Paul Miller Custom Pools, Inc.

DO NOT CONTRACT WITH THIS MAN! In March, 2019, we contracted with Paul Miller Pools in Keller Texas to build a 21,000 gal pool with a spa and large surrounding concrete decking for $80K. We had referrals and looked at some of his pools that were under construction. While the construction seemed to go fairly smoothly, shortly after completion, we noticed the mortar grout lines in the stone start to fall out of the stone wall and the coping. They sent someone out to re-pipe the mortar back in, but it still continues to be soft and falls out. Many of the stones in the wall are now loose. Within the first year several areas of the water line tile actually fell off the wall. Now we have about 75% of the water line tiles that are debonded. Behind the tiles, the mortar is peeling off and falling into the water. Within the first six months, we noticed heavy buildup of the efflorescence on the water line tiles, which continues to this day. This is not normal, as we had a pool for 30 years prior to this one. Miller refused to address the issue and just told us to clean it off with acid. Miller refused to make any inspections or to make any repairs, and told us any expense was on us. We continued to call, email, and send U.S. Postal mail to him about the issues, and he continues to ignore us to this day. We also have water leakage from the spa along the waterfall stone and coping into the nearby skimmer. There are also reddish brown streaks that appear to be coming through the water line tiles that other contractors have suggested may indicate re-bar corrosion in the gunite shell/bond beam. We have had to have independent pool contractors to come out this summer (2022) to inspect the pool and see what we can do to correct the issues. Several refused to provide a quote stating there was too much risk of exposing significant structural issues with the pool's construction behind the stone, tile and coping. Other contractors were dismayed at the poor condition of the pool, and felt that Miller should be responsible for the repairs. I will point out that we had other issues caused by freeze damage, and those areas I have not addressed here; however, Miller keeps throwing the structural issues into the freeze damage column, when the other contractors all agreed these are not freeze related. We are deeply embarrassed by the look of our pool caused by the poor workmanship, which has substantially impacted the value of the pool. We will not have guests over to our pool, because it looks so bad. FIX MY POOL, PAUL MILLER!

They built us a pool, spa and fire pit. I really did not like any dislike about them. They were responsive and did a great job. They even taught us how to maintain the pool.

Paul Miller was a great salesman but as soon as we held his feet to the fire over promises made he became very difficult to reach or work with. He was unreasonable with repair requests, double and triple billed us for inaccurate services performed and delayed to perform warranty work. The worst part was that we felt comfortable using him in part because he was not the lowest cost quote we got. When equipment showed up for installation, parts would be swapped out for cheaper parts. For example, we had a nice dual, digital timer show up to run the equipment. The electricians installed a generic, dial-type timer and was several hundred dollars cheaper. When asked, Paul reacted like it was expected but failed to provide us with a receipt showing his claim that the wrong dial showed up and that he had actually ordered the generic timer for our pool. This type of action (although not explicitly swapping parts but changing his tone on services provided happened repeatedly). -Verbally, he said that he installed volleyball sleeves on every "play pool" that he builds. We only asked because they weren't included in our diagram (but oddly, umbrella sleeves were). They did not get installed on our pool. He later said our pool didn't fit the definition of a play pool - yet he had a long conversation about the fact they were going in because our pool wasn't deeper than 5 ft. -Verbally, he said that when he reinstalled our fence posts after construction ended that he would use steel posts. He did not. They only got put in because I happened to be there and ran to Home Depot to have the installers use the new poles. -Verbally, after being told of previous drainage problems he assured me that he wouldn't allow water to stand anywhere after the pool was built. But the excavators pulled out part of our French drain and installed fence posts right through another part of it. Its useless now and he refuses to warranty the work or repair the drainage. -Verbally, he assured me that all irrigation repairs would be included because he had charged me an extra $1000 to repair the underground lines after construction. Later, he claimed that the $1000 wouldn't cover the sprinklers his tractors broke in the neighbor's yard. He also refused to fix two feeder lines they broke bringing water to their irrigation out back. I paid out of pocket to have those fixed. (This really irritates me because he acknowledged responsibility to put back up their fence (even the fence we didn't share) and knew he had to re-grade their yard in preparation for new sod. His claim that he had no business to repair anything in their yard because the contract was with us is real flimsy). -Verbally, he said that he'd ensure our pool was filled via those same irrigation lines. When a trench was cut through the yard over to our hose bib I asked why it wasn't being filled with the irrigation and he told me he could do it for another $250. Lucky me, his foreman was present when he made the initial promise and we made sure the workers connected it when they repaired the irrigation. Verbally - I let him off the hook nearly every time because I didn't have our general conversations in writing. Most of those items are common sense but he knows you can't hold him to do the right thing if you didn't get it in writing. He's very good at implying he'll be helpful but then later changing his tune. But finally I did have something in writing: when his fence crew royally broke my gate after he (Paul Miller) attempted to double charge me for their work I called foul because I had in writing that he'd install new fence and gates to enclose our equipment. This is when he wrote me an email and told me he would no longer honor any warranties at my house until all our invoices had been paid. Only after writing a letter to the BBB and threatening legal action did he "forgive" the incorrect bill but he's still never reinstated our warranties. This guy is sneaky. I recommend you shop elsewhere. He'll give you a great presentation and he'll show up in person to earn your business. But if you hold him to his promises you will lose his attention and potentially your warranties. Then you'll get to hear him explain to you that you're the difficult customer who only wanted you were promised. What good is a $40000 pool if the guy who built it won't stand behind it?

The design stage went well. All phases of construction were completed by sub-contractors, on time and in good order. However, the owner, Paul Miller, does not care anything about feedback or errors made by his sub-contractors. He is unprofessional in his comments and refuses to admit errors in design. Examples, I had to take pictures of the inferior pebbletec surface to prove there were blemishes all over the walls and floor. His comment was that he had never heard of this, and he would not even come over to look himself. Finally, I worked directly with Pebbletec to find there were numerous bad batches of the particular color we select. Pebbletec resurfaced the pool according to the lifetime warranty. Another example is the pool drain. Paul's crew ended the drain in my flowerbed, so water from rain overflow floods the bed and cannot exit the retaining wall. The mortar in the wall is already leaking. He refuses to acknowledge this fault and I have had to hire another pool company to remedy the situation at my expense.