette butts (that ended up all over our yard), cardboard boxes, along with the dirt, mud, cement, plaster, etc. that ended up on our windows all across the back of the house added constant insult to injury. Excess lumber, shingles, plywood, and building materials, etc. were not cleaned up until they were nagged repeatedly after nearly 9 weeks of accumulation and we advised them that the landowner next to us had complained about the mess on his prperty, as well as our. For a contract of over $81,000 (including the landscape planting also purchased from one of their companies) we expected more professionalism and less heartache. At the other end of the scale, the pool technician (Jason) who started up teh pool, was efficient, polite, arrived at the appointed time, and seemed very knowledgeable, but was continually hampered by the issues and failures brought about by the work crews and management. Katie, the landscape person (a separate but Puryear owned company), was also professional and efficient, kept her appoints and did a very good job, staying on site to manage and supervise her workers. Bill, our sales person, was a very pleasant man, was was very apologetic for what we went through, but had little or not power to do anything about it, as he was extremely ill and hospitalized furing a major phase of the work.

We have used them before. We were happy with their work. Their customer service and follow-up is good. People who work for them are trustworthy. They did whatever they said they would. They also went above and beyond. Their price was the one of least expensive, so we got high quality for low price. They have always been good with follow-up and responsiveness.

We contacted Puryear Custom Pools for an estimate, we received a call back in two days and an appointment was made. Bill Kramer came to our home for our first meeting; he sat with us for well over an hour to discuss our ideas, took pictures of our yard and asked many questions to find out what we wanted and our expectations for the pool. Bill designed a pool and sent back drawings within a few days. We did our homework and were so impressed with Bill's knowledge, integrity and personality we knew immediately this was the company that would receive our business. We met Bill at their showroom for our second meeting; he displayed the drawings on a large monitor and showed us the various materials, pool equipment, options and he went through the estimate line item by line item. We were able to view samples and pick out our tiles, colors and pool equipment right at the showroom. We were uncertain as to the type of cement decking we wanted around the pool; Puryear has numerous samples in their outdoor showroom; we were able to walk barefoot on the various materials in order to test the feel of the decking and heat levels. This was a large bonus; what we thought we originally wanted we did not purchase due to the extreme amount of heat that it absorbed and how uncomfortable it was to walk on when barefoot. Once our documents were signed we had a "dig" date in less than a week. Bill provided us with a schedule so we knew the steps that would occur and the payment amounts due at what steps in the process. The Builder Superintendent on our job Kevin Terry was outstanding; he provided us with a call every evening to give us an update on what went on that day and what we could expect the next day or in the coming week. Kevin was always checking on the job, available to answer our questions and provided continuous updates on the crew. The workers from the dig crew to the plaster crew were professional, efficient and so courteous and respectful to us and our property. They arrived on time, if not earlier than promised, and cleaned up when they left. The pool was completed in about 30 days from dig date to swim date. The office staff Christi Summers, Carrie Jones and Jennifer Satterwhite called throughout the project to check on our satisfaction, see if we had questions and provided updates on the construction. Once the pool was filled and the chemicals balanced; Jason Payne held pool school at our home and showed us how to maintain the equipment, check the pool chemicals and patiently answered all our questions a new pool owner asks. The overall experience with Puryear Custom Pools has been excellent and we highly recommend them. It was an exciting and fun experience for us and everyone at Puryear Custom Pools took part in making sure we were satisfied with their work and the final results of our beautiful pool.